5 Ways to Measure Your Customer’s Satisfaction

In the age of social media and online shopping, it’s easy to find yourself in the middle of a PR nightmare when something goes wrong. We’ve seen it before, people boycotting companies because they’ve trended on social media for poor customer service, and unhappy customers looking to competitor brands because their expectations weren’t fulfilled.

While building a proactive customer support team is a solution that’ll help you retain your customers, it’s just one of the touchpoints your company will have with your customer. You’ll need to have a flawless system in place to be a cut above the rest of your competitors, and to do this, you’ll need to measure your customer’s satisfaction. We find that there are five metrics that work best for us when we’re trying to calculate our client’s happiness and we’ve listed them below for you to apply to your business.

Define Your Goals

Out of 1,351 organizations across the globe, 84% have responded that improving their customer service increased their annual revenue. This shows that improving your helpline to make your customers have a more delightful experience will yield positive results for your company. However, it’s best to be methodical about it so you can be strategic with your resources.

With large quantities of data coming in and out of your system, it can get a little overwhelming to find what you’re looking for. Setting your parameters ahead of time so you can pinpoint the data you’re looking for will help you save time and energy during the data-gathering process.

Once you have the data you need, you can set your sights on improving that specific experience for your customers based on the feedback you’ve gathered. This could mean improving your customer service or refining your website’s layout.

Measuring your customer’s satisfaction gives you the information you need to ensure customer retention and provide better value to your clients. Ensuring brand loyalty and providing quality service to your customers can mean the difference between ensuring your business is profitable versus financial loss.

Different Metrics to Consider

There are different metrics that each business can consider when measuring customer satisfaction. Once you’ve set your Key Performance Indicators (KPI), you can use any of the metrics below to measure your growth.

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

A customer satisfaction score is a scale between one to five to check the overall experience of a customer with your business’s service. One (1) being the lowest and five (5) being the highest. Usually, you’ll see these scores presented as numbers or smiley faces. Using this tool can help predict your customer retention over time.

To compute for the CSAT, you’ll need to count all the customers who answered fours (4) and fives (5), then divide it by the number of responses.

For example, out of 150 respondents, only 95 individuals answered with fours (4) and fives (5). So, you only have a 63.33% satisfaction rate.

Customer Effort Score

The customer effort score evaluates the ease of your clients in availing of your services. Clients will give you a rating depending on how easily they navigated your checkout process. For this metric, it’s best to have multiple check-ins with your customer throughout their purchasing journey:

• You can ask your customers to rate the questions below from one (1) to five (5).
• Was it easy to find what you needed?
• Was it easy to get help from staff?
• Was it easy to find our store?
• Was the checkout process easy to do?

Net Promoter Score

The net promoter score answers the question: “How likely are you to recommend us to your friends and family?”
This calculates the intention of your customers in promoting your business. Usually, this is done on a scale of one (1) to five (5) and respondents are divided into three different categories.

• Promoters are those who said they would likely recommend your business to their friends and family. People who answered four (4) and five (5) are classified here.
• Passives are the people who answered threes (3).
• Detractors are those that won’t recommend your product to people they know. Individuals who answered one (1) and two (2) are categorized to this number.

Return Customer Rate

Attracting new customers to your business can be five to ten times more costly than keeping your current customer. In addition to that, your returning customers are likely to spend 67% more on your products than new customers. These numbers alone show you how important it is to keep clients coming back for your products or services.

The return customer rate is the percentage of customers making repeat purchases from you. To get this rate, you’ll need to calculate it using the formula below:

To demonstrate, let’s say that you’ve set your recording period between August and December, and you’ve had 800 customers and 500 are new customers. This means that you have a return customer rate of 37.5%.

SERVQUAL

SERVQUAL is a metric that combines service and quality. This method can be more taxing than other metrics because it requires a detailed form and the participation of your customers. Basically, this is the expectation of your client versus their reality.
Survey takers are asked to answer questions on a numerical scale about the following information:

Reliability
Reliability is the most crucial metric of this test because it helps align your vision with what your customer is receiving. The questions that are usually asked when calculating for this metric are somewhere along the lines of the following:

• Were we able to deliver what you expected?
• Are we consistent with our products?

Assurance
This value tells you if your customers can trust your brand and if you exude an aura of expertise. If your employees can help customers with their concerns confidently, then you shouldn’t be worried about this metric.
Here are some questions you can ask to check for this criterion:

• Did we answer all your questions correctly?
• Were you assured of our services?

Tangibility
This is the physical perception of your business. Think of it this way, when you go into a retail store, you look at the store’s overall look and how it makes you feel before you decide to make a purchase. However, if you’re an online business, this metric will rely on your user's experience of navigating your website’s design and how trustworthy it looks.

Empathy
Empathy is how you make your customers feel when addressing their concerns. This is the quality that checks how your team makes them feel when confronted with complaints and negative feedback.
Here are a couple of questions you can ask to measure empathy:

• Did we make you feel safe?
• Were we polite in answering your questions?
• Did you feel like your problems were answered with kindness?

Responsiveness
Responsiveness calculates how long it takes for you to reply to your client, and no, we’re not talking about auto-replies. We’re talking about actual customer service representatives getting back to people.

Methods to Consider

There are several techniques you can employ to collect information on customer satisfaction. Although it’s important to remember that no matter which method you choose, you’ll need to mirror your brand’s voice and aesthetic to make your customers feel that these surveys are really coming from your company.

It’s also a vital practice that you inform your subjects that their responses will be recorded and of any third-party services that will be handling their data. Staying transparent about the way you treat their data will help you keep their trust in your business.

Here are some methods you can consider in facilitating these surveys:

• SMS
• Online form
• Banner popups on the website
• Live chats
• Social media

Summary

There are various ways to check for your customer’s satisfaction, and depending on your results, you can augment your company’s process to address the feedback you receive. Listening to your customers and executing their suggestions will make them feel that their opinions matter and will make them feel even better about availing of your services. After all, everyone likes being heard.