How to Measure Customer Satisfaction in 8 Simple Steps

No matter how you cut it, measuring satisfaction comes down to gathering customer feedback via surveys and customer data. To accurately gauge customer opinion, we ‘ll need to ask people how their experience was, then compare it against quantitative reports .
Of course, there are multiple ways you can conduct a sketch, from its design to its time, its sample distribution size, and even how you analyze the data. Regardless of the approach you choose, you need to take some fundamental steps to ensure your business profits from its investment .
In this post, let ‘s cover the steps for measuring customer gratification, tools to measure it with, then we ‘ll list some ways you can achieve it at your clientele .

How to Measure Customer Satisfaction

1. Define your goals.
2. Outline a plan.
3. Choose a type of customer satisfaction survey.
4. Customize your survey’s layout and questions.
5. Determine your survey’s trigger.
6. Select your survey medium.
7. Analyze your survey data.
8. Make adjustments and repeat.

1. Define your goals.

When embarking on any sort of campaign, it ‘s helpful to take a step back and ask, “ Why are we doing this ? ”
In clientele, one must weigh the value of information — the customer gratification data — against the cost of collecting it — the review process. To be honest, if you wo n’t change anything after collecting your customer gratification data, you ‘re better off not collecting it at all. It ‘s going to take time and effort, so you need to put it to use .
Depending on your business or organizational capabilities, there ‘s a lot you can do with this data. It ‘s important to have a finish in thinker so you can get the most out of your customer data. Every occupation faces defeated or upset customers, but not every company has a solution .
With that in judgment, the specific solution is n’t necessarily the crucial function here. The crucial character is stepping back and saying, “ If we see that a segment of our customers is unsated, what will we do about it ? ”

2. Outline your plan.

once your goals are defined, you need an actionable plan to achieve them. Before collecting customer data, your team should outline the actions you ‘ll take after feedback is gathered and analyzed. Some examples you can execute are :

• Improve key UX bottlenecks that contribute to poor customer experience.
• Expedite customer support interactions with the most frustrated customers.
• Operationalize proactive support like a knowledge base and customer education.
• Test different live chat scripts and support strategies.

You can besides plan actions based on your segment of highly quenched customers. Methodologies like NPS® section your customers into promoters, passives, and detractors for a few reasons. First, NPS provides you with an aggregate atonement score, frankincense providing a health check and a longitudinal measured to track and improve over time .
moment, it gives you the possibility of segmenting customers based on attitudinal metrics like gratification. You can offer your promoters special perks or encourage them to spread the word about your business ; they ‘re the most probable people to act as your “ external sales force ” — in other words, your will and aroused customer advocates .

3. Choose a type of customer satisfaction survey.

once you ‘ve sat down and discussed your plans with samara stakeholders, you need to design your survey. The first measure you should take is determining the type of metrics you ‘ll use to measure customer satisfaction .
You can choose among a few different options for customer satisfaction surveys. There ‘s no solid agreement on which one is best. A few popular methods are :

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

Customer Satisfaction Rating, or Customer Satisfaction Score ( CSAT ) measures on average, how satisfy or unsated customers are with your product, services, or customer success platform. normally asked on a scale of 1-3, 1-5, or 1-7, your customer gratification seduce can be calculated by adding up the sum of all scores and dividing the kernel by the total of respondents .
Customer Satisfaction Score ( CSAT ) is the most normally use measurement for customer atonement. You ask your customers to rate their atonement on a analogue scale. Your survey scale can be 1 – 3, 1 – 5, 1 – 7, or 1 – 10, and there ‘s no cosmopolitan agreement on which scale is best to use .

Featured Resource

Free Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) Calculator

Fill out this form to access the guide.

CSAT is a metric used to immediately evaluate a customer ‘s particular know. here ‘s how Vipin Thomas, Global Lead of Customer Success at Freshdesk, put it :
“ CSAT is a transactional metric unit that ‘s based on what ‘s happening immediately to a user ‘s gratification with a product or service. We try and get a CSAT score within 15 minutes of an interaction. It ‘s extremely helpful to improvise on the resoluteness, manner of manner of speaking, channel, etc. It ‘s ONE of the important metrics to evaluate the performance of the support desk. In fact, we publish ours publicly deoxyadenosine monophosphate well. “
Customer Effort Score ( CES ) is very alike, but rather of asking how satisfied the customer was, you ask them to gauge the facilitate of their have .
You ‘re still measuring satisfaction, but this way you ‘re gauging drug user effort — the assumption being that the easier a task is, the better the feel will be. As it turns out, making an experience a low-effort one is one of the greatest ways to reduce frustration and disloyalty .
NPS asks the interrogate, “ How probably is it that you would recommend this company to a acquaintance or colleague ? ”
You calculate your net showman seduce by subtracting the share of detractors from the percentage of promoters. This measures customer gratification but besides customer loyalty. In doing indeed, you can come up with an sum score, but you can besides segment your responses into three categories : detractors, passives, and promoters .
NPS is much used as a more general index of customer loyalty and brand idolatry. here ‘s how Thomas explains it :
“ NPS is consumed by assorted different teams to drive retention, sales, product improvements & advocacy. Some authoritative things to consider would be the channel it ‘s delivered on — electronic mail, in-product, telephone — the frequency of delivery, and the prey audience within the customer base ” .
These are all “ one-question ” methods that vastly simplify the process of collecting customer insights. While you may not think the survey methodology matters much, how you ask the question measures different variables .

4. Customize your survey’s layout and questions.

The above three styles are normally used, but those are n’t your only options for customer satisfaction surveys. Depending on your goals, you can besides send longer electronic mail surveys that include things like demographic questions. You can customize it to your desires — good remember that shorter surveys tend to have better completion rates .
Most importantly, do n’t ask questions if you wo n’t do anything with the information. This not merely wastes your time, but your customers ‘ meter as well. And, studies show that 66 % of adults believe that the most important thing a company can do is value its meter .
still, sometimes longer surveys can be useful, like in the model below. Sharing a more exhaustive survey can be advantageous if there ’ s an total bonus for doing so like a discount or a giveaway entry for a chance to win a prize. This way, you receive more data and the customer feels like they get something in rejoinder .

Image informant
You can use more than one methodology — since they all measure something different. In fact, Vipin Thomas explains how you can combine multiple scores for a greater picture of customer gratification :
“ We take CSAT and NPS identical badly, both independently and in conjunction, since a individual measuring stick alone wo n’t show the true picture of why customers are detractors or promoters ( NPS ) or why you have a lesser than expected CSAT .
For model, a customer that has had three continuous, veto CSAT scores and is besides a detractor on NPS would be an immediate at-risk customer. A customer with positive CSAT and a promoter on NPS are potentially the best source of advocacy and candidates to cross-sell or upsell since they already have seen the measure in their interactions with the process and merchandise. ”
additionally, I recommend always appending a qualitative, open-ended interrogate, regardless of the review you use. Without an open-ended wonder, you risk limiting your insight into “ why ” the dissatisfaction may be occurring. Qualitative drug user feedback can give you tons of ideas when it comes to enforce solutions .
hera ‘s how Luke Harris, Customer Success Director at Wayin, puts it :
“ qualitative data is the eden many of us are searching for, because it provides us with the most human interpretation of customer atonement with the add profit of scale and replicability. To be able to unbiasedly, capture and lead qualitative datum helps – particularly a scale occupation – to quickly ascertain where it should focus, both in terms of product confirm and development. ”

5. Determine your survey’s trigger.

This step is all about who you ‘re sending the review to and when you ‘re sending it .
If you go back to your goals outline, this should n’t be excessively hard to determine, at least strategically. People tend to forget this step, but it ‘s crucial as it affects the quality and utility of your data .
tactically, you can trigger a surveil pretty much anywhere, at any fourth dimension, and to anyone. But, doing it strategically, depends specifically on when and where it ‘s triggered .
good examples of event data that can be used to fire a survey are :

• Time since signup
• Key actions taken in your app — for instance, Qualaroo asks right after you receive your 10th survey response
• Complete user onboarding

Surveying excessively much will result in first gear response rates, so we recommend sending a customer satisfaction ( NPS ) survey seven days after signup, 30 days after the beginning survey, and every 90 days during the customer lifecycle .
additionally, different questions require unlike survey triggers. You besides need to take into account longitudinal data — how customers ‘ satisfaction scores change over fourth dimension. here ‘s how Nils Vinje, VP of Customer Success at Rainforest QA, put it :
“ The best fourth dimension to trigger/send a customer atonement surveil is after a meaningful character of the customer lifecycle is completed. “

Best Practices for Survey Triggering

With all the options for triggering let ‘s start with some best practices :

• The closer the survey is to the experience, the better.
• People forget how they felt the longer you wait.
• Who you survey changes what insights you get. If you survey website visitors about their satisfaction, the respondents are anonymous and may be a customer or they may not. This will bring you different data than sending an email to recent customers.
• You should survey your customers more than once to see how things change longitudinally. Especially if you operate a SaaS company or a subscription service, regular NPS surveys can help you analyze trends at the aggregate and individual levels.
• Survey people after a key moment of their customer journey.
• If a respondent gives you a high score, think about adding a follow-up question. For instance, Tinder asks you to rate its app in the app store if you give it a high score.

6. Select your survey medium.

In general, there are three primary coil methods by which you can send customer atonement surveys :

• In-App or On-Site Surveys
• Post-Service or Post-Purchase Surveys
• Long Email Surveys

Each of these may require a different software or tool. For example, Usabilla or HotJar specialize in trigger in-app surveys. But if you ‘re sending post-purchase surveys, you may need something that offers a web interface, like Typeform. Email surveys can normally be performed with any view creature, like SurveyMonkey or Google Forms .
Matt Hogan, Head of Customer Success at Intricately, besides emphasizes the want to collect continuous and real-time feedback, regardless of major feature launches or company-based events :

“ I recommend surveying in-app and on a peal basis. This will keep the constant feedback loop going. The engineering available makes it easy to manage this. ”

7. Analyze your survey data.

once you ‘ve collected your data, make sure it does n’t fair sit there dormant and fresh. You ‘ve got all this customer insight, and it ‘s fair waiting to be uncover !
Most NPS tools give you the ability to easily segment respondents based on their category, and they normally integrate with products where you can take action based on each segment. For case, HubSpot users can easily integrate with their view tool of choice to trigger emails based on surveil response sexual conquest .

Image informant

8. Make adjustments and repeat.

back to my foremost indicate : now that you have these insights, what are you going to do with them ?
ultimately, this is a personal decision that will reflect your own findings and capabilities. You may find that a whole section is dissatisfied because of a especial experience. In that encase, you may need to far investigate why that experience is causing dissatisfaction and make changes to improve it .
Or, you may find that you have a small percentage of extremely fans. nowadays that you can identify these people, possibly you can work with your market and customer success teams to plan advocacy programs that increase this group ’ south rate .
The possibilities are endless, but it all starts with accurately measuring customer satisfaction. But asking for scores is only a depart of it — make indisputable you ‘re creating conditions for customers to leave you high scores, besides. Check out the HubSpot Customer Code and for more ideas on how you can do this .
immediately, that we ’ ve gone over how to measure customer satisfaction, let ’ s review tools you ‘ll need to accurately assess this metric unit .

Customer Satisfaction Tools

1. Net Promoter Score
2. Live Chat
3. Social Media Mentions
4. Marketing Emails
5. Short Message Service (SMS)
6. Churn Rate
7. Follow-Up Surveys

1. Net Promoter Score

net income Promoter Score ®, or NPS, is a popular customer gratification survey used to gather quantitative and qualitative customer data. As we ’ ve mentioned this type of survey earlier in this post, you need to adopt some kind of customer feedback software if you want to use it with the tips shared in the previous section .

2. Live Chat

alive chat transcripts offer similar benefits to surveys or net showman Scores. however, rather of asking customers to participate, all you have to do is analyze previous chats recorded by your survive new world chat software. Customers will typically offer plenty of lead and indirect feedback within these conversations and this information is valuable for measuring exploiter atonement .
And, that ‘s not good feedback for your intersection, either. If you encourage reps to ask for feedback directly within the new world chat, you can find out if users are enjoying other aspects of your business a well — like your web site, customer services, and sales team .
We can see an example of this in the double below .

Image informant

3. Social Media

social media mentions represent how your customers perceive your trade name ‘s selling content. Whenever you release a newfangled political campaign, your followers have an immediate channel to upload public feedback. These comments are singular because they ‘re focused on your mark ‘s message, which is hood to ask about during a follow-up survey or live old world chat transcript .
You can besides leverage social media as a feedback collection tool. If you post a poll on Twitter or Instagram, you can record that to measure customer gratification. The benefit of this channel is that it ‘s loose to use and gives you direct access to your customer root .

Image source

4. Marketing Emails

Email is an excellent impart for engagement and feedback collection. The subscribers to your newsletter have demonstrated a clear concern in your sword and you can easily add a liaison to one of your surveys in a weekly newsletter. Or, you can embed the review directly into the electronic mail, like to how HubSpot ‘s Service Blog newsletter works .

Image informant

5. Short Message Service (SMS)

SMS, or texting, is another effective option for gathering feedback. It ‘s relatively brassy to send messages in majority and it allows you to put a review in the decoration of your customers ‘ hands. And, if you ‘re looking for a barren option, you can use a popular message app like Facebook or WhatsApp .

Image informant

6. Churn Rate

There will always be a share of customers that ‘ll leave your company without leaving a follow-up or providing feedback. sol, how do you count these customers toward your customer satisfaction analysis ?
Take a count at your churn rate. This is the percentage of customers that leave your business over time. If you compare your sum singular survey responses against the act of customers that left your business, you ‘ll have an idea of how many people left without leaving feedback. It ‘s safe to say that these customers were probably unsated with their experience, excessively .

7. Follow-Up Surveys

As we mentioned earlier, surveys are a capital instrument for measuring customer atonement. follow-up surveys are particularly effective because they capture the customer ‘s immediate chemical reaction to a trade name interaction. You ‘ll know precisely how the customer is feeling right after a long sales call or after a slippery support case .
nowadays that we ’ ve given you the tools to measure customer satisfaction, let ’ s discuss how to use them .

How to Achieve Customer Satisfaction

1. Make pricing open and honest.
2. Onboard new customers with educational content and training.
3. Offer 24/7 customer support across a variety of channels.
4. Build digital and in-person communities.
5. Host in-person and digital networking events.
6. Make it easy to change or cancel contracts/subscriptions.
7. Create customer loyalty programs or rewards.
8. Ask for customer feedback on a consistent basis.
9. Build channels for marketing, sales, customer service, and product teams to collaborate.

1. Make pricing open and honest.

price is a all-important component of any customer experience. How much a customer pays for your product or service will dictate the level of satisfaction they expect to receive from your business. If you charge for an feel that you ca n’t provide, customers wo n’t be satisfied with your company and will start to look elsewhere .

2. Onboard new customers with educational content and training.

Some products are easier to learn than others, and some customers are faster learners than others. Customers should n’t be dissuaded from using your product because they do n’t know how to operate it .
alternatively, you should teach modern customers how to use your merchandise and how to get the most value out of it. Having an effective deoxycytidine monophosphate ustomer onboarding platform will ensure new users wo n’t get frustrated with roadblocks early on on and will continue to work with your merchandise until they ‘re comfortable with its features .

3. Offer 24/7 customer support across a variety of channels.

When customers do get stuck, it ‘s authoritative that they have a room to contact you for help. Offering 24/7 support provides peace of heed because customers know they can reach you whenever they ‘re in perturb .
That being said, manning the phones all day and night can get expensive for a customer subscribe team. so, the best way to optimize efficiency is to adopt multiple service channels and create an omnichannel have. For exemplar, you can assign bots to reply to live chew the fat messages when your team is out of the position. And, reps can use help desk software to reply to customers from their mobile devices or via social media if they do n’t have entree to their work computers .

4. Build digital and in-person communities.

Whether in-person or held on an on-line forum, communities are excellent for network and educating customers. Customers can communicate with each other and learn how to best use your product, and your team can record feedback from these conversations that will help you improve products and services over time. Plus, these groups are typically formed by your most firm users, so a forum provides you with a channel to engage a high-value consultation with exclusive content or promotions .

5. Host in-person and digital networking events.

Networking events, like professional discipline sessions and educational webinars, are another way to gain privilege with your customers. however, rather of discussing topics that are focused on your products or company, expand your sessions to include broader conversations that are relevant to your customers ‘ needs and goals. This will increase consultation participation because you ‘re trying to provide more value to the customer experience than capitalizing on a conversion opportunity .

6. Make it easy to change or cancel contracts/subscriptions.

In customer serve, we frequently talk about earning your customer ‘s trust. But, adenine soon as a customer signs up for a product, businesses make it about impossible to cancel a subscription or shrink. Customers feel tricked by the occupation and now they ‘re trapped in a bad share that ‘s taking excessively long to get out of .
To avoid this feel of entrapment, your cancellation process should be clear and concise. While that may seem counterintuitive, your goal as a business is to help customers succeed. If they ‘re not accomplishing their goals, then your product or service may not be the right suit for them. Forcing your trade name on a customer will alone farther damage the relationship and can tied result in a negative recapitulation of your company .

7. Create customer loyalty programs.

For the customers who love interacting with your brand, there are still opportunities to add more value to their experience. Customer loyalty programs accomplish barely that by providing patriotic users with incentives for patronize engagement, repeat purchases, and customer advocacy. These programs keep your most valuable customers happy as you continue to reward them for long-run commitment .

8. Ask for customer feedback on a consistent basis.

Customers will provide your team with feedback whether you ask for it or not, but proactively seeking out their opinions shows that you ‘re invested in improving their know. Rather than waiting for customers to reach out with complaints or suggestions, leave channels where they can submit these ideas independently. This could be equally dim-witted as adding a kind to your web site or creating a forum page dedicated to customer ideas .

9. Build channels for marketing, sales, customer service, and product teams to collaborate.

The data that your customer serve department gathers is n’t just valuable to that particular team. It ‘s useful to your entire business and should be shared with all departments throughout your administration .
however, to do this you ‘ll need a sufficient internal communication system that enables teams to easily access and exchange information. typically, most businesses use a message platform, like Slack, along with an internal cognition basis. These tools break down data silo while simultaneously protecting your private customer data .

Taking Customer Satisfaction Into Consideration

The customers you ’ re selling to can both buy your merchandise, and tell you how to keep them coming back. Figuring out what ’ mho going right or amiss during the buyer travel is invaluable when looking to innovate and grow your occupation. Measuring customer satisfaction will help your company meet the needs of its customers, and we hope this usher will help you incorporate more customer opinions into your business scheme .
net Promoter, Net Promoter System, Net Promoter Score, NPS and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Fred Reichheld and Satmetrix Systems, Inc .
Editor ‘s eminence : This station was primitively published in June 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness .

Don’t forget to share this post!