Customer survey
Restaurant Customer Satisfaction Survey: What to Ask
3 min read
A good restaurant survey is short: a few rating questions and an optional comment box. Guests should be able to finish it in under a minute. Long forms get abandoned and only show you the opinions of your most patient guests.
How many questions should you ask?
For a survey completed on a phone while waiting for the bill, 3–5 questions are enough. Every extra question lowers the number of guests who finish. Ask yourself, “What will I do with this answer?” If there's no answer, drop the question.
Questions worth asking
| Question | Scale | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Overall, how satisfied were you with your visit? | 1–5 stars | Overall satisfaction |
| How would you rate the person who served you? | Pick a staff member + 1–5 stars | Staff performance |
| How was your food? | 1–5 stars | Product quality |
| Was the wait time reasonable? | 1–5 stars | Speed and operations |
| Anything you'd like to add? | Free text, optional | The reason behind the score |
Rating questions get quick answers; free text tells you what to change. Don't make the comment box mandatory, but always include it.
Which rating scale should you use?
One to five stars is familiar to everyone and easy to tap on a phone. Wider scales such as 1–10 make guests overthink, and the difference between two neighboring scores becomes hard to interpret. Whichever scale you choose, use the same one throughout the survey.
Common mistakes when writing questions
- Leading questions: Ask “How was your food?” instead of “How did you like our amazing food?”
- Two topics in one question: With “Was the food and service fast?” you can't tell which part the score refers to.
- Required personal details: Asking for a phone number or email lowers participation. If you do collect personal data, you need to inform guests about it.
- Jargon: Avoid internal terms guests don't know.
Where and when to offer the survey
The best moment is after the experience but before the guest leaves: while waiting for the bill. A QR code on the table opens the survey without an app. For takeaway, put the QR code on the bag or box. See collecting feedback with a table QR code for the setup.
How to read the results
- Look at the distribution, not just the average. A 4.2 average can be mostly 4s, or a mix of 5s and 1s. Those are very different situations.
- Read low ratings separately. Comments on 1–2 star ratings point to the problems you can fix fastest.
- Look weekly. Daily swings mislead; week-over-week change is more meaningful.
- Note recurring words. If the same topic comes up from different guests, it's a priority.
- Share with the team and change something. A survey that never leads to change loses its meaning.
How the survey works in Hunlio Feedback
Hunlio Feedback keeps the guest flow deliberately short: the guest rates the business, can choose and rate the person who served them, and can leave a comment. No phone number or email is requested.
- The guest screen is available in Turkish, English, German, Russian and Arabic.
- You can use your logo and colors on the guest screen.
- The Business Panel shows average ratings, the last 7 days and the rating distribution.
- The AI Report summarizes the ratings in the date range you choose and can be downloaded as a PDF.
Frequently asked questions
Should a customer survey be anonymous?
Short surveys that don't ask for personal details usually get more responses, and guests write more openly. If you need to collect personal data, inform guests about it separately.
How many responses do I need for meaningful results?
There's no fixed number. Don't decide based on a handful of answers; set a minimum, especially when comparing staff or periods, and look at the weekly trend.
Should I offer a discount for completing the survey?
A small thank-you can increase participation in your own internal survey, but it may also make scores look better than they are. For Google reviews, offering incentives breaks Google's policy.
See what your customers think, every day
With Hunlio Feedback, guests scan the QR code on the table and rate your business and the person who served them. You see the results on your dashboard, with low ratings in a separate list. The first 14 days are free.
Start 14-day free trial →