Measuring customer satisfaction is all about gauging the degree to which the product or service offerings of a company meets or exceeds customer expectations. A customer satisfaction survey highlights the aspects of the products, services, or operational processes that are leaving their customers less than satisfied. Customer satisfaction survey is a great tool for measuring customer satisfaction and loyalty. Moreover, customer satisfaction is integral to business as satisfied customers stay loyal to the brand, buy more, and promotes their experience through word-of-mouth. Several studies show that the cost of retaining an existing customer is only one-tenth of acquiring a new one. So, once you win a customer, it is vital to keep them hooked on to your brand.

How to measure customer satisfaction

One of the key objectives of business is to create happy and loyal customers. However, measuring customer satisfaction often proves to be more difficult than measuring revenue streams or website visitors. In this blog, Infiniti Research explores some excellent metrics and methods of measuring customer satisfaction.

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Measuring customer satisfaction through surveys

A customer satisfaction survey is a standard approach for gathering data and measuring customer experience. This involves surveying the customers based on their satisfaction level of using the company’s products/services. This may or may not include follow-up questions. Customer satisfaction survey may include three variations:

• In-app surveys
• Post-service
• E-mail surveys

In-app surveys

Companies can incorporate a feedback form inside their website or their app. This should be as precise as possible not exceeding more than 2-3 questions. Such customer satisfaction measurement tools are known to have the highest response rate as the customers are asked for their feedback while they are engaged with the company’s app/website. This metrics to measure customer experience is useful in gaining insights to attain customer satisfaction score.

Post-service surveys

This is concerned with measuring customer satisfaction for a product that the customer has just purchased or a service they have levied.  This survey is conducted just after the product/service has been delivered to the customers as at this point their experience is still fresh in the mind. This can either be done through the telephone, a live chat or even through e-mail support. However, this method of measuring customer satisfaction might prove to be time-consuming for both the business and the customers.

E-mail surveys

The other two survey methods aren’t suitable for in-depth insights into the customer experience. So, it becomes difficult to identify the real factors resulting in their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the company’s offerings. Email surveys, however, prove to be a good tool for this. Although they have lower response rates, they do allow customers to take their time in answering multiple questions.

Measuring customer satisfaction score (CSAT)

This is currently one of the most commonly used metrics for measuring customer satisfaction. This involves asking customers to rate their satisfaction with the products or services of the business. The average rating of customer responses is the company’s CSAT score. The ranges typically used are either 1-3. Or 1-5, or 1-10. It is always better to use a larger range due to the cultural differences in how people rate their satisfaction. For instance, a customer in the US is more likely to rate the products/service as “terrible” or “amazing” as opposed to a Japanese customer who prefer to stick to responses such as “satisfactory” or “fine”. When dealing with an international customer base, companies have to take such factors into consideration while measuring customer satisfaction.

Net promoter score (NPS)

Net promoter score includes measuring customer satisfaction based on the likeliness of a customer to refer the products/services of the company to their peers. Here, customers are asked their likeliness to recommend the offerings of a company on a scale usually ranging from 1 to 10. The likeliness of a customer to recommend your products/services is a direct indicator of their satisfaction levels with the offerings.

Customer effect score (CES)

In this method of measuring customer satisfaction, rather than asking customers for their satisfaction or likeliness of referring the brand, they are inquired about the effort it took them to get their issues resolved. This is done on a scale usually ranging from 1 (very low effort) to 7 (very high effort). The primary aim here is to reduce the average score. Studies show that the majority of customers with high effort scores have displayed lesser loyalty to the brand in the future when compared to those customers with low effort scores.

Social media monitoring

Social media plays a crucial role in measuring the customer satisfaction of brands. The reach of both customers and the business on social media are unprecedently high. This makes customer satisfaction on social media a highly effective way to understand what the customers think about a particular brand and its products/services.

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Best practices for measuring customer satisfaction

Maintaining contact and assessing the satisfaction levels of the customers often prove to be challenging for businesses. By using best practices for measuring customer satisfaction, it becomes easier to monitor and establish better customer relationships:

Define the goals

Businesses must first establish how they plan to use the results of customer satisfaction. Setting objectives means that the company becomes clear on how to analytically extract useful information from the data. It is vital to keep the customer satisfaction survey based on these pre-defined goals.

Make surveys short and precise

Getting customers to respond to surveys is a highly challenging task for customers. So, is essential to make them as precise as possible to induce customers to participate in the surveys. The length and time-consuming surveys would make customers more reluctant to give their responses. The goal here is to extract maximum information for measuring customer satisfaction by being as precise as possible.

Be regular and consistent

In order to make measuring customer satisfaction effective, it is imperative for brands to be consistent and regular in conducting surveys. In today’s fast-paced business environment, timing and consistency of collecting customer feedback are crucial in determining corrective action to prevent losing out on customers.

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