Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) and How to Use It
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) and How to Use It
Emily Rivers
Marketing & Product
Jul 15, 2024
6m
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TL;DR: Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) is a crucial metric for businesses to gauge how satisfied customers are with their products or services. Customer Satisfaction Score is calculated by asking customers to rate their experience on a scale, with a higher score indicating better satisfaction and loyalty. Other metrics like Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Effort Score (CES), retention rate, churn rate, and first response time also help measuring customer satisfaction. Improving CSAT involves understanding customer feedback, training support teams, streamlining processes, personalizing experiences, and continuously monitoring and adapting strategies. High CSAT scores lead to increased customer loyalty and reduced churn.
What is a customer satisfaction score?
Customer satisfaction score (CSAT) is a key performance indicator that measures customer satisfaction with your products and/or services. Typically obtained through CSAT surveys that ask customers to rate your brand on a numeric scale, the score reflects the percentage of customers who are satisfied with various aspects of their interactions with your business.
High CSAT scores indicate strong customer loyalty, which in turn will reduce customer churn. On the other hand, a low customer satisfaction score suggests that you're not meeting customer expectations, and you may see increased negative feedback in survey responses if you collect customer experience data in other ways.
How to calculate customer satisfaction score
Calculating CSAT is straightforward. In a customer satisfaction survey, ask your customers to rate their satisfaction with their overall experience of your brand on a scale. The scale is usually 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest level of satisfaction. Then, you just need to use a simple formula to get your customer satisfaction score. The CSAT score calculation is:
CSAT = (Number of satisfied responses ÷ Total responses) × 100
'Satisfied responses' typically include the top 2 ratings on a 5-point scale (e.g., 4 and 5). For example, if 70 out of 100 respondents rate their satisfaction as 4 or 5, your customer satisfaction score would be 70%.
What is a good CSAT score?
A good CSAT score can vary by industry, but the average CSAT score across all industries is around 80%. This means that 80% of your customers are satisfied with your products or services. It’s important to benchmark your CSAT score against industry standards and your past performance to set realistic and meaningful targets.
It's important to interpret your CSAT scores alongside other metrics, such as customer effort score (CES) and Net Promoter Score (NPS). This helps you to get a holistic view of the voice of the customer (VoC). Make sure you monitor the response rate of your customer feedback surveys to ensure you're getting an idea of satisfaction from a substantial number of customers.
Examples of good CSAT survey questions
Effective CSAT survey questions are clear, concise, and relevant to the customer’s recent experience. Examples include:
How satisfied are you with our product/service?
How would you rate your overall experience with our customer service?
How likely are you to purchase from us again?
Did we meet your expectations today?
How can we improve your experience?
It can be tempting to ask a lot of questions in a CSAT survey to try to get as much insight from your customers as possible. However, this can dilute the data and make it hard to calculate your overall CSAT score.
You'll get more reliable results, and be able to gauge customer satisfaction levels more easily, by asking 10 questions or less in your surveys. You should also get more responses; customers, especially unhappy customers, won't finish long surveys - which could skew your results and leave you thinking your customers are happier than they really are.
How to improve customer satisfaction scores
So you've measured customer satisfaction with a CSAT survey, and the results aren't as good as you'd hoped. Now you're armed with that information, you need to come up with ways to improve customer satisfaction and increase brand loyalty.
Start digging into your processes to understand why your CSAT score is lower than you think. Look at your support ticket, read through previous customer feedback, and speak to your customer support team to find out common issues and get an idea of general customer sentiment. Then, make a plan to fix the issues you find.
If you want to improve your CSAT score, you need to consistently meet or exceed customer expectations and understand their needs. Here are some strategies you can try:
Focus on training: Train your customer support team to be responsive, empathetic, and knowledgeable. Make sure you offer training on both soft and hard customer service skills.
Seek feedback: Don't be scared of negative feedback. Regularly ask for feedback at different points of the customer journey to identify pain points and areas for improvement.
Act on feedback: Implement changes based on customer suggestions and inform them of the improvements made to close the feedback loop. Productlane's feedback hub allows you to share customer feedback directly with your product team and inform customers when their feedback is acted on.
Streamline processes: Make it easy for customers to interact with your company, whether it’s through purchasing, customer service, or returning products.
Personalise experiences: Tailor your interactions to meet the specific needs and preferences of individual customers. When customers feel like you're treating them as individuals, you'll inspire brand loyalty as well as improve your customer satisfaction score.
Monitor and adapt: Continuously track customer satisfaction metrics and adjust your strategies as needed. Gaining customer insights through CSAT surveys isn't a one-time thing: if you want to retain customers, you need to show them that you're always looking to improve your service and offer them a great experience.
Customer satisfaction score (CSAT) is a vital metric to measure and improve customer experience. By implementing CSAT surveys, you can gauge how well you're meeting customer expectations and benchmark your performance. By listening to your customers and taking their feedback on board, you can improve customer loyalty and gain more repeat business. Regularly monitor and adapt your strategies to maintain high satisfaction levels - you'll soon see it's worth it.
FAQs on Customer Satisfaction Score
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