Your guide to benchmarking questions in surveys: examples, tips, and how-tos

In business, there’s a common belief that you can’t improve if you don’t measure. And that’s where benchmarking questions in surveys come in handy. 

These questions can get the information you need to truly understand your performance and how you can continuously improve. Read on for a need-to-know definition of benchmarking questions, benchmarking survey examples, and quick tips for how and when to benchmark.

Benchmarking questions collect baseline data that you can use to set goals, understand and track progress, and gauge success. 

These survey questions are the foundation of internal benchmarks, which is when you compare your company’s performance against itself. For example, let’s say you want to dig into customer satisfaction for your customer service. You could ask this benchmark question in a survey: 

This will give you baseline data on customer satisfaction with their customer service experience, an internal benchmark you can use to compare as you work to improve your team's effectiveness.

There are also external benchmarks, where you compare your company’s performance against global or industry standards. SurveyMonkey benchmarks, for instance, allow you to compare your results to others who used the same benchmarking question from our Question Bank.

Keep in mind, whether your goal is internal or external comparisons, benchmarking questions aren’t limited to any one question type or data collection process. They can also cover a range of topics; in addition to customer satisfaction, you’ll often see benchmark questions used in employee engagement, customer loyalty, and user experience (UX) surveys. 

The sky’s the limit when it comes to benchmarking questions—if you can measure it, you can benchmark it. Here are some common types of benchmarking question examples:

Demographic survey questions are essential for collecting data about respondents’ characteristics, such as age, gender, income, education, and occupation. These questions allow you to segment respondents and compare results across groups. A marketer wanting to appeal to more Gen Z consumers might use demographic questions in a brand awareness survey to form benchmarks for how to improve brand reach with young people.

Examples of demographic benchmarking questions: 

Behavioral questions look at respondents’ behavior, habits, and interactions. UX surveys will often include behavioral questions to find out how users interact with a product or website—which can serve as benchmarks if your aim is to finetune your UX.

Examples of behavioral benchmarking questions

Attitudinal questions uncover respondents’ feelings, opinions, and beliefs. Asking this type of benchmark question is a great way to see how emotions and attitudes toward your brand, services, or experiences change. These questions are also key to measuring key performance indicators like customer satisfaction and employee engagement over time.

Examples of attitudinal benchmarking questions

Related: How to ask about attitude change

Knowledge questions are typically used to measure the effectiveness of educational programs or employee training programs—you may have encountered them in post-event learning and development surveys. They can also be used to measure public and consumer awareness around things like industry terms, product misconceptions, or new technology. 

Examples of knowledge benchmarking questions

Ranking questions ask respondents to order answer choices by preference, which signals the importance of different items. An HR pro might use a ranking question in an employee benefits survey to see which offerings are most popular among employees. This benchmark data could be used to both see if employees’ preferences change over time and see how addressing ranked preferences improves employee engagement.

Examples of ranking benchmarking questions:

Watch: How to create a ranking question with SurveyMonkey

satisfaction questions uncover how satisfied someone is with a product, service, or experience. These questions are the backbone of customer satisfaction surveys and employee engagement surveys, revealing whether customers and employees are happy and thriving. If benchmark results are low or stagnant, it’s a clear sign that improvements need to be made.

Examples of satisfaction benchmarking questions

How do you know when to make benchmark questions a survey habit? Here are some situations when asking benchmarking questions can be particularly useful: 

Collecting performance data helps you understand the state of your business, so you can take the right next steps. Here are just a few of the benefits of asking benchmarking questions:

Whether you’re an experienced survey researcher or new to benchmarking, here’s what to keep in mind as you write your questions and craft your benchmark surveys.

Unclear questions are a common survey mistake, so make sure your benchmark questions don’t fall into that category. You won’t get good baseline data if your respondents don’t understand what they’re being asked!

Different question types will get you different kinds of data points, so consider diversifying not just what benchmark questions you ask but how you ask them.

Benchmarking questions are important, but if you include too many in your survey it can bog down the respondent experience—especially if you make them required. Strategize what’s most important to ask to make the most of your respondents’ time and attention.  

Think about your company’s specific business priorities, and ask benchmarking questions that align with those areas. If your focus is on CX, include benchmark questions that will help you understand your customers and consumer behaviors so you can create better experiences.

Leading and biased questions are enemies of good, usable data. Double-check that your question wording and answer choices aren’t inadvertently influencing your respondents. 

As we mentioned above, demographic questions are really valuable for benchmarking.The data can be used to identify patterns or preferences among different groups.

What are some examples of benchmarking?

In the business world, it's common to collect benchmarking data points around key performance indicators like employee Net Promoter Score (NPS®) or customer satisfaction. In these cases, examples of benchmark questions might be:

How often should you ask benchmarking questions?

The frequency that you ask benchmarking questions depends on your needs—such as how often you want to compare data or whether there are industry or economic trends that call for new data. That said, you should aim to send your survey at least twice a year, at regular intervals. 

How do you set goals based on data from benchmarking questions?

Once you’ve asked your benchmarking question and gotten an initial datapoint, you should consider it the beginning of your journey. From there, set a goal for how much you want to improve. Maybe your customer satisfaction benchmark is 72%, and you want to raise it to 80% within half a year. 

Send your survey again and compare the results from your benchmarking satisfaction question with your 72% baseline and the 80% goal you set. Readjust your expectations if you’ve fallen short. If you dip below your initial 72% benchmark, you’ll know it’s time to make some serious improvements.   

Asking benchmarking questions is good for business—it gets you all kinds of valuable data to support your goals, your decisions, and your teams. These survey results provide important context and meaning to future data, helping organizations understand how they’re doing relative to their own performance and industry standards. This makes it easier to identify areas for improvement and avoid data misinterpretations, particularly in engagement and satisfaction surveys.

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Net Promoter, Net Promoter Score, and NPS are trademarks of Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain & Company, Inc., and Fred Reichheld.