A customer sustainability survey helps you understand which environmental issues your customers notice, what information they need and how a proposed change fits their priorities. It gives you questions to investigate before committing a budget.
Perhaps you are considering different packaging, clearer sourcing information or planting a tree with qualifying orders. Before choosing, ask customers about their experience. Someone can care about forests and still choose a supplier because the delivery arrives when promised. You need room for both answers.
Below is a copyable questionnaire and a decision worksheet for turning responses into a practical next step. If business-linked planting is one of the options you want to explore, see ForestNation business planting programmes, then test the actual proposal with your audience.
Key Takeaways
- Ask about recent buying decisions before introducing your environmental proposal.
- Include uncertain, negative and no-preference answers. They can tell you what needs changing.
- Keep each answer’s response count visible. A voluntary customer survey describes its respondents.
- Use the worksheet to decide what to test, who owns it and what evidence you will collect.
What should you decide before sending the survey?
Write down one decision the answers can influence. “Understand our customers” is too broad. “Choose which information to include on our new packaging page” gives the survey a job.
For a planting programme, that decision might be whether customers understand the proposed order rule and which evidence they want to see. Decide separately whether your business can afford and operate it. Customer enthusiasm cannot answer your budget question.
Choose a relevant audience, such as recent buyers of one product range, and record how you selected them. Avoid quietly mixing customers, employees and social followers into a single customer result. If you invite different groups, keep their answers identifiable by group without asking for unnecessary personal details.
Test the wording with a few people before sending it widely. Ask what they thought each question meant. Pew Research Center’s questionnaire guidance explains why wording, question order and pretesting matter. The template here is an original planning aid. It has not been validated as a research instrument.
Which customer sustainability survey questions can you use?
Copy the questions you need into your survey tool. Replace the bracketed text with your actual product or service. Keep the proposal section after the general questions so respondents first describe their own experience.
Suggested introduction: “We are reviewing [specific decision] and would value your experience. Your answers will help us decide what to improve. You can skip any question. Please avoid including personal or sensitive information in written answers.”
1. What mattered most when you last chose [product or service]?
Answer: A short written response. Leave this open so people can name their own reason before you show them a list. If they have not bought recently, offer “I have not bought this recently.”
2. Which one area would you most like us to improve?
Choose one: Product or service performance; price; delivery or availability; customer support; environmental information or practices; something else, please specify; no improvement comes to mind.
Adapt this list to what you actually sell. Keep the alternatives meaningful and avoid making your preferred answer sound more admirable than the others.
3. Before today, had you looked for information about our environmental practices?
Choose one: Yes; no; I cannot remember. Ask about your own business, not environmental concern in general.
4. If you looked, how easy was it to find the information you wanted?
Choose one: Very easy; somewhat easy; neither easy nor difficult; somewhat difficult; very difficult; I did not look. If your tool supports branching, show this only to people who answered yes to question 3.
5. What environmental question would you most like us to answer?
Answer: A short written response, with “No question at present” available. This can uncover a concern you would miss by offering only your existing marketing themes.
6. Which one type of information would be most useful to you?
Choose one: Materials or sourcing; packaging and disposal; delivery arrangements; how a funded project works; evidence behind a specific environmental claim; something else, please specify; none at present; unsure.
Remove irrelevant options. A service business should not make customers navigate packaging questions just because they were in a template.
7. Where would you prefer to find this information?
Choose one: Product or service page; a dedicated information page; order confirmation; occasional email update; a response when I ask; somewhere else, please specify; I do not want additional information.
8. In your own words, what would happen under this proposal?
Show your proposed change first. For example: “We are considering funding one tree planted in Tanzania for each completed order in [range]. Cancelled orders would not qualify. We would publish the qualifying-order rule and a link to the planting programme’s information.”
Answer: A short written response, with “I am not sure” available. Label the proposal as something being considered. Use only a rule and process you could deliver. This question checks understanding before asking whether someone likes it.
9. How would this proposal affect your view of our business?
Choose one: Much more positive; somewhat more positive; no change; somewhat more negative; much more negative; unsure. Follow with an optional “What is the main reason for your answer?”
10. What would you want clarified before we introduced it?
Answer: A short written response, with “Nothing at present” available. Questions about price, eligibility or evidence are useful information for your next decision.
How do you turn answers into a decision?
Start with counts. Record invitations, completed responses and the number answering each question. Keep skipped questions separate from “unsure.” When reporting a percentage, state its base.
Illustrative example: You invite 100 recent customers and receive 30 responses. On question 9, 12 choose a more positive view, 14 no change, two a more negative view and two unsure. That is 12 of 30 respondents expressing a more positive view. It is not evidence that 40% of all customers will buy more.
Read those answers alongside question 8. If several respondents think a tree will arrive at their home, the proposal needs clearer wording before launch. If the strongest requests concern delivery reliability, record that priority even if it does not support your preferred campaign.
Group written answers by their actual topic. Keep a small set of representative comments for internal review, including objections. Do not turn an anonymous survey response into a public testimonial. If you want to publish a customer’s words, arrange permission separately.
A real business example of using customer questions is Visit Lincolnshire customer survey resource. Its setting is tourism. Use examples from your own sector when adapting the questions.
Copy this customer feedback decision worksheet
Complete these fields after reading the answers. This is a qualitative planning tool, with no pass mark or sustainability score.
- Decision we need to make: [One choice this survey can inform.]
- Audience and invitation method: [Who we asked, when and how.]
- Response base: [Invited __; responded __; answered the key question __.]
- Main buying priority: [What respondents said mattered, with counts where available.]
- Proposal understood? [What people understood correctly and what they misunderstood.]
- Evidence requested: [Questions we must answer before making a public promise.]
- Objections and competing needs: [Include answers that challenge our preferred choice.]
- Operational check: [Budget, qualifying rule, reporting owner and delivery constraints.]
- Decision: [Proceed with a defined test, revise the proposal, investigate further or stop.]
- Next test and evidence: [What we will try and what we will observe.]
- Owner and review date: [Name/role; date; where the result will be recorded.]
For the illustrative survey above, a sensible next test could be rewriting the explanation and checking whether a new group understands the eligibility rule. A later pilot could track actual qualifying orders, customer questions and programme costs. If you investigate sales effects, decide how you will compare results and account for other changes. A favourable survey answer alone cannot establish a sales effect.
Where does recurring tree planting fit?
Planting can be one concrete proposal to investigate. ForestNation connects programmes to agreed business activity, including orders, products and events. The business defines what qualifies and how activity is reported, then shares its forest’s published information. Start with the business planting model guide if you are choosing between those approaches.
For an order-led proposal, the plant-a-tree-per-order model gives you a specific mechanism to discuss. Explain the funded planting accurately and point people to the impact methodology for its evidence and estimation approach. Keep the proposal distinct from changes to your product or operations.
Your customers are giving you their time. Close the loop with a short update explaining what you heard, what you will do and what remains undecided. That follow-up is part of the work, even when the answer is to improve something less exciting than the campaign you first imagined.
Research and References
- Pew Research Center: Writing Survey Questions, wording, answer options, order and pretesting.
- Visit Lincolnshire customer engagement guide, a practical tourism-business resource.
- ForestNation impact methodology, evidence and estimation approach.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a customer sustainability survey?
It is a set of questions about customers’ environmental information needs, experiences and responses to a proposed business change. Its purpose is to inform a decision, such as improving information or testing a programme.
How many questions should we ask?
Use only questions whose answers can affect your decision. The ten questions here are a starting template. Remove irrelevant items and test the survey with a few people before inviting your audience.
Can survey results prove customers will buy more?
No. A stated preference or positive reaction does not establish a sales effect. Use responses to shape a proposal, then evaluate actual behaviour through an appropriately designed test.
Should tree planting appear in every question?
No. Ask about customers’ experience and priorities first. Introduce a specific planting proposal later if it is one of the decisions you are considering, with room for uncertainty and negative responses.
