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If you’re a business owner looking to improve your CSAT scores, you are not alone. After all, CSAT scores are indicative of how well your company is run and the relationship it shares with its clients.
This guide will teach you how to improve your CSAT scores by answering all of your key questions on the topic, including but not limited to:
- What is a CSAT score?
- How do you calculate your CSAT score?
- What is a good CSAT score?
- How can your business boost its CSAT score?
Why driving up CSAT scores is good for your business
Before finding ways to improve your CSAT scores, you must first understand why they are important. In short, high CSAT scores translate to a better customer experience and generally happier clients.
While it should not be difficult to understand why this is beneficial for the business, the following stats should highlight the need to give CSAT scores the attention they deserve:
- 73% of businesses that boast high customer satisfaction scores will enjoy a better financial performance than companies that fall short.
- A huge 68% of customers are willing to pay more for products and services offered by companies with high CSAT scores.
- Companies in the United States lose an estimated $62 billion annually due to poor customer experience.
- 83% of consumers believe that customer experience is the most influential factor in their buying decision outside of pricing and product quality.
- 95% of consumers agree that customer experiences and satisfaction levels have a huge influence on brand loyalty
Furthermore, more companies cite improved customer experience as their top priority than any other objective.
ADDITIONAL LINKS
What does CSAT stand for?
The term CSAT stands for Customer Satisfaction, although you may also see it referred to as the Customer Experience (CX). Consequently, then, a CSAT score correlates to how clients view your business. Naturally, then, a high CSAT will improve your hopes of customer retention as well as the hopes of winning new leads.
Your CSAT scores could relate to a transaction, product, customer support service, or any other interaction that your company shares with its customers. As such, any customer success solution should look to improve your CSAT scores by covering each of those aspects.
In its most basic form, CSAT is a metric that sets to answer the simple question “how satisfied are you (the customer) with the company?”. However, the answers are determined by a wide range of factors, which is why you must build a comprehensive strategy to improve your scores.
What is a good CSAT score?
There is no one definitive way to measure CSAT (as will be discussed in the next section), there will be some variance from one company to the next depending on the questions asked.
The goal shared by all businesses is to get the CSAT score as close to 100% as possible. However, that is impossible to do. As a rule of thumb, the following CSAT benchmarks by industry (per the American Customer Satisfaction Index) should provide some guidance;
- Clothing apparel – 77%
- Consumer shipping – 78%
- Food manufacturing – 82%
- Hotels – 75%
- Household appliances – 81%
- Personal care products – 83%
- Vehicles – 79%
For SaaS organizations and internet service providers the benchmark is lower, at 62%.
Of course, a number of other variables could influence your goals and expectations, such as industry size or geographic location. Ultimately, though, it’s likely that your company’s CX will be high but imperfect. And if it’s lower than the industry expectations, it’s even more crucial that you act fast.
In addition to the CSAT scores themselves, it is important to consider the response rate. In most industries, gaining replies from 20-30% of the client base can be considered average while anything above 40% is good.
How do you calculate a CSAT score?
Before looking at ways to improve your CSAT scores, you must first understand how your company is currently viewed by its customers. The fact that CSAT is a concept means that you can use a variety of questions rather than a set process, which is one of the factors that separates CSAT scores from NPS (Net Promoter Score). Moreover, NPS is a measurement of customer loyalty and retention while CSATs focus on happiness.
Some of the questions that could be asked include:
- How would you rate your satisfaction? (Very Satisfied, Somewhat Satisfied, No Opinion, Somewhat Unsatisfied, Very Unsatisfied)
- How would you rate your happiness levels from 1-5? (5 being the highest)
- Are you happy with the service provided? (Yes, No, N/A)
To calculate the CSAT scores, you must collect filled questionnaires from as many customers as possible. Once you have recorded their scores, you can calculate your CSAT score using a basic equation.
When using the 1-5 scores, for example, the calculation will be:
Number of 4 & 5 responses / Total number of responses x 100 = % score
For example, if you had 1,000 responses including 800 four or five star ratings, your score will be determined as follows;
800 / 1,000 x 100 = CTA of 80%.
Eight ways to improve your CSAT score
Research shows that 65% of consumers have higher customer satisfaction expectations than they did just a few years ago. So, even if your CSAT score is OK, now is the time to actively seek significant improvements. Here are eight great tips to help you do it in style.
1. Regularly measure customer satisfaction
First and foremost, you should set an ambitious yet realistic goal of what you want to achieve with your CSAT score. However, you can only work your way towards those objectives if you understand the situation at all times. After gaining the baseline figures using the above methods, you must establish a schedule for regular measurements to be taken.
For most companies, quarterly reporting works well. After all, weekly analysis will create a data overload while most customers will be willing to fill out a questionnaire once every three months but won’t be as eager to provide weekly responses. Besides, quarterly measurements will provide enough time for the results of any changes you’ve made since the last review to show.
2. …And act upon what you find - both good and bad
Regardless of what your current CSAT score might be, it’s imperative that you look to do more of the good features while simultaneously addressing the areas of improvement. One of the most effective improvements is to create a dedicated interaction following negative client responses. This should include:
- An apology,
- A review of where you went wrong,
- A fix,
- Feedback to let the client know what you’ve done.
Over 90% of customers are happy to complain about a company’s poor service. Quick action can help you get them back on side before they spread negativity. However, it’s equally important to use the positive comments to your advantage by integration winning features into other parts of your customer interactions.
3. Record everything in one platform like Salesforce
If you want to improve your CSAT scores, making sense of data will be vital. Recording all responses in one platform will help you remain organized, and Salesforce is the perfect choice for all aspects of customer onboarding and future CRM activities. For the best results, Cloud Coach’s solutions are the answer.
In addition to collating all data in one place, your data can be visualized to easily identify the positive and negative aspects of your CX. This also alerts you to changes since the last round of CSAT questionnaires. So, you can quickly see whether your business is moving in the right direction.
4. Check your data for quantifiable data and trends
It is shown that 70% of the buyer experience is determined by how a user feels. So, when analyzing your CSAT data, you should actively look for audience trends and quantifiable results that can guide your future decisions.
While looking at the raw data relating to your overall CSAT scores provides some insight, you need to scratch beneath the service. Some examples of potential trends include:
- Customer satisfaction levels fall when a certain agent is responsible for the interaction,
- There is a clear contrast between different sales channels (in-person, telephone, online, etc.),
- Customer satisfaction may vary greatly between different products or membership levels.
In addition to those trends, you may identify that certain updates and upgrades have worked well while others have been ineffective. When you continue to make data-driven decisions over the months to come, it can have a positive impact on your bid to reduce your churn rate.
5. Consider other metrics to get the whole picture (CSAT/NPS/CES)
CSAT scores are one of the most common metrics to monitor in modern business. However, the data only relates to their happiness with the company. If you want to build a true reflection of the customer experience and responses, you must use NPS and CES (Customer Effort Score) too.
CES is solely about the transaction, asking questions like “how easy did the sales advisor make it for you to find the right product?”. This reporting of transactional actions can help with a range of issues, such as identifying if specific employees need further customer care training. In turn, improved interactions should lead to increased CSAT scores.
6. Make is easy for customers to get the help they need
We live in a world where the need for speed is greater than ever. Most consumers want quick solutions to their problems, which is why your business must facilitate this. Creating real-time assistance through live chat facilities and similar methods will help, not least because it makes them feel valued. Besides, studies show that at least 40% of consumers now actively prefer self-service over human interactions.
Another popular choice is to create a community where customers can ask questions and gain quick answers. In many cases, other members will do the work on your behalf. Still, the fact that the user’s experience with your products and services improve will lead to enhanced CSAT scores.
7. Root cause analysis
If your business has received low CSAT scores from several respondents, there is a reason for it. Acknowledging that something isn’t quite right is an essential step that every responsible business owner must take. This can help identify inconsistencies or weaknesses, and forms a key step in the troubleshooting procedure. The full process should cover;
- Identifying an issue,
- Diagnosing the root cause,
- Analyzing potential solutions,
- Implementing new ideas,
- Taking corrective action,
- Reviewing the issue,
- Gaining feedback.
Over 96% of customers will replace a brand that fails to deliver a positive client experience. By understanding the root cause, you will have a far better chance of avoiding repeat problems. While it’s not the only key ingredient in the recipe for success, it will inevitably support your bid for more conversions and increased loyalty.
8. Never think the job is done!
Happy customers who love the brand are likely to spend more money and stay loyal to the company. Moreover, over 70% will advocate it to friends and family. However, it’s important to remember that CSAT is an ongoing concept. The fact that you will never hit 100% proves that you cannot afford to stop the pursuit of perfection. Even if you did hit 100% CSAT scores, evolving business landscapes and changing client demands mean you must stay on top of the game.
Even if you are happy with the current results, you must never rest on your laurels. Continue to seek feedback from your customers and act upon the data you gain. When you continue to build a customer-centric business, your CSAT scores should only move in one direction. Conversely, if you let yourself become distracted, problems will soon surface.
Conclusion
A strong CSAT score won’t necessarily correlate to a high customer retention or client loyalty rate, especially if it isn’t supported by the right products. However, it does give you a significant indication of how the company is performing and is viewed by the consumer. Therefore, a high score can be seen as a key step on the road to success.To learn more about improving your CSAT scores or to implement the tools needed to do it in style, contact the Cloud Coach team today.
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