4 Ways of Measuring Customer Satisfaction

How likely are you to recommend our services to friends or family?

We value your opinion. Do you have recommendations on how we can make your shopping experience better?

How knowledgeable was the representative that assisted you today?

It’s common to read or hear these questions on a daily basis. Companies have begun to invest big money into providing the ultimate customer support experience. For companies to successfully invest in customer experience strategy, they also have to know exactly where they stand with their customers.

Assessing overall customer satisfaction is what takes a company to the next level in every department. Businesses are able to better assess employment decisions, budget matters, eCommerce marketing, and production when customer feedback and satisfaction is understood.

Measuring customer satisfaction has a few different facets:

• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): Measures how satisfied a customer is overall with products purchased or services provided.
• Customer Effort Score (CES): This tests the customer’s satisfaction as well, but specific questions them about the ease of the process they went through with the company.
• Net Promoter Score (NPS): How likely is a customer to refer a friend or family member to your company? That is precisely what the net promoter score tells you.

Preparing to Measure Customer Satisfaction

There are some preliminary steps that must be made in preparing to measure customer satisfaction. To get accurate and revealing data about the customer journey, a company needs to map out the intention and means of conducting a customer satisfaction survey. In other words, you need a game plan. If you’re not in agreement as a team on how to ask the customers questions, the topics to cover, and the protocol for implementing change then you’re two steps behind before you even begin. 

• Set clearly defined goals as a team (“What do we need to know?” “Does the Cost of conducting the survey outweigh the benefits at this point?”)
• Create a plan (Put staff, resources, and time aside to conduct the survey)
• Choose your survey of choice (Design your survey with the input you receive from stakeholders)

How will you conduct the satisfaction survey? This is a really important aspect of the process. If the majority of your customer base is 30 years old or younger then opting for a tech-savvy survey option is best. Things to consider when choosing your customer survey platform are age and demographic of your customers, the costs associated with conducting the survey, and the size of your company and customer base. 

Will you choose:

• Post delivered surveys
• In-app surveys
• Website portal survey
• Social Media survey- remember, you have chatbots, flows, and tools in your ManyChat dashboard to help you get a wealth of information from your social media audience!
• Phone call survey
• Email survey via a link

Metrics of Customer Satisfaction

There are typically four areas of measurement for customer satisfaction. 

1. Overall Satisfaction Measure (Attitudinal)

Scenario question: Overall, how satisfied are you with your experience at Massy’s Doughnuts?

This measure is giving a bird’s eye view of the customer journey and overall perception of the company. Customers often answer this question with the following in mind:

• Their perception of the company
• Their immediate needs being met
• The quality of their experience

2. Loyalty Measurement (Affective, Behavioral)

Scenario question: Would you recommend Massy’s Doughnuts to a friend or family member?

Wondering how to build customer loyalty? This is a question that you’re sure to have seen or been asked yourself. If you’ve never thought about the psychology behind the wording then here is your chance to see how the right wording can increase customer lifetime value. People are most loyal to their friends and family. The best of referrals and experiences are reserved for those that we care about most. For the most part, we wouldn’t recommend a coffee shop to a friend if our experience was at a 3 out of 10. Asking this direct question elicits a customer’s true opinion. Other questions that may be used as a customer loyalty measurement may be:

• How satisfied are you with [brand]?
• How likely are you to repurchase with [brand]?

3. A Series of Attribute Satisfaction Measurements (Affective and Cognitive)

Here is where things get specific. This series of measurements asks the customer about a specific experience with a specific product or service to gauge whether they were happy or unhappy with it. 

Scenario question: How pleased were you with the taste of your doughnut today at Massy’s doughnuts? 

Follow up question: How important is taste to you when you are choosing a bakery? (Hopefully this would be blatantly obvious!)

These questions are so beneficial in customer satisfaction surveys because it measures the priorities or values of a new customer and predicts the likelihood of customer retention. The affect (liking/disliking a product) and the cognition (assessing if the product was useful, fitting, or important) are two areas that help distinguish a customer’s expectation and needs. For example, knowing that a product was not utilitarian and helpful offers more useful information than simply knowing that  dissatisfied customers did not like it.

4. Intentions to Repurchase Measurements (Behavioral Measures) 

Scenario question: Do you intend on returning to Massy’s Doughnuts within the next month? 

This particular measurement can be a bit tricky and shouldn’t be used as a sole indicator of customer satisfaction. Presenting customers with hypothetical situations is a good practice because it allows you to see their intentions for future purchases, potential word of mouth referrals, and likelihood of committing to your business. 

How to Improve Customer Satisfaction

You should have an “aftercare plan” in place for dealing with difficult customers in the instance that the survey talleys that 75% of customers are very dissatisfied with their experiences at your company. Unfavorable stats such as this aren’t uncommon and certainly aren’t a death sentence to your business. See the disconnect as a gaping hole that you need to find and mend. Even though your initial survey findings come back doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to act right away. Positive change takes time to implement and best practices aren’t perfected overnight. In the meantime, take a go at improving your customer satisfaction with these tips:

• Streamline major complaints (disgruntled customers) to your most capable customer service representatives

• Ensure that business social media accounts, in addition to the website are warm, kind, and professionally maintained
• Make sure all pricing is visible and clear on your website
• Create an awards program or host giveaways
• Have a system in place to gain customer feedback on a regular basis. This will allow you to “improve as you go and grow”

Key Takeaways

It’s worth knowing what your customers think, feel, and experience within the context of your company. Create a survey system that will grant you insight into your company’s customer satisfaction. Make sure your team is on the same page and that everything is in place prior to your customer survey. Customers won’t always tell you what’s going well or what’s going terribly. It’s up to you to ask and to make changes where necessary.

Remember, being in tune with your customer means being in touch with them. ManyChat has a plethora of tools at your disposal ready to open that dialogue, so you can attract, engage, and convert your ideal into customer loyalty!