Customer satisfaction scores allow a business to get real-time evaluations of their product according to the people who matter most – customers. An insightful and convenient methodology for these surveys is key for opening the door to your customer’s feelings about what you do.  

What are Customer Satisfaction Scores?

You’ve undoubtedly seen them on social media and on many of your apps – stars, smiley faces (plus non-smiley ones as well), and 1-5 scales. These are the most common forms of customer satisfaction scores, also known as CSATs. 

The goal of a CSAT is for a business to get opinions about some aspect of their product. CSATs are widely used for many reasons:

• Simple for the marketing team to design and for the customer to understand
• Quick to complete
• Possibility to use for a range of question types
• Easy insertion into a variety of media
• Ability to translate into an objective score that can be analyzed and tracked over time
• Acts as a form of real-time feedback

Types of CSATs

Customer satisfaction scores can accommodate essentially any type of short question, and can go beyond “do you like our product?” CSATs can be used to assess any kind of customer experience, from feedback about the onboarding process to “exit surveys” that are sent if a client stops using the product. Of course, you don’t want to constantly barrage people with questions. But sending occasional, logical, clearly-worded, and appropriately-timed CSAT requests (see below) provides a business with valuable insights. 

The Importance of Customer Satisfaction Scores

Certain types of products are more subject to simple measurements than others. For instance, the total experience of car ownership takes years, so asking a recent car buyer to sum up their feelings using a quick CSAT survey might not really provide useful information.

On the other hand, SaaS is ideal for CSATs. Customers usually understand product value and ease of use quickly. Moreover, there are often alternatives for any particular software, and having experience with competing products gives users a basis of comparison that can affect the CSAT score. 

With such information, companies can realize when there are serious issues with their product. Similarly, they can expand a certain feature or capability if it gets consistently high scores. Over time, CSATs give you a picture of how your product is doing across a large number of customers. 

No matter what kind of CSAT you use, it’s important to get them out there. A Verint study found that customer experience is the most important aspect of continuous customer loyalty. Moreover, according to Qualtrics, 80% of customers said they have switched brands because of a bad customer experience.

How to Maximize CSAT Completion Rates

We’ve established that a customer satisfaction score is a critical marketing tool. But how do you get people to actually participate? All of us have been nagged by pop-ups asking us to complete surveys. If you have ever agreed, chances are that the vendor was using the following best practices:

Timing

The first rule of wise CSAT usage is timing. You want the survey request to arrive immediately after the customer has completed the relevant part of their experience. For instance, if you are doing a survey about a new feature, you should send a CSAT request after the customer has used it a few times. For general satisfaction scoring, a common practice is to send a request:

• One week after signing up
• Another a month after the reply is received for the first request
• Every three months thereafter

You should also consider changing the CSAT question periodically so that customers actually read it, and to get information about different aspects of your product. 

Simplicity

The question on the customer satisfaction rating survey should be simple to understand and easy to answer. Multiple and/or long sentences, various questions, and poor visibility are no-nos. Did you know that some CSATs require the client to log in? This is also a bad idea. 

A/B Testing

Perhaps the best way to get the maximum number of completions is through A/B testing. You can experiment with timing, frequency, as well as question wording and length. Even colors, fonts, and placement on the screen can make a difference. 

Alternatives to CSAT

There are a number of other quick and simple quantitative methods for gathering customer feedback. Two of the most common are:

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

The NPS uses a single question that is connected to approving a product. A basic example of NPS is “would you recommend this product to your friends?”

Customer Effort Score (CES)

CES measures the ease of use of a product. An example of CES is “was our customer service team quick to provide a solution to your issue?”  

Growthspace Clients: Satisfaction Delivered

It takes a while to really understand the level of Growthspace’s success. You’ll have to gaze at awards, watch webinars with industry leaders, and look at a long list of famous customers. 

One of the reasons for this approval is that Growthspace applies its own customer satisfaction metrics in an important way. Every single course and expert on the Growthspace network is evaluated by managers and employees. To keep standards high, any coach, mentor, or trainer who gets less than 4/5 is removed from Growthspace’s offerings. Tough, but the rewards are obvious.