Your email survey guide – 18 must-have email features

Email surveys are a method of data collection used to request information using questionnaires or surveys that are sent via email to a target audience. They ​are a simple and direct way to gather feedback from your customers. Here’s what you need to ensure high response rates and actionability.

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Every second, 45 people answer a Delighted survey

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Delighted powers 300+ million surveys a year for some of the world's most beloved brands

1. Embedded email surveys

Easily embed a survey in an email to increase the number of survey responses and reduce customer frustration. Customers no longer need to navigate away from their inbox to submit responses with an email-embedded survey.

When we implemented Delighted, we saw a huge increase in responses, because the survey can be taken right in the email. It’s just a better customer experience.”
– April Troester, VP of Customer Service at Research Square
Email survey on mobile

2. Optimized for mobile

Delighted surveys are designed to work beautifully on any type of platform and device, allowing your customers to leave feedback wherever they are.

Email survey on mobile

3. Multiple survey templates

Ask for feedback using NPS, CSAT, CES, Smileys, 5-star, and Thumbs templates in 30+ languages. Tailor the survey questions to your use case.

nps, csat, star, and smiley email survey templates

4. Code-free customization

Customize your email survey logo and colors to match your brand directly in the Delighted platform, no design or development resources required.

Email survey customization

5. Add Additional Questions

Ask follow-up questions to uncover crucial insight on survey responses. Layer up to 10 custom questions within a single survey flow.

add additional follow-up questions to your email survey
contextual email survey follow-up with a thank you message

6. Contextualize follow-up

Collecting feedback is just the first step. Delighted makes it easy to act on feedback with a customizable Thank you message and automatic ticket creation in your favorite CRM solutions.

We really rely on Delighted for the email survey functionality. It’s really about the cycle of what’s important to customers, addressing it, following up, making sure that we’ve addressed the issue. Or, just thanking them for their time for getting back to us, sharing positive feedback, and then just repeating that cycle over and over again.”
– Laura Reigel, Senior Customer Marketing Manager at PayScale

7. Email surveys via integration

Trigger email surveys from the tools you already use, such as Shopify, Stripe, Segment, Zendesk, Mailchimp, and Squarespace.

Trigger email surveys with various integrations

8. Rest API

Use our REST API to automatically survey customers after a delivery, when a guest checks out, or after a support interaction.

trigger email surveys via REST API

9. Schedule sends in Delighted

Upload an email list to Delighted, and specify the optimal day and time you want your surveys to be delivered. Automate delivery with Autopilot.

schedule email surveys in Delighted

10. Survey throttling

Survey throttling increases response rates by ensuring that your customers are never over surveyed.

survey throttle thresholds for better response rates

11. Fully authenticated delivery

Every email survey we send is verified using DKIM, SPF and DMARC, meeting the strictest sending policies to ensure secure and reliable delivery.

Email survey authenticated delivery

12. Use your own domain

Send from your own domain with a custom configured DNS at no additional cost – just get in touch and we’ll set it up.

Email survey custom domain

13. Test email subject lines

Our default email survey subject line gets industry-high open rates of 47%, but you can continue optimizing based on your audience.

test email survey subject lines

14. Incentivize responses

Write an intro message that gives context for the survey. Provide an incentive for participating, and let your customers know their feedback is valued.

Email survey open

15. Segment feedback in your real-time dashboard

Attach Properties to your contact list or via your integration to segment feedback by customer details – what product they purchased, which service rep they spoke with, and more.

email survey feedback segmentation

16. Share feedback with your entire team

Pipe all the feedback you collect back into your systems so your team can act on it, whether that’s in Slack, Salesforce, or Intercom – see our full list of integrations to explore the possibilities.

email survey feedback shared in Slack

17. Email signature surveys

Want to collect quick feedback on your email correspondence? Include an email signature survey after your signoff.

email signature survey

18. Multiple survey channels

Need more ways to collect feedback? Use web, SDK, and link surveys in the channel most comfortable for them.

email survey distribution channels
Advantages

Top advantages of an email survey

Gathering customer feedback is essential to any business, and there are several reasons why sending an in-email survey is the best way to collect information about your products and services.

Speed

Sending an email survey can be achieved in just a few clicks and is much faster than face-to-face data collection methods. Why? Because most email users log into their accounts daily. In fact, over 44% check their inbox between 1 and 3 times a day. The time between a recipient seeing your survey invitation, and then responding, is minimal.

Simplicity

It’s easier to send a survey in email than using other old-school popular types of collection like sending forms or a survey by mail. No specialized software or coding knowledge is required to get your survey content to your audience in seconds. Use that same simplicity in a multichannel approach with website surveys, link surveys, and more.

Reach

A great advantage of sending an email questionnaire is that you can reach multiple recipients simultaneously. After you create and save your email questions in a simple in-app experience, you will build and upload a list of selected recipients directly within the platform. After you hit the send button, respondents can enter their response text directly in the email for instant data capture.

Easy analysis

Email survey results can be viewed in a real-time dashboard and analyzed with a handful of easy-to-read reporting options. Advanced AI can spot and unveil common trends that will allow management to take action on insights quicker than before, or you can create and select Filters and Trends on your own to narrow your focus on data related to specific products and services.

why email surveys

Why email surveys are reliable and effective

There is little point in collecting data at all if it has limited actionability. That’s why it’s essential for data to be reliable and effective. Creating an email survey guarantees this in several ways.

Accuracy

In-email surveys allow customers the flexibility to read and respond to the email questions in their own time, making answers more accurate as they have time to consider their responses rather than being pressed for an on-the-spot reply.

Integration

Survey automation tools keep your experience program on track. Integrations are easy to set up and combine with common tools you use every day like Salesforce, Mailchimp, and Shopify. Trigger email questionnaires, sync survey data, and more.

Personalization

When you put email feedback at the center of your business and data collection strategy, it’s important to create a personalized sending experience. Customize the email subject lines with the customer’s name to capture the respondent’s attention off the bat. Take a look at our Help Center with written and video content for step-by-step customization tips.

Best Practices for Sending Surveys

Thousands of brands choose Delighted as their email survey tool and more

Delighted has all the features you need to follow the best practices listed above: personalization, survey automation, feedback reporting, and so much more. Accessible pricing and packaging is available for companies of all sizes.

Allbirds
Instacart
Google
Opentable
TedX
Affirm
PayPal
Doordash

“Everyone at Bonobos needs a direct line to customers for feedback. I know that due to Delighted, we avoided disaster.”

“Every time we open up Delighted we find a new way to improve, which at the end of the day is why we are doing this.”

“You need users’ thoughtful, raw feedback to correct and improve experiences for all customers in the future.”

Built by people who care deeply about customer experience

Created and run by a team who believes that great experiences are first and foremost.

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