60 post event survey questions for attendees, plus a 5-question template
Copy a short survey that people actually finish, or pick questions for your kind of event. Then read the answers and know what to change next time.
Good post event survey questions are few, specific and quick to answer on a phone. Start with the 5-question survey below, which works for almost any event. Then swap in one or two questions written for your event type: team building, a workshop, an offsite, a holiday party, a virtual event or a client event. Every question has a Copy button that copies it with its answers.
The 5-question post-event survey to copy
Two minutes for attendees, and everything you need to plan the next one.
Post-event survey
1. Overall, how would you rate the event? 1 to 5: 1 = Poor, 5 = Excellent 2. How likely are you to recommend this event to a colleague? 0 to 10: 0 = Not at all likely, 10 = Extremely likely 3. What was the best part of the event? 4. What one thing should we change next time? 5. Would you join another event like this? A. Yes B. Maybe C. No
- The rating gives you one number to compare across events.
- The recommend question tells you whether people would bring a colleague next time.
- The two open questions tell you what to keep and what to fix.
- The last one is a quick check on whether to run it again.
20 core questions for any event, by question type
Rating, how likely to recommend, multiple choice and open-ended. Mix types: one or two of each beats ten of one.
Rating questions
A 1 to 5 scale with both ends labeled. Easy to answer, easy to compare from one event to the next.
How likely to recommend
The 0 to 10 question behind a Net Promoter-style score. Ask one, not all three.
Multiple choice questions
For the practical decisions: length, timing, how often. Change the answers to fit your event.
Open-ended questions
Where the useful surprises live. Use two at most, or people skip them.
40 post event survey questions by event type
Add one or two of these to the core survey. Keep the core questions the same every time so you can compare events.
Team building event survey questions
Did it bring people together, and did everyone feel able to take part?
Workshop and training survey questions
Was it useful, was it clear, and will anyone use it next week?
Conference and offsite survey questions
Sessions, venue, logistics and the balance between them.
Holiday party survey questions
Timing, food and whether everyone felt welcome.
Virtual event survey questions
Tech, the host and how it felt to take part from a laptop or phone.
Client event survey questions
Written for guests from outside the company: short, warm and never a sales pitch.
Planning the next one? Browse our corporate event ideas or virtual event ideas, and put the date on your employee engagement calendar.
When to send a post-event survey
- Same day or the next morning. Memories fade fast and inboxes fill up. Send it while people still remember the details.
- At the end of a virtual event. Drop the link in the chat before people leave the call, then send the same link by email.
- After each day of a multi-day offsite. One or two quick questions each evening, then the full survey when everyone is home.
- One reminder, then close it. A single reminder two or three days later, and close the survey after about a week so the results feel current.
How to get more people to answer
A long form loses people on sight. These habits keep them answering.
- Keep it short. Five questions, two minutes. Say so in the first line of the email: “Five questions, about two minutes.”
- Make it work on a phone. Many people will open it on a phone, between other things. Big buttons, no grids, no logins.
- Say why you're asking. “We use these answers to plan the next one” is enough. People answer when they think someone reads it.
- Make it anonymous when it's about the experience. People are more honest about a bad host or a long session when their name isn't attached.
- Show last time's changes. “You said it ran long, so this one was 45 minutes.” Nothing raises answers like proof they mattered.
How to read the results and what to change next time
Start with the open answers. Read every comment and group them into three or four themes. One sharp comment repeated by five people matters more than a small change in the average rating.
Then score the recommend question. Answers of 9 or 10 are promoters, 7 or 8 are passives and 0 to 6 are detractors. Subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters to get a score between minus 100 and 100. With fewer than about 20 answers, treat it as a rough signal and lean on the comments.
Compare like with like. Keep the core questions identical from event to event, so a lower rating means something changed, not the wording.
If the results say this, change that:
- “Too long” is the top answer
- Cut the next one by 15 minutes, even if it means one less activity.
- Low comfort or welcome scores
- Make participation optional, avoid singling people out and offer roles that aren't on stage.
- Tech problems at a virtual event
- Send the link earlier, test it with the host and add a backup dial-in or chat channel.
- Timing clashes or low turnout
- Ask for preferred times before the next one and rotate times across time zones.
- Not enough food options
- Collect dietary needs with the invite and label everything.
- High scores but low attendance
- The event is fine; the invite isn't. Send it earlier, with a clear time and a one-line reason to come.
- Same request in many comments
- Do that one thing next time and say so in the invite.
Then tell people what you changed. One line in the next invite (“You said it ran long, so this one is 45 minutes”) is the best thing you can do for your next response rate. A results slide fits well into one of these all-hands meeting ideas.
Send a survey automatically after every event
When you book with KraftyLab, a short pulse survey goes out automatically after every event to the participants who have an email address. People answer in the browser with no account, and AI summarizes the answers for you.
KraftyLab Intelligence also works on its own: send any survey to anyone by email, starting from 20 ready-made templates, from eNPS to burnout. Want a lighter warm-up first? Try a few fun survey questions in your team channel, or get a free quote for your next event.
