5 Most Important Customer Satisfaction Metrics

The customer satisfaction metric first appeared in the Harvard Business Review Article Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers.

The article challenges the widely accepted notion that excellent customer service is equivalent to exceeding customer expectations. Their analysis said that people punish bad service more often than reward good service.

Measuring Customer satisfaction is of utmost prominence for a business to foster and get repeat business. Therefore, a company needs proper statistics and quantitative data to understand customer service standards and enhance its experience. Appropriate customer satisfaction metrics are thus absolutely essential.

In this article, we will discuss the 5 most essential metrics required to track customer satisfaction. Before digging deep into various metrics let’s try to understand the term Customer Satisfaction Metrics What are Customer satisfaction Metrics? Customer Satisfaction Metrics are the quantitative analysis of how delighted a consumer is with a particular service or product. It communicates the quality of a customer’s association with your brand.

What is the Customer satisfaction Metric:

Customer Satisfaction Metrics is the quantitative analysis of how delighted a consumer is with a particular service or product. It communicates the quality of a customer’s association with your brand.

Customer Satisfaction Metrics are more than just numerical values, they also reveal behavioural patterns, consumer attitude, customer feedback, and opinions. There are several KPIs that play a vital role in measuring customer satisfaction, like Customer satisfaction Score, Net Promoter Score, Customer Effort Score, etc.

A customer support software used to evaluate these metrics considers a 360° approach to customer satisfaction and analyses aptly the areas that require improvement and the ones that are working well for your business.

Essential customer satisfaction metrics you should be tracking:

Here’s a list of the most used metrics to measure customer satisfaction.

1. Customer satisfaction score (CSAT)

It is a widely used metric which has been used time and again to gather customer feedback and reactions. It is a satisfaction survey that focuses on very basic questions like:
“on a scale of 1 to 10 how satisfied are you interacting with our sales/customer service/support department?” where 1 is least satisfied and 10 is most satisfied.

The scale could be a numeric value or it can also range from: very unsatisfactory / unsatisfactory / neutral / satisfactory / very satisfactory.

The more positive the response, the higher the score. Simple.

The customer satisfaction score (CSAT) can gauge any client interaction with your business. It also gives a precise evaluation of a customer’s certain experience. Generally, we use CSAT to track short-term shifts in customer acceptance of a new initiative. A broad change in the score points out that something has not worked well.

CSAT has certain limitations. It does not give a complete impression of a customer’s overall outlook of your brand.

Furthermore, the results might be biased or inaccurate if the person filling out the survey has to choose between mildly satisfied and dissatisfied.

Although CSAT is essential and unavoidable, it can not predict customer behaviour or your company’s growth potential. We require other metrics to get a complete review.

2. Net Promoter Score (NPS)

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is used to predict customer loyalty. NPS was initiated because CSAT lacked this predictive power.

NPS can be calculated by including a simple question in the survey that showcases customers’ devotion to the brand.
“On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our product/service to a friend?” where 1 is least likely and 10 is most likely

Depending on the response, customers are categorized as follows:

• Promoters: They are the most loyal customers and very positive about your business. They are the ones who have responded with a 9 or 10 score.

• Passives: You might consider them neutral customers who are satisfied with the services, but not big fans. You can push them to be promoters with little extra effort. Their response is generally between 6 and 8.

• Detractors: It is very unlikely that these customers will return if they are unsatisfied with your products or services. They respond with a score between 0 and 6.

NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from promoters. And represented as a number between -100 and +100. The higher the number the better your NPS score.

Although it is a very simple and straightforward question to reply to. It is one-dimensional and the chances of dissatisfied customers responding are higher, which may seem daunting. Also without an incentive, most of the promoter respondents would be reluctant to promote your brand.

3. Customer Effort Score

The Customer Effort Score is different from the previous two scores. The approach here is to gauge customer satisfaction based on efforts a consumer needs to get a query or problem solved. It asks the customer:
“ On a scale of 1 to 5, how much effort did you put into getting a problem fixed/query answered/service rendered?” Where 1 is the least effort and 5 is troublesome( too much effort)?

The lower the score, the better it is for your business. According to an article in Harvard Business Review, it is not enough to delight your customers, they simply require quick and effortless solutions to their queries. The idea, therefore, is to make the entire customer service experience effortless for your customer. The CES score helps to improve customers’ loyalty by saving them time and effort.

You can also ask respondents to share their customer service experience in this survey question. The answer would pinpoint areas that need improvement.

The CES metric alone is not enough to get the complete picture. They also have the lowest response rate. To measure the CES metric surveys is not a very reliable source. You should consider queries through emails and phone calls to get constructive feedback.

4. Customer Churn Rate (CCR)

Customer churn rate (CCR) is crucial for a business to retain its customers. The CCR score calculates the percentage of customers an organization lost over a period.

Keeping a check of your CCR score acts as an alarm to taking effective measures to retain customer loyalty and save attrition. In order to calculate the churn rate, you should know the number of customers at the beginning of the year and the number of customers at the end of the year. The difference in these two values divided by the customers at the start of the year gives the CCR.

A higher churn rate could be harmful to the business. There can be umpteen causes for the churn, a few important ones that a venture should be aware of include:

• Poor customer onboarding
• No brand loyalty.
• Poor customer service
• Low Value
• Poor Communications

Poor customer service is the numero uno reason for the churn. For a customer experience to be enchanting the customer service should be excellent.

Continuous monitoring of CCR can help to see what’s working and what’s not. Your customers don’t welcome an increase in prices if it increases your churn rate.

5. Customer Service Satisfaction (CSS)

CSS is the measure of customers’ post-purchase service experience. It indicates the customers’ satisfaction level based on your services.

In order to calculate CSS you can ask:

“On a scale of 1 to 5, how satisfied are you with our after-sale services” Where % is most satisfied and 1 is least satisfied.

You can ask this question during the survey or right after the post-sales service. The CSS metric is an evaluation of your customer service. This will guide you to identify areas of improvement and prioritize enhancements.

Furthermore, there are various other important customer satisfaction metrics as well that help to understand customer behaviour and strategize your business with apt qualitative data. Using good customer experience management software makes monitoring all these metrics easier.

The other metrics are:

• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC
• First Contact Resolution Rate (FCR)
• Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV)
• Average Handling Time (AHT)
• First Response Time (FRT)
• Customer Request Volume (CRV)
• Resolution Rate

To wrap it up

Customer satisfaction is not just a buzzword, it is an indicator of customer loyalty and happiness. A dissatisfied customer will have no qualms about moving away to another brand. Thus, it is extremely essential to have a proper system in place to keep a track of these valuable metrics.