A template for structured customer surveys

I developed this survey template while working with a startup that was experiencing roughly 80% churn. That is not a typo: eight out of ten customers were leaving within the first year. The founders knew they had a problem but did not know where to start diagnosing it.

The answer, as it often is, was to talk to customers. But not casually. We needed a structured approach that would surface patterns across conversations and point us toward concrete changes. Here is the template we used, broken into six sections.

Section 1: Initial Discovery

Start by understanding how the customer found you and what drew them in.

• How did you first hear about us?
• What was the primary problem you were trying to solve?
• What made you decide to sign up rather than continue with your existing approach?

This section reveals whether your acquisition channels are attracting the right customers. High churn often starts with a misaligned audience.

Section 2: Onboarding Experience

The first few weeks are critical for retention.

• How was your initial setup experience?
• Did you feel supported during the first two weeks?
• How quickly did you get to a point where you felt the product was delivering value?

If customers struggle to reach their first moment of value, churn becomes almost inevitable regardless of pricing.

Section 3: Ongoing Value

Understand what keeps them engaged, or what fails to.

• What do you use most frequently, and why?
• Is there anything you expected to be able to do that you cannot?
• How does our product fit into your weekly workflow?

This section helps distinguish between features that drive retention and features that just look good in a demo.

Section 4: Pricing Perception

Get direct input on whether the price matches the perceived value.

• When you first saw the pricing, what was your reaction?
• Do you feel you are getting fair value for what you pay?
• Have you ever considered canceling because of the price? If so, what triggered that thought?

For the startup I worked with, this section revealed that pricing was not the primary driver of churn. The product was affordable, it just was not delivering enough ongoing value to justify even a modest price.

Section 5: Competitive Landscape

Understand the alternatives, even imperfect ones.

• Have you tried any other solutions for this problem?
• What do you like about those alternatives compared to us?
• If you were to leave, what would you switch to?

Sometimes the biggest competitor is not another product. It is a spreadsheet, a manual process, or simply doing nothing.

Section 6: The Retention Question

End with the most important question of all.

• What single change would make you more likely to stay as a customer for the next twelve months?

I ask this as an open-ended question and I resist the urge to prompt or guide the answer. The responses are often surprising and almost always useful.

What we learned

In the case of this startup, the survey revealed that churn was driven primarily by a gap between what was promised during sales and what was delivered during the first month. Pricing adjustments alone would not have fixed it. The solution required changes to onboarding, expectation setting, and the core product experience.

That is the value of structured customer surveys. They prevent you from guessing and point you toward the changes that actually matter. If you are facing high churn, start here.

Want help designing customer research that informs your pricing? Get in touch.