Customer satisfaction is best measured via the Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) metric, which is assessed by asking customers, “How would you rate your overall satisfaction?” as it relates to a company’s products, services, and interactions.
Customers are asked to respond on a five-point scale with options being: very unsatisfied, unsatisfied, neutral, satisfied, and very satisfied.
Why CSAT matters
Customer Satisfaction Score is one of the most popular customer loyalty metrics of any Voice of the Customer (VoC) program, alongside Net Promoter Score® and Customer Effort Score.
Customer satisfaction goes hand in hand with great customer experience. In fact, satisfaction goes a long way—just a 10% increase in a company’s CSAT score leads to a 12% increase in trust from customers. Also, satisfied customers are more likely to upgrade or add services and are less likely to cancel.
It’s for this reason that we’ve launched a free comprehensive 4-week CSAT email course that covers everything you need to know about measuring customer satisfaction. Below are just a few examples of the kind of insight you will learn by signing up today.
Become a CSAT expert with our comprehensive 4-week email course
Sign up todayHow to calculate Customer Satisfaction Score
Once you’ve collected feedback via your customer satisfaction survey, there are two ways you can calculate your CSAT score.
The first option is to simply calculate the average of their 1-5 scores. The second is to calculate the percentage of those customers who consider themselves satisfied (the 4-5 scores). To do so, you divide the total number of customers who selected very satisfied (5) or satisfied (4) by the total number of responses and times that by 100.
We recommend the second option. Here’s why: While you can use CSAT as an average, that isn’t as useful as calculating the percentage of those customers who consider themselves satisfied. If you stop and think about it, that makes sense—the metric is looking at the percentage of happy customers specifically.
If you choose this second calculation, it’ll be represented as a percentage of the maximum. With a five-point scale, for example, a CSAT rating of 80% means that the majority of customers are giving a satisfied rating (4 out of 5).
How to use the CSAT metric
Customer Satisfaction Score is a touchpoint metric. This means that it’s optimal for measuring the success of a particular part of the customer journey.
Here are some examples of how you can use CSAT:
Use the metric to assess whether the customer’s goals are met at each particular touchpoint. If the score is low at a specific stage, that’s where improvements need to be prioritized.
Once a touchpoint is changed for the better, validate the progress by comparing the CSAT score before and after the improvement has been made.
Track those big, complex interactions with CSAT. Complex buy cycles and complicated B2B service issues aren’t just one call. After the resolution, ask the customer for their satisfaction levels.
Review CSAT throughout the journey. Even if you are collecting CSAT at specific interaction points, take a step back and review the big picture of these scores within your overall customer journey. The lower scores highlight gaps in the experience. Address those improvements and watch the scores rise again.
Learn much more with our free CSAT email course
Become a CSAT expert with our comprehensive 4-week email course. This isn't your typical one-size-fits-all email course. When you sign up, select your level of CSAT expertise, and you'll receive a custom lesson plan straight to your inbox. Sign up today!
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