How much effort did it take to complete your purchase? Product Survey Question

Understand how friction impacts your checkout conversion rate and identify process improvements that directly increase completed transactions.

How much effort did it take to complete your purchase?
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Very difficult
Very easy

Question type

Rating scale 1-7

Primary metric

CES (Customer Effort Score)

Answer scale variations

Comparison table
StyleOptions
Typical choiceVery difficult
Difficult
Somewhat difficult
Neutral
Somewhat easy
Easy
Very easy
Process-focusedExtremely complicated
Complicated
Somewhat complicated
Neither simple nor complicated
Somewhat simple
Simple
Extremely simple
Time-basedTook far too long
Took too long
Took somewhat long
Took reasonable time
Was somewhat quick
Was quick
Was very quick
Friction-focusedMany obstacles
Several obstacles
Some obstacles
A few obstacles
Minimal obstacles
Almost no obstacles
No obstacles

Follow-Up Questions

Understanding why customers found the purchase process easy or difficult helps you identify specific friction points and opportunities to streamline the experience. These follow-ups capture the context behind effort scores, revealing whether issues stem from technical problems, confusing navigation, or missing information.

This open-ended question captures the specific pain points or delights customers experienced, giving you actionable insights about where to focus improvements in your checkout flow.

Categorizing friction by stage helps you prioritize which part of the funnel needs attention first, whether it's product discovery, pricing clarity, or checkout mechanics.

This forward-looking question uncovers missing capabilities or information that would reduce effort, helping you build your improvement roadmap based on actual customer needs.

When to Use This Question

SaaS Products: Deploy immediately after trial-to-paid conversion via in-app modal or follow-up email within 2 hours, catching the experience while fresh and identifying friction points that nearly prevented conversion—critical for optimizing your signup flow where 87% of SaaS companies report losing prospects.

E-commerce: Trigger within 24 hours of completed checkout through transactional email or post-purchase confirmation page, revealing checkout friction that drives 69% cart abandonment rate—use responses to prioritize which payment options, form fields, or shipping calculators need immediate attention.

Mobile Apps: Launch after first successful in-app purchase via native prompt on confirmation screen, capturing effort perception during the critical first transaction where payment friction causes 40% of users to abandon and never return—essential for optimizing your payment SDK integration.

Web Apps: Display immediately following account setup completion through slide-in survey on dashboard, measuring onboarding friction during the make-or-break first session when 60% of new users decide whether to continue—responses directly inform which setup steps to simplify or automate.

Digital Products: Send within 6 hours of download or access via email with single-click rating, assessing purchase effort while the experience remains vivid and before product usage satisfaction clouds their memory—particularly valuable for checkout flows with multiple authentication steps or license key delivery systems where technical friction often hides in plain sight.

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