In an age where the average service provider or freelancer flings out acronyms at confusing speed, it can be hard to keep track of what they all mean. CSAT is short for customer satisfaction and this measurement system is particularly accurate in measuring a business’s product and service.
Retaining customers for repeat business should be the goal for any successful enterprise; if they are truly happy with the service they receive, not only will they possibly come back to you again in the future, but you will get a great deal of free press in recommendation and feedback.
CSAT measures your overall customer satisfaction by looking at the amount of 4 out of 5 responses you get from customer feedback surveys. The possible score goes from 1 to 5 with 1 being very unsatisfied and 5 being very satisfied. The reason that only the upper end of the scale is considered is due to this being the most accurate measure of customer retention.
The score will usually be presented back to businesses as a percentage scale with 100% being the best possible level of customer happiness and 0% being the opposite, with a stark need for improvement.
There are many other metrics used to track overall customer satisfaction with the next most popular being the Net Promoter Score (NPS). The reason more and more businesses are switching to tracking their CSAT instead of NPS, however, is that it tracks customers response to the specific product or service you provide, rather than loyalty to a business or brand. For instance, the CSAT score for Starbucks offering a fresh fish buffet in their coffee shops would likely be incredibly low and they may immediately choose to stop providing that service, whereas brand loyalty or NPS due to the great coffee and history with the brand as a customer may remain high and not necessarily highlight that flagging area of the business.
A service CSAT score provides them with a clear and broad understanding of the areas in which they are providing excellent service and those that they need to improve upon. It asks customers to think about a very specific journey or interaction and give their feedback in the here and now. NPS conversely asks the much broader question of how they feel about the brand and how likely they are to recommend it to a friend.
Like any other score or metric, the usefulness of an NPS or CSAT assessment is only as good as the actions a business takes based on this information. You could collect a million surveys but unless you act on the results, they are ultimately useless. Looking into the reasons why the score is lagging and the ways in which it can be improved is the true mark of customer experience mastery. Linking this feedback to revenue and making steps to improve both with further research and adjustment can help to grow your business and leave all your customers smiling.
