16 Consumer behavior survey questions for expert customer insights

Most consumers don’t realize the patterns in their purchasing habits. We don’t know (or want to know) just how impulsive we really are. Unprompted, we don’t think all too much about what or who influences our buying (apart from when you’re sure Instagram is listening to you and you get creepily well-targeted ads).

But as a business, knowing all about consumer behavior is incredibly valuable. You’ll be one step ahead every time, ready to delight consumers—and ideally turn them into fans who’ll rave about you to their friends and family.

One way to find out what consumer behavior is most relevant to your business is with a consumer behavior questionnaire. And we’re here to help you create a great one.

A consumer behavior survey is a type of market research that helps you gather information on consumer attitudes, preferences, and behaviors.

These insights allow you to tailor your products, services, strategies and marketing to your customers’ needs to increase sales, customer satisfaction and gain a competitive edge.

Here we’ll give you 16 questions to include in your next market research.

Let’s get to know your customers, shall we?

16 Consumer behavior survey questions to ask your customers

If you’re looking to gather data about purchase behavior using online surveys, you’ll want to use a mix of close-ended and open-ended questions. This mix of survey questions enables you to gather reliable consumer insights through tangible data (through closed-ended questions), and provides context for why your potential customers do things in certain ways (through open-ended questions).

Using our Customer Research Team’s vast experience helping brands carry out reliable consumer behavior market research, we’ve gathered these example questions.

It’s important to note that this is not a copy-paste survey: you should be creating one that is specific to your research goals and business. These questions merely serve as inspiration.

Here’s a brief rundown of the behavior questions we’ll cover in this guide:

1. How often do you purchase [PRODUCT]?
2. What factors influence your decision to purchase [PRODUCT]?
3. What channels do you typically use to learn about this [PRODUCT]?
4. What is your preferred method of payment for [PRODUCT]?
5. How do you prefer to interact with [BRAND]?
6. What is your main reason for using [PRODUCT]?
7. What is the most important factor when considering whether to purchase [PRODUCT]?
8. How did you first learn about [BRAND/PRODUCT]?
9. How much time do you spend researching [PRODUCT] before making a purchase?
10. What factors influence your decision to abandon an online shopping cart?
11. How important is sustainability or ethical sourcing when making a purchasing decision?
12. What is your preferred delivery method for [PRODUCT]?
13. Who do you consult when making a purchase decision for [product]?
14. Which of the following best describes how you’re spending money at the moment?
15. What are some factors that would cause you to switch from one brand to another?
16. How do you typically find information for [PRODUCT]?

And with that, let’s dive into the most insightful survey questions.

1. How often do you purchase [PRODUCT]?

How often do your target consumers embark on the customer journey? Knowing the frequency of their purchases can help you identify trends and adjust your marketing strategies accordingly.

You might discover that people buy your products on a more seasonal basis. This could open up the possibility of offering alternative products that might fill in the seasonal gaps, giving your brand a more comprehensive, year-round market share.

And you can follow up with questions to find out when these purchases are made and how much time people take for their research before they buy, to plan your time to shine.

2. What factors influence your decision to purchase [PRODUCT]?

Knowing the factors that have an effect on what brand people choose is super valuable info! It’s the type of data that can help you make it past the consideration stage.

It helps you focus your marketing messages and position your product in the best way possible. It can also reveal areas in which your brand can differentiate itself.

3. What channels do you typically use to learn about this [PRODUCT]?

Knowing how people learn about products can help you determine which channels are most effective in reaching your target audience. This intel can give clear direction to your marketing team and sales strategies.

4. What is your preferred method of payment for [PRODUCT]?

It might seem an odd question to ask: if people love your product, does the payment method really matter?

Well it does—if you want to provide an excellent customer experience and increase conversions.

Optimizing your payment processes can elevate your company and brand experience and make you the preferred vendor.

Learn more about how to test consumer preferences.

5. How do you prefer to interact with [BRAND]?

It’s unlikely that people like ‘speaking’ to bots who don’t seem to truly understand them.

When building a customer service strategy, turn to your customers to find out how they prefer to communicate, so that you can optimize your channels.

Share this information with your customer support team to help them understand the needs of customers even better.

6. What is your main reason for using [PRODUCT]?

This question will help you understand the market and primary use case for your specific product here.

This information helps you tailor your messaging and promotions to specific customer segments.

7. What is the most important factor when considering whether to purchase [PRODUCT]?

If you’ve already identified the list of factors, you can narrow it down and find which one is the most important one.

This helps you make key decisions about branding, product placement, pricing and more.

8. How did you first learn about [BRAND/PRODUCT]?

It’s not just about the last push to the purchase decision. The first encounter tells you just as much—if not more. It gives you vital information on how you can reach more potential customers in the awareness stage, and build your brand in their minds.

With this data you can identify effective marketing channels and increase brand awareness which leads to more conversions.

9. How much time do you spend researching [PRODUCT] before making a purchase?

Some people are impulse buyers, others roam the web for weeks before clicking ‘Pay Now’.

Finding out what is most common in specific segments that are relevant to you can help you create better content that addresses common questions and concerns.

10. What factors influence your decision to abandon an online shopping cart?

Is it unexpected shipping costs? Delivery times that are too long? Or were they just window shopping?

With this data you can reduce cart abandonment rates and optimize the user experience.

11. How important is sustainability or ethical sourcing when making a purchasing decision?

Ideally, we all keep this in mind when buying any product. But in certain segments, there will likely be more or less focus on this.

Finding out which ones these are can help you optimize your messaging and targeting. This is an important type of question to ask when creating a customer profile too.

12. What is your preferred delivery method for [PRODUCT]?

Much like payment options and customer service, product delivery is all about creating a seamless customer experience. Ideally your customers should barely notice that your product was delivered at all—it should be a smooth and hassle-free process.

Knowing your customers’ preferred delivery methods can help you optimize your distribution channels and reduce delivery-related friction points.

13. Who do you consult when making a purchase decision for [product]?

Even though we usually buy stuff ‘alone’, we don’t always go through the process of buying alone. We evaluate what others are saying, whether it’s from reviews, influencers’ social streams or advice from a family member—there’s a lot to take in.

Knowing who weighs in is crucial, because you will want to influence and educate those people too.

14. Which of the following best describes how you’re spending money at the moment?

Understanding how people pay for your product or service only tells you so much about their approach to money.

There are tons of external factors that affect spending, so finding out how people feel at any given time can give you an indication of how likely they are to part with their cash. It makes sense to track things like this over time to make sure you’re on the ball when the market shifts.

15. What are some factors that would cause you to switch from one brand to another?

Identifying factors that can cause customer churn is what informs strong loyalty strategies, keeping customers happy, engaged and buying!

Knowing why they choose your brand is vital—and so is understanding why they go elsewhere.

16. How do you typically find information for [PRODUCT]?

It’s not just Google anymore. Find out if people are learning about products like yours on alternative channels such as Reddit, TikTok, LinkedIn or other platforms to make sure you are represented in the right places.

And don’t forget the importance of word of mouth! In study after study we see that consumers place massive trust in their friends and family to give them good product and service recommendations.

Use consumer insights to your advantage: best practices

You might struggle to see how you can learn about behaviors from the data coming out of a survey. No need to stress: here are some tips to make your data more actionable and valuable to your team.

• Look for the patterns: Look for patterns in the data such as common responses from specific demographics, or shifting trends over time. These patterns give valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences.
• Don’t ignore outliers: Look for outliers too that may represent extreme or unusual consumer perceptions or responses. Even though they’re not the most common ones, they are still valuable. They can give you insights into customer preferences that may not be immediately apparent from what ‘the average’ tells you.
• Use an all-in-one survey tool: ideally, you collect and analyze data all in the same consumer insight software. This minimizes the risk of errors caused by data transfers and keeps your data safe. Choosing a tool like Attest means you get everything you need for your market research from start to finish, including your very own research expert to give you guidance along the way.
• Compare and contrast: Compare and contrast the responses to different questions. For example, compare responses to questions about product features, quality and price to understand the trade-offs that customers make when making purchasing decisions. Are answers in line with each other? Or can you spot some discrepancies?
• Compare to industry benchmarks: Compare your survey data to industry benchmarks and assumptions you had before to get a sense of how the business is performing relative to competitors. Put things in perspective, but keep it relevant to your business. You’re not trying to just fit in, you want to stand out!

Make customer data analysis easy with Attest

Running consumer behavior surveys is simple, using Attest. We provide you with everything you need to learn about the moves, motives and motivations of your target audience. Your dedicated research expert will help you to get the best insights from your data so you can greatly benefit from consumer profiling. See our consumer profiling survey template for further ideas.