SpaceForms / Glossary
Survey & Research Glossary (2026)
An authoritative reference for survey methodology and customer-experience metrics — NPS, CSAT, CES, Likert scales, response bias, sampling, and more. Each entry includes definition, formula where applicable, example, and 2026 benchmarks.
Metrics
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures customer loyalty by asking how likely customers are to recommend a product or service on a 0-10 scale.
Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)
Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) measures how satisfied customers are with a product, service, or interaction on a 1-5 or 1-10 scale.
Customer Effort Score (CES)
Customer Effort Score (CES) measures how much effort a customer expended to complete a specific interaction, typically on a 7-point agree/disagree scale.
Survey Response Rate
Response rate is the percentage of invited respondents who completed (or at least started) a survey.
Survey Completion Rate
Completion rate is the percentage of survey starters who finished all questions.
Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)
eNPS adapts NPS to measure how likely employees are to recommend their employer as a place to work.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV / LTV)
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV or LTV) is the total revenue (or gross profit) a business expects to earn from a customer over the entire relationship.
Churn Rate
Churn rate is the percentage of customers (or revenue) lost during a given period, typically reported monthly or annually.
NPS Trend
NPS trend tracks how Net Promoter Score changes over time, surfacing directional shifts that a single-period score cannot reveal.
Top-Box Scoring
Top-box scoring reports the percentage of respondents who selected the highest rating (top box) or top two ratings (top-2-box, T2B) on a scale.
Net Easy Score (NES)
Net Easy Score (NES) measures the ease of a customer interaction by subtracting the percentage of 'difficult' ratings from 'easy' ratings on a 5- or 7-point ease scale.
Scales
Likert Scale
A Likert scale is a survey rating scale with ordered response options (typically 5 or 7 points) used to measure attitudes, agreement, or frequency.
Five-Star Rating
A five-star rating is a 1-5 ordinal scale, typically displayed as star icons, used for product reviews, app stores, and lightweight CSAT.
Semantic Differential Scale
A semantic differential scale presents two opposing adjectives at the ends of a 5- or 7-point scale and asks respondents to mark their position between them.
Concepts
Promoters (NPS)
In NPS, promoters are respondents who score 9 or 10 on the 'likely to recommend' question — your strongest advocates.
Detractors (NPS)
In NPS, detractors are respondents who score 0-6 on the 'likely to recommend' question — unhappy customers at high churn risk.
Passives (NPS)
In NPS, passives are respondents who score 7 or 8 — satisfied but unenthusiastic customers vulnerable to competitive offerings.
Anonymous Survey
An anonymous survey collects responses without any personally identifying information.
Employee Engagement
Employee engagement is the emotional commitment employees have to their organization and its goals.
ACSI (American Customer Satisfaction Index)
The ACSI is a national economic indicator of customer satisfaction with the quality of products and services available to US household consumers.
Voice of Customer (VoC)
Voice of Customer (VoC) is a systematic program for collecting, analyzing, and acting on customer feedback across every touchpoint and channel.
Onboarding Survey
An onboarding survey collects feedback from new customers (or employees) during the first 30-90 days to identify activation friction and predict retention.
Exit Interview / Exit Survey
An exit interview collects feedback from customers or employees at the moment of departure to understand why they're leaving and to identify systemic issues.
Customer Journey Mapping
Customer journey mapping is the practice of visualizing the end-to-end experience a customer has with a brand across stages, touchpoints, channels, and emotions.
Methodology
Sample Size
Sample size is the number of respondents needed for survey results to be statistically meaningful at a given confidence level and margin of error.
Margin of Error
Margin of error is the range within which the true population value likely falls, given the sample size and confidence level.
Confidence Interval
A confidence interval is the range within which a true population parameter is expected to fall, at a specified confidence level.
Pulse Survey
A pulse survey is a short, frequent survey (3-5 questions) used to track sentiment over time.
Product-Market Fit Survey (PMF)
A PMF survey measures whether a product has achieved product-market fit, typically via Sean Ellis's 'very disappointed' test.
Kano Model
The Kano model categorizes product features by their impact on customer satisfaction: must-haves, performance, delighters, indifferent, reverse.
Van Westendorp Pricing
The Van Westendorp Price Sensitivity Meter uses four questions to identify the range of acceptable prices for a product.
In-App Survey
An in-app survey is a short survey delivered inside a digital product, typically triggered by user behavior or milestone events.
Micro-Survey
A micro-survey is a very short survey (1-3 questions) designed to minimize respondent effort and maximize completion.
Random Sampling
Random sampling is a probability sampling method where every member of the target population has an equal, known chance of being selected.
Stratified Sampling
Stratified sampling divides the population into mutually exclusive subgroups (strata) and samples randomly within each, ensuring proportional or oversampled representation.
Cluster Sampling
Cluster sampling divides the population into naturally occurring groups (clusters) and randomly selects entire clusters, then surveys all or some members within them.
Convenience Sampling
Convenience sampling recruits whoever is easiest to reach — website visitors, email-list subscribers, social-media followers — and is the dominant approach in commercial surveys despite its limitations.
Longitudinal Survey
A longitudinal survey collects data from the same respondents (or population) at multiple points in time to measure change.
Cross-Sectional Survey
A cross-sectional survey collects data from a population at a single point in time, providing a snapshot of attitudes, behaviors, or outcomes.
Panel Survey
A panel survey repeatedly surveys the same pre-recruited group of respondents over time, enabling within-person change analysis.
Mixed-Methods Research
Mixed-methods research combines quantitative (numeric, statistical) and qualitative (interview, open-text) data within a single study to triangulate findings.
360-Degree Feedback
360-degree feedback collects performance and development input on an individual from multiple perspectives: manager, peers, direct reports, and self-assessment.
Bias & Errors
Response Bias
Response bias is any systematic tendency of respondents to answer questions inaccurately, either intentionally or unconsciously.
Acquiescence Bias
Acquiescence bias is the tendency of respondents to agree with statements regardless of their actual opinions.
Central Tendency Bias
Central tendency bias is the tendency of respondents to avoid extreme options on a rating scale, clustering toward the middle.
Leading Question
A leading question is one whose wording suggests a particular answer, biasing the respondent toward it.
Social Desirability Bias
Social desirability bias is the tendency of respondents to answer in ways they believe will be viewed favorably by others.
Recall Bias
Recall bias is a systematic error caused by respondents inaccurately remembering past events, behaviors, or feelings — usually worsening with elapsed time.
Selection Bias
Selection bias is a systematic error arising when the people included in a survey differ from the target population in ways that affect the outcome.
Nonresponse Bias
Nonresponse bias occurs when the people who do not respond to a survey differ systematically from those who do, on the variable being measured.
Order Effect
Order effect is the bias introduced when the sequence of questions or answer options influences responses.
Priming Bias
Priming bias is the influence that an earlier stimulus (question, image, word) has on how a respondent interprets or answers later questions.
Compliance
Question Types
Open-Ended Question
An open-ended question allows respondents to answer in their own words with free-text input rather than choosing from pre-defined options.
Closed-Ended Question
A closed-ended question presents respondents with a fixed set of answer choices to select from.
Ranking Question
A ranking question asks respondents to order a set of items by preference, importance, or priority, producing ordinal data on relative preference.
Matrix Question
A matrix question (or grid question) displays multiple sub-questions sharing the same response scale in a table, letting respondents rate many items efficiently.
Demographic Question
Demographic questions collect background information about respondents (age, gender, role, company size, region) to enable segmentation and weighting.
Branching Logic
Branching logic (conditional logic) routes respondents to different follow-up questions based on their previous answers, creating personalized survey paths.
Skip Logic
Skip logic is a form of branching that omits irrelevant questions for a respondent based on previous answers, shortening survey length and improving completion.