Customer Satisfaction Measurement

21/11/2020 2 By indiafreenotes

Customer satisfaction is difficult to measure due to several reasons. Counting on customer satisfaction owing to their feedback is not the case because most people prefer keeping quiet when satisfied.

Some people see no need of contacting the service provider while others seek to pass their complaints.

Requirements for customer satisfaction are not only unique but difficult to quantify. Setting standards and improving employee relationships with customers is central strategy of measuring customer satisfaction and ensuring that success is determined.

Ways of measuring customer satisfaction include:

Survey customers

Surveying customers is the only probable way of getting customer feedback unless they contact you.

Most people are busy and have no time to pass redress.

You can provide survey through several ways such as emails and use of phone calls.

To get credible feedback you need to allow customers to answer questions on weighted scale.

You can conduct repeated surveys, over time, to measure changing comments from customers.

Understand expectations

Understanding what customers expect from you will provide ground to satisfy their expectations by giving them enjoyable service.

Making an effort to discover what customers expect from you in terms of service and products is the way to satisfying their needs.

Find out where you are failing

On situations where you are not fulfilling customer requirements, it is credible to find out where you are failing.

Incidences where products are less than advertised should not arise.

Find out if employees are making promises that cannot be met. 

Take strides and attend seminars that will equip you with better managerial skills.

Know the chain of communication so as to know where communication faults are and foster amendments.

Pinpoint specifics

Whether a customer is satisfied or not, you need to collect information to help you assess the situation.

Collect information about what customers purchased, what they liked and they did not like, their actual purchase expectation and their suggestions for improvement.

Assess the competition

Have the initiative to know why customers consider other brands above yours.

Through the survey, invite customers to come and compare and contrast your services and products and make judgment on what you are not offering.

Try to measure the emotional aspect

Customer experiences after buying a given product are attributed to quality.

Feedback from customers in relation to quality, reliability and extent satisfaction should be matched.

Comments customers make are a measure of their satisfaction.

Customers showing dissatisfaction prompts change of strategy.

Loyalty measurement

Customer loyalty is the likelihood of repurchasing products or services.

Customer satisfaction is a major predictor for repurchasing and it is influenced by explicit performance of the product, value and quality.

Loyalty is basically measured when a customer recommends to a friend, family member about given product.

Overall satisfaction, repurchasing and likelihood of recommending to a friend are indicators of customer satisfaction.

A series of attribute satisfaction measurement

This strategy takes into account the affective and cognitive pattern.

Affective behavior is intrigued to liking and disliking owing the benefits the product is attached with.

Customer satisfaction is influenced by perceived quality the product is attached with and it is regulated by expectations of the product or service.

Customer attitude towards a product are as a result of product information through advertisement and any experience with the product whether perceived or real.

Cognition is the judgment on whether the product is useful or not useful.

Judgment is always intended use of application and use of occasions for which the product is purchased.

Intentions to repurchase

Future hypothetical behavior that indicates repurchasing the product is a measure of satisfaction.

Satisfaction can influence other post purchasing trend through use of the word of mouth or social media platform.

Monitoring

Monitoring can be directed at phone, email and chat communications.

Monitoring includes automated phone interactions designed by companies to help give real world glimpse.

Feedback cards

Dishing out cards will help gauge customer comments.

How Customer Satisfaction is Measured

Here’s a look at the most used metrics when it comes to measuring customer satisfaction.

Customer Satisfaction Score

The customer satisfaction score, or CSAT, is a time-tested metric. It is a customer satisfaction survey that targets the customer with variations of a very basic question: “how would you rate your experience interacting with our sales/customer service/support department?”

The scale typically ranges from:  very unsatisfactory / unsatisfactory / neutral / satisfactory / very satisfactory.

The more respondents give a positive answer, the higher your score. Simple.

The CSAT is versatile, since it can relate to any interaction of a client with your business. It’s also immediate, because you will get precise feedback relative to a certain experience. The CSAT is most useful to track short-term changes in customer approval before and after a change or new initiative. If the score shifts notably, you will have an inkling of what did or didn’t go over well.

However, the question won’t cover a customer’s overarching impression of your company. Likewise, its results tend to be biased, since mildly satisfied or dissatisfied customers will tend to disregard the question entirely. Lastly, it won’t be a predictor of customer behavior, nor will it account for your company’s potential for growth. Though the CSAT is an unavoidable metric, it is by no means a complete one.

Net Promoter Score

The Net Promoter Score was introduced to account for the lack of predictive power of the CSAT when in comes to customer loyalty. This question looks like this:

“On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our product/service to a friend?”

Customer Effort Score

The Customer Effort Score takes a different approach to how to measure customer satisfaction than the previous two methods. It asks the customer: “how hard did you have to work to get a problem fixed/query answered/service rendered?

The scale usually goes from 1 (it was very easy and simple to handle my issue) to 5 (it was a monster headache). The lower your score, the better.

In a now-famous article, it was demonstrated that going above and beyond in terms of customer satisfaction didn’t necessarily result in increased loyalty. Past a certain point, the energy expended to delight a customer is better utilized trying to spare the customer some effort. The CES is a good indicator of increasing customers’ loyalty by saving them time and effort.

Direct Feedback and Customer Satisfaction

The most straightforward way of giving your customers the support they want is by asking them directly through a customer satisfaction survey. Surveys are a useful tool for collecting data pertaining to the customer satisfaction metrics listed above. The various types of surveys target different customer demographics, and will yield different results.

In-app customer surveys

These are presented to the customer while they are in the process of using your service. This means an immediate reaction and a potentially high response rate.

Nevertheless, in-app surveys must be seamlessly inserted to the interface, so as not to pester or detract from the user experience. Adding a subtle comment bar at the top of your interface means only having room for a pictogram-based rating, or one of two questions. Therefore, make them concise and to-the-point.

Post-service customer surveys

These types of surveys approach the customer immediately following a service interaction. They can occur via email, live chat, or over the phone. It’s essential to not make gathering feedback the only object of the call or message, with no added value to the customer. Rather, ask for feedback right after solving an issue, or while presenting a new feature. Post-service surveys can be a little more long-winded than the previous example but beware of costing your customers too much additional time.

Customer Surveys via Email

If you’re looking to ask broader questions about the entire customer experience, then email is the way to go. You can also target segmented customers to ask in-depth questions about their situation.

While these surveys have the lowest response rates, they allow customers who wish to do so to answer in greater detail and really give you constructive feedback. You can use this in-depth feedback to increase customer satisfaction across a wider spectrum.

Volunteered feedback

Asking for customer feedback in a survey is one thing, but it’s also important to offer a way for customers to speak up of their own volition.

Dedicating a comment box or an email address to customer satisfaction is a great move. However, customers often won’t bother to leave feedback because they don’t think the company will care, or take it into account. You need to incentivize honest customer involvement, because it your business cannot afford to ignore it.

Explicitly promise speedy involvement, and deliver on it. Responding with a non-automated to submitted feedback is polite and constructive. The result is beneficial to all parties. Customers will get what they wanted, and you can use examples of successfully acting on customer feedback as a success story on your website.

Survey best practices

We’ve seen how surveys can provide valuable insight, and involve customers in a direct process. However, they can be a tricky matter to get right. Here are ways to pull of effective, non-invasive survey campaigns:

  • Never presume that your customer’s time is more valuable than yours.
  • Keep your questions relevant to your overarching goal of customer loyalty.
  • Craft precise questions. Keep them short unless the format of your survey allows for more open-ended questions.
  • Ask clever questions. Don’t insult the intelligence of the customer taking the survey. Besides, asking vague or irrelevant questions won’t serve your own purposes.
  • Remain unbiased. Don’t use leading questions. It will make your business seem untrustworthy, and false the results of your examination.
  • Keep your rating scales consistent and transparent. Don’t mix stars and smiley faces, or switch between numbered scales and letter grades.

Indirect Feedback and Customer Satisfaction

We’ve covered ways to reach out and gauge your customers’ happiness directly. However, there are also ways to do so without directly involving your customers. Taxing customers’ attention and good will to gather feedback is necessary, but it’s handy to know about alternative, less intrusive tactics.

Analytics

You can use your website traffic and content to measure customer satisfaction. Not only will the publication of content drive your activity, but you can use it to gain insight into your customers’ habits. Keep track of shares of your content, of the time spent on your website (especially pages like your roadmap, which will tell you about the interest in your upcoming features), and the bounce rate of your newsletters.

Collecting all this data will be moot if you don’t know what to do with it. Make sure to always align the concrete data with the vision you have for your customer service.

Cover every channel

There are multiple channels to take into account when measuring customer satisfaction. Every means the customer has of getting in touch with your company is an opportunity to gather feedback.

We’ve seen you can conduct surveys over email, on your website, over the phone, etc. But diversifying the channels on which you measure customer satisfaction is a no-brainer. For example, given the growing importance of mobile phones in the field of customer support, it’s important not to neglect that channel.

Social media is also a valuable channel to monitor customer happiness. Its immediacy and personable touch can allow your business to interact with your customers in an informal and proximate way. Customers can contact your business easily and spontaneously, and you can provide equally expeditious support. Keeping track of the fluctuation in followers, shares, and likes on every platform you use will give you a good idea of customers’ loyalty and overall satisfaction.