CSAT surveys

A CSAT survey tool that doesn’t flatter you

Ask customers how the conversation went — in the chat or by email after — and get scores you can actually audit.

The short answer

A CSAT survey tool asks customers to rate a support conversation just after the conversation ends. inrelay sends CSAT surveys on the channels a team enables — inline in the chat widget for live chat, by hosted form for email and tickets — and collects scores, comments and delivery outcomes in one place.

Looping animation: the survey asks how it went, the customer rates it, and the score lands on the conversation.

What it prevents is flying blind. Reply-time stats tell you a message went out; they say nothing about whether the answer helped. A fast queue can still be a wrong queue, and without a survey the first sign is a customer who simply never comes back.

01 · Ask at the end

How it works in inrelay

CSAT is configured once, in desktop settings, and then runs itself at the end of conversations on the channels you choose.

  • Choose your channels. Enable surveys per channel, so a quick chat gets asked and a one-line email doesn’t have to be.
  • Pick the scale and its order. Choose the scale type and which end comes first, and it renders the same way everywhere.
  • Your question, your words. Write the survey question, make the comment optional or required, and set the confirmation copy customers see after answering.
  • Inline where the conversation was. Live chat shows the survey inside the widget when the chat ends; email and ticket conversations get a follow-up that opens a hosted form.
  • Settings are snapshotted per survey. Every request records the exact scale and question it was sent with, so old responses stay attached to the question that was actually asked.
  • Configuration lives in desktop settings by design — you review results anywhere, but you change the survey at your desk.
02 · The formula

How to measure CSAT

CSAT formula. CSAT (customer satisfaction score) equals the number of satisfied responses divided by the total number of survey responses, multiplied by 100. A response counts as satisfied when the rating falls in the top tiers of the scale — a 4 or 5 on a five-point scale. A CSAT of 80 means eight of ten respondents rated the conversation positively.

Two habits keep the number honest. Read it per channel and per period rather than as one lifetime score, because a rough week on live chat hides easily inside a good quarter of email. And treat small samples gently — ten responses move the score ten points at a time, so the trend matters more than any single week’s figure.

03 · Flying blind

Why it matters

The failure mode a CSAT survey tool removes is confident ignorance. Small teams optimise what they can see, and without surveys the only visible numbers are volume and speed — so that is what improves, even when answers are going out fast and wrong. A recurring low score on one channel, or one kind of question, is the earliest signal you will get that a policy, a template or a missing help article is quietly costing you customers.

The comments matter as much as the score. A 2-out-of-5 with “took three messages to get a returns link” attached is not a grade — it is the next knowledge base article, already specified.

04 · Honest by design

How inrelay does it differently

Honesty, mechanically enforced. Because each survey snapshots its settings, you can change the question or the scale without corrupting history — responses are never re-read against a question they were not asked. And the delivery workers record truthful outcomes: a survey email is marked queued, sent, skipped or failed, and provider acceptance is never dressed up as final delivery without evidence. When the score is good, you can trust it, because the misses are counted too.

05 · Set-up

Setting it up

Open CSAT in desktop settings

Turn surveys on and pick the channels that should ask.

Shape the survey

Choose the scale type and order, write your question, and decide whether comments are optional or required.

Set the follow-through

Write the confirmation copy and enable the email follow-up for conversations that end outside the widget.

Watch the responses come in

Scores and comments land alongside the conversations they rate. The help docs cover every setting.

06 · Close neighbours

Works with the rest of the inbox.

CSAT is one piece of the inrelay feature family — these are its closest neighbours.

KNOWLEDGE BASE

Answer once, publish it

Low scores point at missing articles. Write them where you reply.

See the knowledge base → TRIAGE

Routing and triage

Get each conversation to the right teammate before the survey ever has to say it went to the wrong one.

See triage → MOBILE

The companion app

Catch a low score on your phone and make it right from the same queue.

See mobile →
Start today

Know how it actually went.

Free to start with your own inbox — every feature, no card, never per seat.

Start freeSee pricing

Questions, answered.

Which channels can send CSAT surveys?
Any channel you enable in settings. Live chat shows the survey inline in the widget when the chat ends; email and ticket conversations use an email follow-up that opens a hosted survey form.
Can customers leave a comment with their score?
Yes. You decide whether the comment is optional or required, and comments arrive attached to the conversation they rate, so the context is one click away.
What happens if a survey email fails to send?
It is recorded as failed — not quietly dropped. Every survey delivery gets a truthful outcome of queued, sent, skipped or failed, so your response rate is measured against what was really sent.

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