Your customers are the reason for the existence of your business as well as its success. So, providing an excellent customer experience should be an obsession on your part.
Customer satisfaction surveys are an important determinant of a good customer experience. If your customers are delighted with your business, they are more likely to come back again. While there are many metrics to assess customer satisfaction, the direct KPI that can be used to calculate it is CSAT.
In this article, we are going to cover every important aspect of CSAT that you need to know!
What is CSAT?
Customer Satisfaction Survey (CSAT) is a key performance indicator used to measure your customers’ satisfaction level regarding a product, service, or a particular touchpoint. Simply put, this metric tries to assess how happy customers are with your business.
CSAT is applied after specific interactions or events to understand their efficacy individually. Therefore, it is a useful tool that can be used to identify issues regarding significant touchpoints separately and fine-tune each of them for a better experience.
How is CSAT Measured?
In order to measure customer satisfaction, a survey tailored to the specific touchpoint is sent out to customers immediately after the interaction. For example, you can design a survey about the product/service of your business and send it to customers right after they make a purchase. Another example would be a survey regarding customer service right after a customer has contacted customer support.
CSAT surveys should be very simple with direct questions that won’t confuse the customer. It’s usually a set of questions that request customers to rate their satisfaction level on a scale of 1-5 where,
1- Very unsatisfied
2- Unsatisfied
3- Neutral
4- Satisfied
5- Very satisfied
Once the responses are gathered, the number of positive responses is expressed as a percentage of the total number of responses to derive the CSAT score of the particular touchpoint/event.
So,
CSAT = Number of positive responses / Total number of responses x 100
What Are the Aspects to Consider When Using CSAT?
- Set clear objectives
As CSAT surveys are very specific, it’s important to design them with specific objectives in mind. Focus on,
-Why you selected the touchpoint?
-Who is your targeted customer, and what is the market segment?
-What is the problem you are trying to identify with the CSAT survey?
-How you are hoping to respond?
- Evaluate your CSAT score along with other KPIs
CSAT surveys don’t capture the customer’s overall perception of the business because it’s used in very specific situations. So, while it’s very important that businesses utilize it frequently to monitor, track, and assess customer satisfaction, CSAT should be used together with other metrics when making decisions. KPIs like Net Promoter Score, Customer Effort Score, and Customer Lifetime Value can be used complementarily with CSAT.
- Help your employees utilize CSAT feedback effectively
Calculating CSAT is not sufficient if you haven’t planned on how to utilize it to improve your organizational activities. The advantage of the specificity of CSAT is that it helps you understand how each team/department in your organization is performing. As an example, a CSAT survey connected to a marketing touchpoint can help you identify issues related to the marketing department and improve them. You need to help employees understand the importance of CSAT and how it impacts them.
- Acknowledge every response seriously
It’s important to connect with customers and acknowledge their invaluable feedback. Therefore, you should pay attention to both positive and negative responses equally. If your customers are satisfied, there’s a higher chance that they will promote your business to others. So, a receipt of thanks can go a long way and boost customer experience further. Similarly, it’s important to assure unhappy customers that the service will be improved in the future with special attention to their pain points.
- Understand the context of the CSAT score clearly
There are both internal and external factors that affect the customer satisfaction level. So, when you analyze CSAT scores, pay attention to the economic context at the time survey was conducted. Then, focus on internal aspects that would have affected the score. This way, you will be able to comprehend all the factors that contributed to the particular CSAT score and take appropriate decisions.
