What is a customer satisfaction score (CSAT)?
Definition: Customer satisfaction score is a metric used to calculate how satisfied customers are after interacting with a brand or product. To get the score, companies measure customer satisfaction by sending surveys where customers rate their experience with the brand or product.
CSAT surveys are typically conducted via email, phone, or online feedback forms. Businesses can use the results to identify areas for improvement and measure the effectiveness of customer service initiatives.
A high CSAT score indicates that customers are satisfied with the product or service, while a low score may indicate a need for improvement in certain areas.
The benefits of a higher CSAT score are returning customers, good reviews, and fewer returns.
How is the customer satisfaction score calculated?
Choose a 1-5 or 1-10 rating scale, where 1 represents the lowest and 5/10 is the highest satisfaction level.
Write down the questions. The general question is, “How satisfied are you with the product/service/interaction?”
Brands add individual segments such as “How satisfied are you with the delivery?”
Send the survey to the customer right after the interaction, after a couple of interactions, or monthly/yearly.
The time for the survey depends on the company’s product or service and end goals.
Calculate the score using the “positive score ” or “sum of all scores” method.
The positive score method
Positive responses are considered 4 and 5 or 9 and 10, depending on the rating scale. If 30 people gave a 4 and 20 gave a 5, the company has 50 positive responses.
Next is the division of the positive responses by the total number of responses the company got in a survey.
If 100 answered the survey, the result is 0,5. To get the percentage, multiply 0,5 by 100; the result is 50%. The customer satisfaction score is 50%.
Sum of all scores
Divide the sum of all scores by the sum of the max possible score.
If the sum of all scores is 650 and the maximum is 1,000, the result is 0,65.
To get the percentage multiply 0,65 by 100, and the CSS is 65%.
What is a good customer satisfaction score?
Usually, a good customer satisfaction score is around 73%, but it depends on the industry.
A score between 0-70 needs improvement, and a score above 80 is considered excellent.
When should you measure customer satisfaction score?
Right after the user’s interaction with the brand or product
If a company sells a physical product on their e-commerce shop, the customer rate their experience as soon as they get the product.
If the customer has an interaction with customer service, ask them to rate their satisfaction as soon as they end the conversation with the customer support agent. This immediate feedback from customers is important because they tell the brand precisely what they like/dislike,so companies work on improvements.
Salesforce, a cloud-based software company, asks their customers to rate them after an interaction. Interactions include a chat with customer support or ordering the service.
After a couple of interactions
As for a service on a subscription basis, such as Mindmesh, the customer rate the experience after a couple of days/weeks of using it. The reasoning is that customers don’t get to experience the product/service right away, so replies aren’t relevant.
Quarterly/Yearly
If a company sells a subscription-based service or wants returning customers to rate their experience, it surveys them quarterly or yearly.
The feedback from returning customers is important for the brand’s reputation and for making loyal customers into advocates of the brand.
Microsoft conducts regular satisfaction surveys to determine areas of improvement and measure the satisfaction of their loyal customers.
Customer satisfaction score example
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Example of a customer satisfaction score questionaire
The overall customer satisfaction score is calculated by summing up the positive responses (4 and 5 on the scale), and dividing them by the number of people who took the survey.
The brand had 80 total positive responses, and 100 customers took the survey, which means the overall customer satisfaction score is 80 percent.
Brands can use the same formula to calculate the CSS for individual segments, such as “delivery” or “marketing,” and determine the main issues customers have problems with. Companies use this survey to determine their loyal and detractor customers.
Loyal customers answer with 4 and 5 and are considered brand advocates. This information is crucial when targeting people with referral programs, special offers, and loyalty discounts.
Customers who answer with 1-3 are important for feedback because they leave negative reviews. Brands reach out to these customers for feedback, which they implement as soon as possible.
