Customer experience
Complaint intake survey
Capture what happened, what it relates to and what the person wants done — in one pass, so nobody has to be asked twice.
Why this survey gets sent
“By the time a complaint reaches me it is three lines in an email, and I have to write back twice before I know which branch, which day and which order it is about. The customer is already angry, and the first thing I send them is a request for homework.”
A complaint is the one survey where an incomplete answer costs you twice: once when you cannot act on it, and again when you have to go back and ask. The fix is not a longer survey. It is asking for the four facts that decide who handles it — what, when, where, which reference — before asking for the story, and asking outright what outcome the person wants instead of inferring it.
What is in it
- What the complaint is about (single response)
- When it happened, and where — branch, city or channel
- Order, invoice or reference number (optional)
- What happened, in the person's own words (long answer)
- Whether they have raised it before, and how
- What would put it right (choose as many as apply)
- A photo, a receipt or a screenshot (attachment)
- Name and email, required — plus a phone number if they prefer a call
About 5 min to answer
Complaint intake survey
About 5 min
How to write this survey
Ask for the facts, then ask for the story
A complaint you cannot act on is not a complaint, it is a letter. The first four questions exist to decide who handles it: the subject, the date, the place or channel, and the order or invoice number if there is one. Those four facts are what route a complaint to the right branch and the right person the same day. Without them, every case opens with a message asking for information — the worst possible message to send an angry person.
Then comes the open question: what happened? Leave it wide and do not chop it into small fields that try to predict the story. The person knows their own account better than you do, and forcing it into boxes makes them delete the part you needed. Make this one required, and keep everything above it short enough that they reach it while they still want to write.
Ask what would put it right — do not guess
The quickest way to mishandle a complaint is to assume what the person wants. Plenty of people do not want their money back, they want an explanation; some want nothing for themselves at all and only want it not to happen to the next customer. Ask the question outright, with options: a refund, a replacement or repair, the service completed as agreed, an explanation, an apology, or a change that prevents a repeat.
Let them pick more than one. Someone who asks for both an apology and a refund is telling you their order of priority by choosing both, and a single-choice question forces them to hide half of what they want. Add a question about whether they have raised it before, too: a repeat complaint is not a louder complaint, it is a different problem — a failure of handling rather than of service — and it deserves another route and a more senior owner.
This is the one survey where contact details are required
In most surveys asking for an email is an intrusion. In a complaint it is a necessity: a complaint is a promise of a reply, and a reply needs an address. Make the name and the email required, keep the phone number optional, and word it as a choice rather than a demand — “phone number, if you would rather we called” — so the person decides for themselves how the answer should reach them.
Say on the page itself what you will do with the details: they are used to answer this complaint and nothing else. One sentence above the contact fields is enough, and it is the difference between a survey that looks like it is harvesting a marketing list and one that looks like it is solving a problem. Ask for nothing you do not actually need — at this moment every extra field reads as one more condition before the complaint will be heard.
Write it in language that is not defending itself
Your wording reveals your position before you have read a word of the complaint. “Why were you dissatisfied?” puts the problem inside the customer's feelings; “what happened?” puts it in the event. “Do you believe the service was poor?” invites an argument; “when did it happen, and where?” invites detail. Write questions that ask about facts and leave the judgement to whoever reads them.
Keep disclaimers out of the questions. Phrases like “in line with our policy” or “should the above prove accurate” turn the survey into an early defence of the company. Those sentences have a place in the reply, if they are needed at all — not on a page where somebody is writing down what happened to them. And do not ask how angry they are: they will not answer it honestly, and you would not act on it if they did.
What happens after they press send
The thank-you screen on a complaint survey is not a courtesy, it is part of the handling. Write what happens next in terms you can keep: who reads it, how many days until the first reply, and what to do if it does not arrive. A vague promise — “we will be in touch soon” — creates a second complaint about the first one.
Include an optional attachment field: a photo of the product, the receipt or a screenshot saves an entire exchange of messages, and it is far easier for the customer than describing what they can see. Finally, read complaints in batches every month rather than one at a time. A single complaint is a case; ten about the same thing at the same branch is a management decision waiting for somebody to read it.