Event Marketing — it’s about giving and receiving. Feedback is the lifeblood of improvement, growth, and genuine customer connection. We can’t gauge our work without a yearly assessment. So, it stands to reason that event marketing can’t succeed without event feedback questions.

Your surveys are vital to your success. When you ask visitors and consumers about their experience, you start a two-way dialogue. You can improve loyalty and gain a map for where to grow next. Gathering feedback is vital to scaling your brand and event success.

In fact, according to People Pulse, with the right motivation, you can get 85% of your customers to respond to your post-event surveys. That’s essential information you can use to improve and earn your customers’ trust.

We list the best post-event survey questions and examples you can ask to help improve your brand experience.

What Is a Post-Event Survey?

Before we get into the post-event survey questions, what exactly is an event survey? An event survey is a questionnaire that collects feedback about participant experience. It includes multiple-choice and open-ended questions. This is also a common place to collect your net promoter score or how likely your attendees are to recommend you to a friend.

Anyone participating in your event should get the survey since you want the most opinions possible. Focusing on every person’s experience will reveal trends you wouldn't normally be able to. Successful event planning and execution depend on customer satisfaction, and event feedback surveys are an important measure of effectiveness.

Types of Post-Event Survey Questions

You can ask many different questions for a survey about an event, but each reliably falls into a few different categories. We’ve separated the post-event survey questions for attendees based on their type to help you understand and choose which to incorporate. We recommend picking a few from each for variety.

We’ve listed the following categories:

• Interval scale questions
• Psychographic questions
• Multiple-choice questions
• Open-ended questions

Interval Scale Questions

You ask interval scale questions on a rating between 1 (extremely negative) and 10 (extremely positive). You'll see below how you define that rating language, which might change based on how you phrase the question.

Event marketers best use these questions when asking for an opinion they want to quantify into a number rating. The number rating and your net promoter score can help measure your team's performance and guide improvements for your next event

1. "How likely are you to recommend us to a friend?"

This question concerns the golden net promoter score rating and the massive opportunity for growth. This metric is one of the most vital information you can collect to gauge your performance. Customers who answer positively are more likely to repeat purchases and refer others to your brand. This means satisfied customers are more inclined to become repeat buyers and promote your brand to others.

2. "How helpful was our staff?"

Staffing is one of the most essential pieces of an experience. If customers are unhappy with how employees act at events, consider investing in more training to improve interactions.

3. How satisfied are you with…?

Attendee satisfaction helps evaluate specific aspects of your experience rather than just asking if you like it. You can give feedback on the areas you want to improve. This could be the layout of your tours or how easy it was to find a specific product in your store. You can even judge if it’s worth trying the same premise again for the next event.

4. "How likely are you to visit us again in the future?"

This question is great for your data if you're honing in on NPS. Asking, "Would you recommend us to a friend?" delves deeper into your event's results beyond a single number.

For example, if price or location are factors, this could be a significantly different NPS score. It’ll help you determine if your pricing is fair or if your customer has any hesitations.

5. "How likely are you to purchase from our brand after your experience?"

Number five is a bit different from going back to an experience. Asking this question will help you understand buying habits or track average spending. You can directly correlate the numerical value of this question overall with the purchase trends you see.

Psychographic Questions

Psychographics is the study of consumer behavior and psychological characteristics, as opposed to demographic information like age and location. These questions mainly focus on determining your attendees’ traits, like their goals, preferences, and lifestyle choices.

These questions collect personal information to make a customer profile. They may not be as measurable as usual event-related questions. Read our blog about creating a value exchange good enough for customer answers.

You’ll want to create a table similar to the interval questions for this question. But instead of 1 to 10, list out:

• Strongly Disagree
• Disagree
• Neither Agree nor Disagree
• Agree
• Strongly Agree

Present the section as a series of statements for attendees to agree or disagree with. They can then respond based on their traits. ‍

1. "I like to know trends before others."

This statement helps pinpoint the amount of awareness your event attendees need before they book tickets. It can also indicate a willingness to try new things or a preference for nostalgia or known products.

2. "I’ll go out of my way to find the best possible deal."

Pricing matters, and this question can separate those who disagree from those who strongly agree. If your answers are in a strongly agreed value matrix, you'll focus on discounts, coupons, and more to double down on this knowledge.

3. "I will travel far for the right event."

How far are your attendees willing to travel? You can decide where to take your event, which marketing areas to focus on, and the ideal radius.

4. "I love diving into new experiences head first."

Number nine is all about impulse. Are your attendees more cautious and need time to make their decision? Or does FOMO work on your visitors?

This statement will help determine what language or imagery drives ticket sales or attendance. It also tells you which customer persona requires lower spending and which is more high-touch effort.

Multiple-Choice Questions

Multiple-choice questions are great for gathering demographic information to narrow down marketing spend and better understand consumer trends. These answers are also a great starting point for building personas, learning where your survey respondents are from, and more.

1. "Do you want to join our newsletter?" / "Do you want to sign up for deals and discounts from us?"

Number ten is a great opt-in moment for those who respond to your post-event survey. You can market to them and drive up their average transaction value while remaining compliant with spam marketing laws.

2. "Have you attended our other events before?"

This yes-or-no question is fantastic for tracking the customer journey. You can see who’s more likely to return for more, the type of event that brings the most returners, and target the same customer in your marketing efforts.

3. "How did you hear about this event?"

Knowing the most effective way to reach event attendees is critical when working on an event. When you see what works, you can double down on wins and improve (or de-prioritize) losses. List all your marketing channels so each respondent can check the corresponding one!

Burnt Church Distillery gathered feedback from visitors on where they heard about Burnt Church’s distillery tour. When they learned most of their visitors were from billboard marketing, Burnt Church was able to lean in and dedicate more budget!

4. "In the past six months, how often have you purchased [your product/kind of product]?"

This is an excellent question for understanding consumer purchasing behavior. The answers will help you understand who’s worth more marketing spend based on their average buying behavior. The answers you can list include Never, Weekly, Monthly, and Yearly.

Ask before your event, during the booking checkout process, and after to see your impact on buying behavior.‍

5. "Did this event meet your expectations?"

Keeping your survey frictionless and short is the key to good feedback responses. If you already have too many questions or lean heavily on the interval scale category, you can replace the 1 to 10 rating with a yes or no question. That way, you can still get this information without frustrating visitors and customers with the length of your feedback survey.‍

6. "Did you have trouble finding the event information?"

If your event attendee had issues finding the location, times, or booking details, that’s a problem. Other potential attendees probably gave up halfway through your booking process if they couldn’t find the needed information! Knowing ease of use is a huge advantage and one you should consider, especially if your event requires booking or has instructions for visitors.

7. "Who was your tour guide? / Who facilitated your experience?"

If you’re offering tours, like a brewery or distillery, or events that require a staff member as the main face of your event, this question can help you figure out any training changes. This also helps with raises, promotions, or deciding what areas your staff can improve, specifically when partnered with an open-ended feedback question.

8. "Have you heard about this event before?"

Word-of-mouth marketing is a powerful tool. If you want to measure brand awareness, how many people are talking about you, and in what locations, this basic yes-or-no question can help determine where the buzz is coming from and its effectiveness.

9. "What country are you from?"

If you get plenty of international event attendees and have already narrowed down your most common options, this is a great way to continue tracking those trends. You can then decide the location for your next event and distribution areas if you’re selling a product, and build a reliable customer profile. Don’t forget ‘Other’ just in case you start having new customer types visit!

10. "What is your sex/gender?"

Looking to be inclusive? You’re in luck; Deloitte surveyed Gen Z, and their results revealed deep preference trends. Overwhelmingly, 94% of Gen Z surveyed expect companies to take a stand on important social issues as part of their brand identity.

So, asking what your gender is and only listing ‘male’ or ‘female’ isn’t cut it in 2023. If you want to know sex, that’s one thing. However, gender is a more complicated designation that your consumer base might appreciate some sensitivity toward.

So, if you want to know the gender of your attendees, asking “M,” “W,” “N,” or “Prefer not to say” will go a long way towards making your customers comfortable. That stands for “Man,” “Woman,” and “Nonbinary,” with an additional option not to disclose a preference.

11. "What is your ethnicity?"

This question is give or take. Some people might be uncomfortable asking this, but for B2C brands, knowing your complete demographic profile, including ethnicity, can help you determine how best to use your marketing spend and where.

Open-Ended Questions

Open-ended questions are the hardest to get answers from, so use them sparingly and only for the information you need. Short-form boxes can answer these questions, allowing the attendee to write out their response rather than be limited by their options.

Rather than quantitative, these results are qualitative, helping you measure valuable feedback through similar answers across respondents. In fact, an open-ended question is more likely to get you constructive feedback.

1. "What did you most enjoy about today?"

Celebrate what you’re doing right! You never know what surprising answers you’ll get from asking what was great about your experience or event. If you see a positive pattern about your event, you can expand that great achievement to other parts of your experience to keep a good thing going.

2. "What could be improved about your experience?"

The flip side of question 21 is negative feedback. It happens to the best of us; an experience will never be completely perfect. Knowing what you can improve outside of a 1 to 10 rating is incredibly valuable. You can hone in on what needs to change, and you can gain customer loyalty by giving them an open platform and seeing change happen.

3. "How did this experience compare with other similar events you’ve been to in the past?"

Learn what your competition is doing with their events and how you stack up! This is great for getting an idea of where your event lands in the overall competitive landscape and gives you an idea of success or failure when it comes to standing above the rest. You can also get ideas for your next event based on what your competition is doing.

4. "Do you have anything you’d like to see from us or ideas for future events?"

Suggestions are always welcome! You might have brand ambassadors who know your event inside and out and have ideas for new experiences that will perform. Also, ideas from attendees take the guesswork out of what will be effective and what won’t be for events in the future.

Chris Crowe used feedback from Burnt Church Distillery to refine his distillery tour offerings. For example, he shared: “A lot of people have commented that they’d like a takeaway, like a glass, so we’re working on that and other things we can do to add more value while also allowing us to increase how much we charge.”

5. "Please share any additional comments, thoughts, or suggestions for future events."

Sometimes, you won’t think of everything! And if you’re trying to keep your post-event survey short, this is a must-have. It covers all your bases in case your visitors still don’t feel heard or have any final feedback. You’d be surprised what pops up in the answers!

When Is The Best Time to Send Out Your Post-Event Survey?

The best time to send your post-event survey is one to two days after the event. Your guests still think of you in a positive light and will be more likely to give positive feedback or feedback at all.

Go a Step Further With Pre-Event Survey Questions.

Why stop at the post-event survey? By asking pre-event survey questions, you can better understand your attendees' frame of reference even before they participate in your experience, like questions 1 or 13. You can send these via a confirmation email or during booking if you’re hosting a ticketed event.

For example, Diageo used pre-event questions to personalize their Journey of Flavour tour and increased their NPS score by 16 points!

Event Feedback Questions Help You Scale

Post-event survey questions help you understand your consumers and point the way for where to grow your next event. With the right combination of interval scale, multiple choice, psychographic, and open-ended questions, you can pinpoint exactly what to change next. From marketing spending to customer profiles, you’ll be able to dig deeper than before into not just the who but the why.