Guides 4 m November 05, 2021

CSAT: What Is it, Examples, Best practices

Customer satisfaction has always been pivotal to the success of any business, and there are many reasons why customer satisfaction is important. So, it’s only natural that using customer satisfaction scores to gauge how happy customers are with your business will help you improve the experience you provide.

But what is the customer satisfaction score exactly?

Let’s find out.

What Does CSAT Mean?

Customer satisfaction score, or CSAT, is a metric used to measure the happiness your customers experience with your product, interactions with your company, and transactions.

The score you obtain results from a survey that your customers fill out with questions that measure their satisfaction.

These surveys give you valuable insights into how happy your customers are with your company.

Usually, customers will answer the questions by choosing a number on a scale from 1 to 10, through verbal indicators, or international symbols such as stars and smiley faces.

Why You Should Measure CSAT

There are multiple reasons why you need to measure CSAT:

You meet customers’ expectations. It’s crucial that you constantly communicate with your customers and listen to their needs. When customers tell you their expectations, you’re one step closer to meeting them.
Your company stands out. Companies with a high CSAT score can show it to prospective customers and be seen as a great choice.
You drive meaningful change. With your CSAT scores, you can identify your business’s pain points and the main areas to improve.
You reduce customer churn. You can easily identify unhappy customers and resolve their issues before you lose them.

How to Measure and Calculate Customer Satisfaction Score

So, how do you calculate the customer satisfaction score?

You add the positive responses, divide them by the total number of responses you get, and multiply that by 100. The number you get at the end is the percentage of satisfied customers.

The equation looks like this:

(Number of satisfied customers/ Number of survey responses) x 100

What you consider a positive response differs from person to person. But in most cases, if you’re using stars, for example, 4/5 and 5/5 stars count as a positive response.

What Is a Good CSAT Score?

When asking what a good customer satisfaction score is, you need to realize that it’s different from one industry to another. However, typically anywhere between 75% and 85% is considered a good score, as 80% means 4 out of 5 customers are happy with your business.

If you look at the American Customer Satisfaction Index, you can see the expected CSAT scores for different industries. For instance, full-service restaurants are expected to have a CSAT of 80%, while specialty retail stores are expected to have 77%.

What Is the Difference Between Net Promoter Score And CSAT?

Although both NPS and CSAT are customer satisfaction metrics, they measure different things. So, what is the difference between CSAT and NPS exactly?

The customer satisfaction score measures the overall satisfaction with a product or business, while the net promoter score measures the customer’s loyalty to the business.

CSAT surveys typically use multiple questions that focus on different areas of customer experience to measure satisfaction. NPS surveys, on the other hand, use single-answer questions that measure loyalty.

CSAT Best Practices

Here are some of the best ways to improve CSAT:

Keep all questions short, clear, and concise.
Only ask necessary questions with a well-defined purpose.
Include smart, open-ended questions.
Ask one question at a time to avoid half-hearted answers.
Have a consistent rating scale without changing the context.
Don’t include questions that lead customers towards biased answers.
Include yes/no options for questions with a simple outcome.
Avoid assumptions and be specific to make sure the customer understands the question.
Find the perfect timing for sending surveys.
Offer a bonus or incentive to responders.
Finally, make sure to avoid the most common customer satisfaction survey mistakes such as getting too personal or being inconsistent.

Pro tip: Opt between a form builder or a survey software (that includes form building) to accurately collect your customers’ feedback the way you need it and draw important insights.

CSAT Examples

Now that you’re acquainted with what customer satisfaction score is, let’s look at some examples of surveys used to measure CSAT score:

In-app surveys appear when a customer uses your app. They have a maximum of two questions, and integrate the feedback back into your website.
Post-service surveys measure the customer’s satisfaction after a service is completed and they’re sent right after the experience.
Email surveys offer in-debt insights and give customers more time to think about their responses.

Summary

Customer satisfaction surveys are an invaluable tool your brand can use to win the loyalty and devotion of your customers. You can use a survey maker to speed up the deployment process of feedback surveys to your customers. If you know what the CSAT is, how to measure it, and what you can do with the feedback, be sure that you won’t have any issues with their commitment to your business.