5-Star Projects

In this article:

• Introducing 5-star surveys.
• The 5-star survey flow.
• How the 5-star score is calculated.
• Testing and previewing a 5-star question vs. a full questionnaire.

FAQs

• Who are 5-star surveys for?
• When should I send 5-star surveys?
• What are some best practices for 5-star surveys?

Suggested next articles: 

• Getting Started with Delighted CX
• Getting Started with Delighted Surveys — New!

Introducing 5-star surveys

Delighted’s 5-star surveys provide a super lightweight, easy-to-understand, and flexible metric to measure customer satisfaction. 

5-star surveys can accommodate a wider range of questions than typical CSAT or NPS formats while maintaining the benefits of a frictionless, easy-to-answer survey experience. 5-star questions also provide an audience friendly, approachable replacement for a traditional Likert numeric scale options.

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The 5-star survey flow

The 5-star rating system allows respondents to rank their feedback on a 5-point scale from 1 to 5. The more stars that are selected, the more positively your customer is responding to your question.

For example, if asking, “How friendly was your Delighted support representative?”, the 5-star scale would be interpreted as:

• 5 stars: Very friendly
• 4 stars: Friendly
• 3 stars: Neither friendly nor unfriendly
• 2 stars: Unfriendly
• 1 star: Very unfriendly

After providing a score, customers answer an open-ended comment question to explain their responses. Then, they’ll respond to any Additional Questions you’ve configured before being presented with a customized Thank You page.

Sample 5-star question

Sample 5-star comment page

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How the 5-star score is calculated

5-star calculations are a simple average — adding all of your individual scores and dividing by the number of individual responses. And there you have it: your 5-star average rating!

The 5-star score is rounded to the nearest tenth.

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Testing and previewing a 5-star question vs. a full questionnaire

There are two — very different — preview options to consider. You can:

1.  Preview a 5-star question in customization mode

Visualize how your 5-star question will appear (with the Desktop and Mobile preview options) as you customize the look and feel of your survey. Preview the changes you make to the color scheme, logo, and text elements of your 5-star question in real time. (See CX Customization Basics.)

2. Preview an entire 5-star CX project in a platform testing environment

Previewing how respondents will experience your full survey (particularly if you've added Additional Questions to your questionnaire) requires testing at the platform level.

To learn how to test and preview your entire survey questionnaire, click and explore each of the distribution platform(s) that you have deployed from this list:

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Who are 5-star surveys for?

5-star surveys are ideal for businesses looking to get a clear picture regarding how customers like a particular product, service, or another aspect of their brands. 5-star questions provide wide-ranging flexibility. They are also ideal for audiences speaking multiple languages — since the idea of a 5-star rating is universal.

Interested in how clean a guest found their hotel room? The timeliness of a service agent? The quality of a recent webinar? 5-star surveys can tackle all of these scenarios.

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When should I send 5-star surveys?

A key benefit of the 5-star system is its versatility. Whereas surveys like NPS, CES, Likert, and CSAT are more strictly focused on certain underlying outcomes, the 5-star survey can be deployed with wide-ranging customization and in a multitude of situations.

5-star surveys are often sent immediately following a specific customer touchpoint with your brand or product, such as a retail transaction, sales interaction, or delivery of a service — and can also be sent on a regular basis to measure overall brand or product satisfaction.

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What are some best practices for 5-star surveys?

5-star surveys are one of the most well-recognized and widely used methods for collecting customer feedback. However, there are some key considerations that are unique to 5-star surveys that you’ll want to keep in mind.

More stars indicate a higher rating

Always customize your survey such that 5 stars represents the positive upper limit, and 1 star represents the negative lower limit. The 1 (negative) to 5 (positive) scale is the most widely accepted and intuitive rating structure for the 5-star system, and will ensure your data is easy to interpret.

Here’s an example of a question structure you want to avoid:

Simplicity is key

Less is more when it comes to question customization. Here are two key areas to avoid:

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