# Customer Satisfaction Survey: Build One Free in Google Forms > Build a customer satisfaction survey for free in Google Forms and Sheets: the questions to ask, CSAT and NPS formulas, a template, and when it stops working. _Source: https://professionalstoolkit.com/articles/customer-satisfaction-survey — The Professional's Toolkit · updated November 2026_ --- A customer satisfaction survey is a short question you send right after you help someone, asking how satisfied they were with that help, usually on a 1 to 5 scale. The method fits in one line: ask one rating question and one optional *why*, send it with the closing reply, tie every answer to its ticket, and report the share of 4s and 5s. You can build the whole thing for free with Google Forms and Google Sheets. It holds up until answers need to match tickets and agents on their own. **4 and 5** — the only ratings that count as satisfied in the standard CSAT formula on a 1 to 5 scale - **0 to 10** — the NPS scale; promoters answer 9 or 10, detractors 0 to 6 - **2 to 10** — where a Google Forms linear scale can end, starting at 0 or 1 - **2 questions** — a rating plus an optional why is enough after a ticket ## What a customer satisfaction survey needs before you build it Most surveys fail before the first question is written. They go out weeks late, ask twelve things, or land in a spreadsheet nobody can trace back to a conversation. A useful CSAT survey for a support team has four parts: **one rating question about the interaction**, one optional open question asking why, a send moment close to the resolution, and an identifier, such as a ticket or order number, that ties each answer to the case and the person who handled it. Skip that last part and you get a score with no way to act on it. A 1-star answer from an unknown customer is a complaint you cannot reply to. The identifier is also what lets you split the score later by agent, by channel or by type of request, which shows where the low scores cluster. Plan the field first. Everything else in this guide is easy to change after launch; the identifier is not. Decide the scale once and keep it. CSAT, as Qualtrics defines it, asks for a rating on a 1 to 5 scale and reports the share of 4 (satisfied) and 5 (very satisfied) answers as a percentage [1]. NPS asks a different question, about the relationship rather than the last reply, and [the difference between CSAT and NPS](/articles/csat-vs-nps) decides which one belongs after a ticket. For support, CSAT after each resolved request is the usual pick. Add NPS later, on a slower schedule. > 💡 **Rate the help, not the brand:** Ask how satisfied the customer was with the help they got today. A question about the company drags shipping delays and pricing into an agent's score. ## Customer satisfaction survey questions that get honest answers Short wins. Every extra question costs answers, and the people who drop off halfway are rarely your happiest customers. Write the rating question about the specific help, not the company, so a slow shipping week does not sink an agent's score. Keep the wording neutral, with no *we hope you loved it* in front of the scale. Put the open question second and leave it optional. | Goal | Question | Answer type | |---|---|---| | Rate the help (CSAT) | How satisfied were you with the help you got today? | Linear scale, 1 to 5 | | Find the reason | What is the main reason for your score? | Paragraph, optional | | Effort | How easy was it to get your issue solved? | Linear scale, 1 to 5 | | Loyalty (NPS) | How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague? | Linear scale, 0 to 10 | | Permission | May we contact you about your answer? | Multiple choice, yes or no | Pick two rows for a post-ticket survey, not five. The first two are the core. The effort question is useful when customers complain about being passed around, and the permission question matters when you plan to call people back. Net promoter score questions follow a fixed form. Bain, which created the metric, asks how likely the customer is to recommend you to a friend or colleague, scored from zero to ten; promoters answer 9 or 10, detractors 0 to 6 [2]. Do not squeeze it onto a 1 to 5 scale, because the math only works on the 11-point version. Ask NPS on a schedule, such as once a quarter, rather than after every ticket. Otherwise a customer who writes in weekly sees it again and again. > ⚠ **A rating nobody can trace:** Customers rarely type a ticket number on their own. Pre-fill the field in each link you send, so the number arrives with every answer. ## Build the CSAT survey in Google Forms, step by step Google Forms is free with a Google account and covers everything the survey itself needs. The steps below follow Google's own help pages as they read today. 1. Go to forms.google.com and click **Blank form**. Name it, for example *Support feedback*. 2. Change the first question's type to **Linear scale**. Google lets the scale start at zero or one and end on a whole number from 2 to 10, with a label on each end [3]. Set it from 1 to 5, label the ends Very unsatisfied and Very satisfied, and switch on Required. 3. Add a **Paragraph** question for the reason. Leave it optional. 4. Add a **Short answer** question called Ticket or order number. 5. At the top, click Responses, then Summary. Click More, choose Select destination for responses, pick Create a new spreadsheet and click Create. New answers now land in a Google Sheet. 6. At the top right, click Publish. Under General access, give access to anyone with the link, since your customers are outside your organization, then publish. 7. To plant the ticket number for the customer, click More, choose Pre-fill form, type the number into that field and click Get link [4]. Copy the link at the top and send it. Prefer stars? The **Rating** question type shows stars, hearts or thumbs up, with a top rating you set anywhere from 3 to 10. It looks friendlier in a chat window, but a 5-star rating still needs the same 4-and-5 math, so the choice is cosmetic. Where the link goes matters more than the form. Put it at the end of the closing reply, after the answer itself, with one plain sentence asking for a rating. Save that closing line as a template in your mail app, so every person who answers customers sends the same words and the same link. A survey sent a week later measures the customer's mood, not the help. > 💡 **Send it with the closing reply:** Put the link at the end of the reply that solves the request. Customers who rate right after a fix remember what happened. ## Score it in Google Sheets: the CSAT and NPS formulas Open the linked sheet and find the column that holds the 1 to 5 answers. Say it is column B, and rename that tab Responses. When you link the NPS form, choose Select existing spreadsheet, pick this same file, and rename the new tab NPS; its 0 to 10 answers also sit in column B. On a second tab, add these formulas and format the cells as percentages where noted. - **CSAT:** `=COUNTIF(Responses!B2:B,">=4")/COUNT(Responses!B2:B)` (format as percent). - **NPS:** `=(COUNTIF(NPS!B2:B,">=9")-COUNTIF(NPS!B2:B,"<=6"))/COUNT(NPS!B2:B)*100` (a plain number from minus 100 to 100). - **Response rate:** answers received divided by surveys sent. The sheet only knows the first number, so keep a count of surveys sent by hand. Here is a worked illustration with round, invented inputs. An online shop closes 400 email requests in a month and puts the survey link in each closing reply. Sixty customers answer: 38 fives, 10 fours, 4 threes, 3 twos and 5 ones. Satisfied answers are 38 plus 10, so 48. CSAT is 48 divided by 60, which is 80%. The response rate is 60 divided by 400, or 15%. The same shop sends its quarterly NPS email and gets 50 answers: 22 promoters, 16 passives and 12 detractors. Promoters are 44% of answers and detractors 24%. The NPS is 44 minus 24, which is 20. Passives count in the total but in neither group, which is why NPS can swing while CSAT stays flat. Read every score with its base. A CSAT of 80% from 60 answers says nothing about the 340 customers who stayed quiet. Track the number weekly or monthly, not daily. **Read every comment attached to a 1 or a 2**, because that column, not the percentage, tells you what to fix next. ## A customer satisfaction survey template you can copy The template below is the whole system in five pieces. Copy it into your own form and sheet, then change the wording to match how your team talks. - **Closing line:** Was this helpful? Rate the help you got in one click, followed by the pre-filled link. - **Form:** the rating question (1 to 5, required), the reason (paragraph, optional), the ticket or order number (short answer, pre-filled). - **Sheet, response tabs:** Responses and NPS, renamed once and otherwise untouched, so nobody breaks the link to the forms. - **Sheet, tab two:** the CSAT formula, the response rate and a weekly count of answers. - **Sheet, tab three:** a filter that shows only scores of 1 or 2, with two extra columns, Owner and Followed up. The third tab is where the survey earns its keep. Give one person the job of reading every low score within a business day, replying to the customer and marking the row. Closing the loop on a bad rating is the step most homemade surveys skip, and it is the one customers notice. Run it for a month before changing anything. One month gives you a baseline, a sense of which requests draw low scores, and an honest count of how many links your team actually sent. ## Where the free CSAT survey stops working The homemade setup works for a founder or a team of two or three handling a few dozen requests a week. It breaks in three specific places. **Matching** goes first: every pre-filled link is made by hand, so once the team is too busy to make one per ticket, answers arrive without a number and cannot be traced to an agent. Ownership is next. A poor score sits in a sheet until someone opens it, and nothing reopens the conversation. Reporting is last. Splitting scores by agent or channel means hand-built pivots that break whenever someone edits a column. A help desk fixes all three by sending the survey from the ticket itself. Zendesk sends its satisfaction survey when a ticket is marked solved, mandatory on email and optional in messaging, and stores the rating on that ticket. Gorgias lets you set the send delay anywhere from five minutes to a week and filter scores by agent, channel or date. Tidio's emoji survey, on its Growth plan, covers chats inside the Tidio widget only, not Messenger, Instagram or WhatsApp. Three tools map most directly onto the homemade steps. Help Scout [sends CSAT and NPS surveys as Messages](/articles/help-scout-beacon) and can reopen a poorly rated conversation automatically. Zoho Desk [adds a happiness rating to tickets](/articles/zoho-desk-ticketing), with a link in every reply. Freshdesk puts its survey straight into replies and canned responses. ### Help Scout — solves this Sends CSAT, NPS and microsurvey Messages through the Beacon widget, and chat ratings (Great, Okay, Not Good) feed the Happiness report; a workflow can reopen a poorly rated conversation and notify the team. - Where it stops: The Free plan has no Messages, so no surveys; NPS needs the Beacon identify method. - Plan: Standard, Plus or Pro - How Help Scout does it: [Set up Beacon surveys and ratings](https://professionalstoolkit.com/articles/help-scout-beacon) - More: [Help Scout](https://professionalstoolkit.com/tools/help-scout) ### Zoho Desk — solves this Adds a Good, Okay or Bad happiness rating link to every reply or sends it when the ticket closes; a negative rating can reopen the ticket, and the score shows on the ticket and the contact. - Where it stops: Not on Free or Express; the rating has three options. - Plan: Standard and higher - How Zoho Desk does it: [Happiness ratings on tickets](https://professionalstoolkit.com/articles/zoho-desk-ticketing) - More: [Zoho Desk](https://professionalstoolkit.com/tools/zoho-desk) ### Freshdesk — solves this Sends a CSAT survey when a ticket is closed, and agents can add the survey to replies, canned responses or automation rules, so every answer stays attached to its ticket. - Where it stops: Its surveys have no NPS question; Freshdesk points to its SurveyMonkey app for that. - Plan: Custom surveys and CSAT reports on Pro and Enterprise - More: [Freshdesk](https://professionalstoolkit.com/tools/freshdesk) For the wider field, including tools built for surveys across the whole customer journey, see our guide to [customer feedback tools](/articles/customer-feedback-tools). ## FAQ **What is a good response rate for a CSAT survey?** It depends on the channel and the industry, so compare your rate with your own past months rather than a published average. Putting the link in the closing reply, and keeping the survey to one or two questions, are the two changes that usually move it. **Should a customer satisfaction survey be anonymous?** For support, usually not. You need the ticket or order number to reply to a low score and to see which agent or request type it belongs to. Say in the closing line that the answer goes to the support team. **Can I send a CSAT survey in a live chat?** Yes. Paste the form link into the last chat message the same way you would in an email. Help desks such as Help Scout and Tidio can also ask for a rating in their chat widget when the chat ends. **Should agents see their own satisfaction scores?** Yes, with the comments attached. Scores without comments invite guessing, while a weekly look at low ratings and their reasons shows each person what to change. ## The bottom line A customer satisfaction survey works when it is short, arrives with the closing reply, and carries a ticket number back with the answer. Google Forms and Sheets cover that for free: a 1 to 5 linear scale, an optional reason, a pre-filled order field, and two formulas for CSAT and NPS. The free way stops when nobody has time to build a link per ticket or chase low scores by hand. That is the moment to let a help desk send the survey and reopen the bad ones for you. ## Sources [1] Qualtrics — https://www.qualtrics.com/articles/customer-experience/what-is-csat/ (Nov 2026) [2] Net Promoter System (Bain & Company) — https://www.netpromotersystem.com/about/measuring-your-net-promoter-score/ (Nov 2026) [3] Google Docs Editors Help — https://support.google.com/docs/answer/7322334?hl=en (Nov 2026) [4] Google Docs Editors Help — https://support.google.com/docs/answer/160000?hl=en (Nov 2026)