How to Create a High-Converting Website Exit Survey
The average ecommerce bounce rate is over 40%. The average conversion rate? Around 3%. Ouch.
Now, imagine being able to ask these users why they left your site, right before they close the tab. Sounds powerful, right? With a website exit survey, you can do exactly that. In this section, we’ll dive deeper into:
- What website exit surveys are
- Where and when to use them
- Website exit survey examples
- Website exit survey best practices
- Website exit survey questions
What Is a Website Exit Survey?
A website exit survey is a type of pop-up feedback form shown to users who are about to leave your website.
On desktop, the survey appears when the visitor moves their mouse toward the browser toolbar. On mobile, exit intent surveys are triggered when users either tap the back button or scroll up toward the address bar.
These surveys let you collect feedback at the moment a visitor decides to leave, so instead of guessing why they didn’t convert, you get real answers straight from them.
Where Do Client Exit Surveys Fit in Web Design?
First and foremost, client exit surveys are an asset in UX and web design. From that standpoint, they can help:
- Diagnose UX friction: A sudden drop-off at checkout or during sign-up may indicate layout issues, confusing flows, or trust concerns. Exit surveys confirm what analytics can’t explain.
- Validate design hypotheses: Launching a new landing page? Adding a new pricing tier? Use exit surveys to see if users understand the structure and messaging before running A/B tests.
- Support data-driven iteration: Rather than relying solely on assumptions or heatmaps, you gain qualitative insights that help guide smarter, user-informed design updates.
- Improve accessibility and clarity: If users indicate they “couldn’t find” something or that “instructions weren’t clear,” that’s a direct signal to revisit layout, labeling, or visual hierarchy.
Integrating exit surveys into your UX feedback loop ensures your website isn’t just visually appealing, but also conversion-optimized and user-centered.
Where Do Customer Exit-Intent Surveys Fit in Business and Marketing?
But of course, exit surveys are not all about UX and design testing. They have practical uses in marketing and can yield great results for a business. Below are the most common examples of exit-intent survey use across various industries.
1. Reducing Cart Abandonment
Ecommerce brands lose millions every year to shopping cart abandonment. Customer feedback gathered via customer exit surveys helps you understand what’s breaking the buying experience. This actionable feedback helps you address barriers before potential customers leave your site.
2. Optimizing Landing Pages
When you’re sending website visitors to dedicated landing pages — especially via paid ads — even a 1% improvement in conversion rate can mean significant ROI. Exit surveys help you detect whether your messaging, layout, or offer is misaligned with visitor expectations.
3. Improving Signup Funnel Conversion
If you’re running a SaaS product or lead generation funnel, you know that drop-offs before signup are painful and hard to diagnose.
With exit intent surveys triggered mid-funnel (e.g., on the pricing page or after form interaction), you get clarity on what’s stopping users from taking the final step — whether it’s unclear value, friction in the form, or doubts about commitment.
4. Strengthening Your Content & UX Strategy
Not all visitors are here to buy. Some come for research, content, or information. Exit surveys on blog posts, feature pages, or help center articles can reveal whether your content actually meets user expectations or misses the mark.
That feedback helps you refine content strategy, fix UX gaps, and create a better experience for future visitors.
Best Practices for Making an Exit Pop-Up Survey
To ensure your surveys are effective and user-friendly, follow these expert-recommended best practices.
1. Keep It Short and Focused
Users are more likely to respond when the website survey feels quick and easy to complete. Stick to one to three questions that directly relate to the user’s behavior or the page they’re exiting. And remember that client exit surveys don’t have an email field. Short surveys encourage higher response rates and provide more accurate, focused survey responses.
2. Include an Open-Ended Option
While multiple-choice answers make analysis easier, always allow space for custom input. A free-text field or an "Other (please specify)" option helps collect feedback you may not have anticipated and gives your users a voice.
3. Align Questions with Page Context
Tailored surveys yield more useful responses. For example, use an exit survey to ask about checkout issues on the cart page, pricing concerns on the pricing page, or missing information on a product page. Context-aware questions demonstrate to users that you understand the customer journey.
4. Use an Incentive When Possible
Providing a meaningful incentive can significantly boost user engagement with your survey. Incentives make the interaction feel like a win-win and show users that their time and input are valued.
Sample Customer Exit Survey Questions
To get the most out of your exit intent survey, you need to ask the right questions. Let’s take a look at some client exit survey examples tailored to different scenarios, complete with sample questions.
1. Shopping Cart Abandonment: Ask Why They Didn’t Buy
Customers often leave after adding items to their cart, and the reasons can range from pricing concerns to technical issues. To identify what’s stopping them, you can ask such customer exit survey questions:
- What made you decide not to complete your purchase today?
- Did you face any problems during the checkout process?
- Were you expecting different prices, discounts, or shipping fees?
- Did you feel confident about the security of your payment?
- Was a product unavailable or hard to locate?
2. Website Navigation Issues: Learn Where Users Get Stuck
According to user experience research, poor site navigation is one of the main reasons users leave a website. If visitors can’t easily find what they need, they won’t stay. A navigation-focused exit pop-up survey helps you identify where the navigation breaks down.
Sample questions:
- Were you able to find what you were looking for today?
- Was the site structure intuitive and easy to follow?
- What information were you searching for but couldn’t locate?
- Did you run into any glitches or errors while using the site?
- How would you rate the speed and responsiveness of the site?
- What improvements would help make our site easier to use?
3. Pricing Concerns: Understand Value Perception
Sometimes users like your product but hesitate once they see the price. A pricing-related exit survey can give you insight into perceived value, competitor comparisons, or confusion about costs.
Sample client exit survey questions:
- What aspects of our pricing gave you pause?
- How does our pricing compare to other options you’ve considered?
- Was anything unclear about how our pricing is structured?
- What price would feel more aligned with the value you expect?
- Would adding details or comparisons help clarify our pricing?
- Did the price match the benefits you were expecting?
4. Product Feedback: Improve Based on Direct User Insight
Visitors might abandon a product page due to usability concerns, feature gaps, or unmet expectations. Exit survey questions for customers focused on product feedback can help pinpoint what’s working and what isn’t.
Sample questions:
- Was the product information clear and easy to understand?
- Did you experience any technical issues with the product?
- Did the product seem like a good fit for the problem you’re trying to solve?
- How does this product compare with others you’ve seen?
- What could we change to make the product more appealing?
5. Landing Page Bounce: Optimize First Impressions
Landing pages are critical for capturing user interest, but high bounce rates indicate something’s off—be it design, content, or usability. Use bounce-rate surveys to uncover what’s turning users away.
Sample exit intent survey questions:
- Did this page provide the information you expected?
- Was the content relevant and easy to understand?
- Was the page visually clear and easy to navigate?
- Did the page load quickly enough?
- What was missing or unclear on this page?
- Did you run into any technical issues while browsing?
Final Thoughts: Turn Exits Into Insights
Exit survey popups won’t stop every user from bouncing. But they will show you why people leave — and that knowledge is marketing gold.
With Claspo, you can launch designer-grade exit popups in minutes and start collecting valuable insights that help you:
- Improve user experience;
- Reduce cart abandonment;
- Increase signups and conversions.
Claspo gives you everything you need to create exit surveys that work. Just choose a survey template from our rich template library, customize it to match your brand, and you’re all set. On top of that, our website exit survey tool helps you easily target the right audience with precision settings and advanced triggers.
Besides website exit intent surveys, Claspo lets you experiment with other formats like an NPS survey, CSAT survey, feedback button, and so on, to collect even more valuable feedback about and get a 360 view of your customers’ experience and satisfaction.
Explore different use cases and discover how Claspo can help your business drive growth.
Your free trial is completely risk-free — it doesn’t require a credit card and unlocks access to all templates and complete functionality so that you can test Claspo to the fullest.
Ready to use exit surveys that convert? Start off with a sample client exit survey!