You purchase a rice cooker online and it arrives a few days later—but to your frustration, it won’t turn on. A customer service agent politely explains you simply need to remove some plastic shielding. At the end of the call, you receive a single-question survey asking how satisfied you were with the customer service interaction.
This quick survey is ubiquitous in ecommerce. Honest feedback from customer satisfaction surveys helps businesses improve customer loyalty, customer experience, overall satisfaction, and customer retention. And at the core of these insights is the customer satisfaction score.
What is a customer satisfaction score?
A customer satisfaction score (CSAT) is a number from one to 100 that measures customer satisfaction with a specific product or interaction. Unlike other metrics, a CSAT helps you understand a single, specific experience, not overall customer satisfaction levels with your brand.
At the end of an interaction, a survey asks customers how satisfied they are with a product or experience on a scale of 1 to 5 or 1 to 10. It might also use an emoji rating, stars, or a slider. For example:
How would you rate your experience today?
1 – Very Dissatisfied
2 – Dissatisfied
3 – Neutral
4 – Satisfied
5 – Very Satisfied
You can use this data to calculate your CSAT and track the effectiveness of your customer experience strategies.
How to calculate CSAT
To calculate CSAT scores—usually expressed as a percentage—use the following formula:
Number of satisfied customers / Number of survey responses x 100 = CSAT
For example, say 50 people fill out your five-point scale survey, and the responses are:
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Very Satisfied: 12
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Satisfied: 20
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Neutral: 2
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Dissatisfied: 10
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Very Dissatisfied: 6
Add up all four- and five-rated responses and divide that number by 50.
(32/50) x 100 = 64
In this case, 64% of customers were satisfied with their experience, indicating there is probably room for improvement.
What is a good CSAT score?
A good CSAT score is typically above 70, but the numbers vary by industry. According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, here’s what constitutes a good score in different industries:
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General merchandise retailer: 77
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Internet retail: 78
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Specialty retail: 77
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Breweries: 81
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Apparel: 79
When should you measure CSAT?
Timing is important. If you try to measure your CSAT too early, your customers may not know how they feel about an interaction. If you measure too late, they may forget the details of the experience. There are a few ideal times to survey customers to get the most accurate CSAT:
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After a customer service interaction. A check-in immediately after a customer interaction can indicate the helpfulness and effectiveness of your company’s customer support.
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After an update or change to a product. Measuring your CSAT can be extremely useful during product rollouts or updates. Asking customers how they feel about new features or changes as they’re using them can help you make improvements and understand your customers’ needs.
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At any key touchpoints or customer lifecycle moments. There are several key moments in any customer journey, like after a sale. For instance, if you run an ecommerce apparel business, you can survey customers one week after they receive their order. If you provide software, consider gathering feedback after a customer completes a how-to guide for installation.
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After an event. If your company hosts an opening, product launch, or any other event, you can collect customer feedback from guests who attended to see if they enjoyed the event.
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Pros and cons of CSAT
There are upsides and downsides to CSAT worth considering:
Pros
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Quick for the customer. A single question yields basic customer insights, meaning it doesn’t require much effort from the customer.
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Easy to measure. Measuring CSAT after customer touch points is easy on both the customer and you. Though a long, more in-depth survey may be right at certain moments, CSAT is a simple metric that quickly gauges general success.
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Recognizable. Many people have encountered a one-question CSAT survey, so customers know what they are and how to respond.
Cons
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Prone to result bias. Measuring a CSAT relies on self-reporting, meaning very positive responses and very negative feedback may be over-represented, as they may feel more motivated to answer the survey. This can skew results and inaccurately portray wider customer sentiment.
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Cultural bias. Though a CSAT score can provide valuable feedback, a four-star rating may mean great service to some and mediocre service to others. People from different cultures or backgrounds may perceive the rating systems differently.
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Very limited information. The strength of measuring a CSAT is its simplicity, which is also one of its weaknesses. Measuring a customer’s satisfaction on a numbered scale produces quantitative instead of qualitative feedback and will never capture the nuance of their experience with your company.
Customer Satisfaction Score FAQ
What is CES vs. CSAT vs. NPS?
Customer satisfaction score (CSAT) is a metric that gauges customer happiness on a specific product or interaction. NPS, or Net Promoter Score, measures a customer’s opinion of the organization more broadly. CES, or customer effort score, is a measurement of how difficult or easy a customer finds their interaction with your company.
Which is better: NPS or CSAT?
NPS (Net Promoter Score) and CSAT (customer satisfaction score) are two different metrics with different applications. NPS measures customer sentiment by quantifying brand loyalty and a customer’s opinion of the organization as a whole, whereas CSAT measures customer satisfaction with a specific interaction. So if you want to know if a customer recommends your brand to a friend, opt for NPS. If you want to know if they enjoyed a product, CSAT is a better measure.
What is the 5-point scale for customer satisfaction?
One way of measuring customer satisfaction is to create a one-question survey that uses a five-point scale for customer satisfaction, with 1 being the worst and 5 being the best. In other words, 1 = very dissatisfied, 2 = dissatisfied, 3 = neutral, 4 = satisfied, 5 = very satisfied.