Customer preference survey that earns its emails.
Collect the goals, routine, values, and communication preferences that make personalization real — and give customers a way to tell you how often they actually want to hear from you.
Stop inferring preferences you could simply ask about.
Behavioral inference is good at patterns and terrible at reasons. It can tell that a customer buys Reishi every six weeks; it cannot tell you they are cycling deliberately, avoid caffeine entirely, and would rather hear from you monthly than weekly. Those are things a customer will tell you in about ninety seconds, if you ask.
Declared preferences are also stable. Behavior drifts with seasonality and promotions — a stated dietary constraint stays true.
What you learn
- The goals a customer is actively working on
- How consistent their routine really is
- Which brand values drive their choice
- How often they want to be contacted
- What content they find useful versus noise
- Constraints that should suppress recommendations
Six questions, or six Sparks.
This template works as a single preference center form or split into individual one-question Sparks delivered over time.
- 1
Which of these are you actively working on right now?
Multi select · required
Sleeping betterSharper focus at workMore consistent energyManaging stressTraining and recoveryGut healthGeneral wellbeingMulti-select on purpose. Wellness customers rarely have one goal, and the overlap between two goals is usually your best bundle opportunity.
Creates
Active Interests - 2
How would you describe your routine?
Single select · required
Very consistent — same thing dailyWeekday routine, weekends offWhenever I rememberCycling on and off deliberatelyI am just starting to build oneConsistency predicts subscription fit better than order value does. Someone who takes things "whenever I remember" will churn out of a monthly subscription and resent you for it.
Creates
Routine Consistency - 3
What matters most when you choose a brand?
Ranked or multi select
Third-party testing and transparencyOrganic and sourcing standardsPrice and valueSustainable packagingTaste and how it mixesFounder story and ethosThis determines which proof point leads in your emails. Sending sustainability copy to a price-sensitive buyer reads as an excuse for the price.
Creates
Brand Values - 4
How often do you want to hear from us?
Single select · required
Weekly is fineA couple of times a monthMonthly at mostOnly for restocks and ordersOnly for big launches and salesA real preference center question. Honoring a declared cadence lowers unsubscribes more reliably than any subject-line optimization.
Creates
Contact Frequency - 5
What kind of content is actually useful to you?
Multi select
How to use products properlyThe research and evidenceRecipes and pairingsNew product launchesOffers and discountsNothing — just order updatesLets you separate the education audience from the offers audience, which are frequently the same list being sent the wrong half of your calendar.
Creates
Content Preference - 6
Anything you avoid or cannot take?
Multi select · optional
CaffeineAlcohol-based tincturesDairyGlutenAdded sweetenersPregnancy or nursing considerationsNothing to noteSuppression data. Its value is entirely in what it stops you from sending — the recommendation that would have cost you the customer.
Creates
Dietary Constraint
Where to publish it.
Preference surveys belong somewhere permanent. Unlike a post-purchase survey, this one should always be available.
Customer account preference center
A permanent, editable page in the customer account. The one placement customers will return to on their own initiative.
Email footer link
Put "update your preferences" next to the unsubscribe link. A meaningful share of would-be unsubscribes are really frequency complaints.
Progressive Sparks
Rather than one long survey, ask one question per email over several weeks and let the profile fill in gradually.
Storefront preferences page
A public /pages/preferences URL you can link from anywhere, including SMS and packaging.
Subscription management screen
Ask about routine and constraints where the customer is already thinking about cadence.
Loyalty or VIP onboarding
Members expect to be asked, and the answers justify the personalization they were promised.
When to trigger it.
After the second order
By order two, the customer has decided you are worth a relationship. Asking about long-term preferences before the first purchase reads as presumptuous; asking after order two reads as attentive.
At the unsubscribe fork
Offer the frequency question instead of a one-way exit. Recovering a customer at "monthly at most" is far better than losing them entirely.
Quarterly refresh Spark
Preferences drift. Re-ask a single question every quarter rather than resending the whole survey, and update the property in place.
When a profile has gaps
Trigger a Spark for any customer missing a key property. Progressive profiling means the survey adapts to what you already know instead of asking twice.
Suggested properties and flows.
Profile properties to sync
Events sent to Klaviyo
Flows worth building
- Frequency-respecting sends — split every campaign by Contact Frequency instead of mailing the whole list on the same cadence.
- Interest-based education tracks — a sleep track and a focus track that never cross, driven by Active Interests.
- Values-led proof — swap the lead proof point in your welcome series based on Brand Values.
- Constraint suppression — exclude caffeine-sensitive profiles from every coffee-blend campaign automatically.
- Profile-gap Spark — trigger a one-question Spark to anyone missing Active Interests after two orders.
Suggested audiences.
Optional. Signals is complete on its own — Compass lets declared preferences shape audiences alongside behavior.
- Multi-Goal Wellness Customers — two or more active interests, strong bundle candidates.
- Evidence-Led Buyers — value testing and transparency, respond to research content over discounts.
- Low-Frequency Preference — contactable but only monthly, protected from campaign fatigue.
- Routine Builders — inconsistent routine plus repeat orders, best targets for habit-support content.
- Preference-Complete Profiles — the segment where personalization actually has enough to work with.
In Compass, a stated preference and an observed behavior can disagree — and that disagreement is often the most interesting thing on the profile.
Discover CompassBuild a preference center customers update themselves.
Collect declared preferences once, keep them current with Sparks, and respect them in every message you send.