Relationship surveys are designed to measure a customer’s overall loyalty to your company or brand. Unlike transactional surveys—which focus on specific interactions or touchpoints—relationship surveys take a broader view. They ask customers to reflect on their overall experience and satisfaction, and are typically conducted on a regular schedule to track trends over time.
Follow this Recipe to garner insights into Relationship Surveys and how to effectively use them to get most out of your Customers.
Directions
Determining the scope of your campaign:
In B2B relationship surveys, it’s important to gather feedback from the majority of accounts to ensure you have a well-rounded coverage of your client base. This is one of your first steps in determining the scope of your program, and what results you want to report back to your organization.
However, not every individual within an account needs to be surveyed. Focus on identifying the key stakeholders—those who are most engaged with your business and have the greatest influence on the relationship. Prioritize these contacts when distributing your survey.
Timing also matters: relationship surveys should be sent only after the customer has had sufficient time to experience your services and interact with key stages of your customer journey. This ensures their feedback is informed, meaningful, and reflective of the overall relationship—not just initial impressions. As part of your planning ,designate the right moment or time slot that is ideal to survey your customer.
Generally, we recommend sending the survey at the beginning of the week in order to prevent any primary invitations / reminders to be delivered during the weekend. This helps ensure a good response rate. You may check out our Campaign Schedule recipe for more information.
Determining the appropriate delivery vector
Choose a delivery vector that is most convenient for your customers. This can largely boost your response rate, visibility, and also engagement in your CX program. CustomerGauge offers multiple types of delivery vectors from Email, SMS, Whatsapp, and Personal Link campaigns. You also have the option of pulsing through multiple vectors - such as rolling out surveys both via email and sms for specific client groups.
Use a drip campaign approach for consistent feedback
Running your relationship surveys in a drip campaign format offers several key advantages. Rather than sending surveys to all customers at once, a drip approach staggers distribution over time—ensuring a steady, manageable flow of feedback. You may check out our recipe on Drip Survey Sending for more detailed instructions.
This continuous stream of insights allows your frontline teams to follow up promptly—ideally within 48 hours—without being overwhelmed by volume. It also enables you to target different segments or regions in waves, helping you identify patterns and take action across specific parts of the business in a timely and organized way.Time your Transactional Surveys strategically
After running your relationship survey, the next step is to take a closer look at specific customer interactions through transactional surveys. These are best deployed once you’ve identified key pain points or areas of concern from the relationship survey results.
To ensure the experience remains focused and meaningful for your customers, allow for a healthy gap between the two campaigns. This avoids survey fatigue and gives your team time to analyze relationship feedback before diving deeper. Transactional surveys should be used to explore particular touchpoints—like onboarding, support, or product usage—that may be influencing overall sentiment. Check out our recipe on How to Manage Transactional Surveys for more information.
Set a regular cadence for Relationship Surveys
To keep a pulse on customer sentiment and maintain strong relationships, relationship surveys should be sent at least once a year—though twice a year is ideal for most businesses.
For industries with fast-moving customer lifecycles or where touchpoints evolve quickly, a more frequent cadence—such as every 3 to 4 months—can be even more effective. Regular check-ins allow you to monitor changes in satisfaction over time and respond proactively to potential issues before they impact retention.
Uploading revenue
A good best practice to implement before launching is to ensure you have the highest level of revenue coverage possible. By uploading revenue to your accounts, you gain more visibility on the impact of your program and the accuracy of the results. Having at least 50 - 80% of your accounts updated with revenue data is a healthy benchmark.