Customers might be looking for different products and services in every business, but one thing they seek with every company that they interact with is satisfaction!
Customer satisfaction is a concept that concerns almost every aspect of the business. It is an important part of a company’s strategy since the reason for providing product or service to a customer is to make them satisfied.
Customer satisfaction is crucial for every business, so today let’s talk about why it is so.
“If We Don’t Take Care of the Customer, Somebody Else Will” Edgar Mitchell
What is Customer Satisfaction (CS)?
Customer satisfaction, or CS, is a measurement that quantifies the level to which a customer is pleased with a provided product, service, or experience. To make things simpler, customer satisfaction tells a business how happy the customer is when interacting with their company.
It is critical to have adequate measurements for CS and there are several tools that provide numerical scores enabling to summarize data about your customers.
These are several metrics for customer satisfaction:
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) – This metric is calculated by asking a question, such as “How satisfied are you with provided service?” The customer is given a scale, which can be 1-3, 1-5, or 1-10.
Every business can choose their range, there is no universal rule. The advantage of CSAT is its simplicity both to the customer for giving feedback and to the manager for analyzing the results.
Net Promoter Score (NPS) – According to Qualtrics, NPS uses a key question, such as “How likely is it that you recommend Company X to your friends?” and provides a 0-10 scale. Customers that responded are later grouped as following:
- Promoters (score of 9-10) – Loyal customers
- Passives (score of 7-8) – Satisfied but indifferent
- Detractors (score of 0-6) – Unhappy customers
After subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters, businesses are assigned a Net Promoter Score (NPS):
NPS = % Promoters — % Detractors
Customer Effort Score (CES) – Like the previous metrics, CES also uses a question as a means of measuring but takes a different angle by asking the question that shows how much effort a customer puts in interacting with the business. This metric consists of two versions:
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The first version focuses on asking questions, such as “How much effort did you put for handling your request?” The scale is from 1-5 (1 being good, 5 being bad). However, because the scale is inverted and because the word “effort” is hard to translate, there was a need for a second version.
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This is the recent version which introduces agree/disagree statements for questions like “Handling issues was easy with Company X”. Here, the scale issues are handled, and the word effort has been completely replaced.
For a detailed explanation of the abovementioned metrics and their use, take a look at our earlier blog — Customer Satisfaction Metrics.
Let Us Satisfy Your Curiosity
Yes, you have read a lot of blogs and heard a lot of people talking about the importance of customer satisfaction surveys and how every business should be using it. But still, you might be wondering whether it is worth the bother at all. And the answer is a resounding YES, and here’s why…
Because even your faithful customers will leave you.
One might think that having a loyal customer means that business will retain them with even minimum effort but, truth be told, it is far from the reality.
82% of customers responded that they have left a company due to dissatisfaction with customer service. This should not come to you as a surprise since today customers have various choices of substitutes and as soon as they feel dissatisfaction with your business they will switch!
Remember that customer loss for your company means a profit for your competitor. That’s why employing customer satisfaction surveys will help you to keep your customers.
Because Showing Commitment is Attractive
Your potential customers are attracted when they see that you encourage current clients to provide honest feedback, so that you could enhance your services and products to satisfy them.
Having a reputation of a business that is committed to improving the satisfaction of a customer tells the potential clients that the business cares about them and does not view them as a means for getting revenue only.
It is not an easy task to attain new clients, and a business should do everything at its disposal to make sure the current customers feel satisfied. Customer satisfaction surveys and strategies for improving customer satisfaction will communicate to your clients that you are a trustworthy business.
Because Caring Is Sharing
Sometimes the business has treated us so well and satisfied us with provided service and product that we could not wait till sharing our good experience with friends and family and recommending them the business. This happens very commonly, particularly today in the age of social media.
A research done by Yonder Digital Group showed that 89% of respondents indicated that they inform their family members and friends the good experience with a company.
This is an opportunity that a business should exploit. Make sure you satisfy your customer and be sure that they will share all those good experiences with people they might convert into your new customers, as well.
Because Repetition Is the Mother of Learning
A customer satisfaction survey should not be a “one-time thing”. Make sure you survey your customers continuously, as the repetitive action of it will reveal new insights every time.
The customer is not a book that you read once and learn everything from. Their needs, preferences and attitudes change continuously, and it is important for you to have up-to-date information. Ensure you are on top of customer trends with regularly conducted customer satisfaction surveys.
Because Satisfaction Brings Innovation
When your customer is satisfied with a product/service, they are more willing to share their experiences and additional expectations. Such actions serve as a door-opener for the R&D sector and cause to involve customer feedback for coming up with novelty technologies and updates for increasing customer satisfaction.
Customer feedback involvement has been recognized as one of the most important reasons for a successful innovation. Make sure you satisfy your customers, so they will be open to sharing their ideas with you, ideas that might result in some prosperous innovations.
Finally, Because Satisfaction Retains
It is obvious that a satisfied customer will be, and stay, a loyal one. The higher your customer satisfaction, the higher your ability to retain them. A business should always be paying attention to its customer satisfaction survey results.
If you notice low levels of satisfaction, there is a risk of losing your customer to competitors. Retaining customers should be of a higher priority for a business, as increasing the levels of retention for as little as 5% increases profits by 25-95%.