Unlike NPS, there is no hard and fast rule on how to calculate CSAT. My chosen method is to simply calculate the average of your Customers responses.
CSAT
Customer Satisfaction
The measurement of Customer Satisfaction is commonly known as CSAT. CSAT can range from a simple question, such as "on a scale from 0 to 10, how satisfied are you with our company?" to more specific questions pertaining to a particular product or person, such as "During your visit to our shop how satisfied were you with the assistance provided by David?"
CSAT has the potential to provide you with invaluable data, which can be used to identify areas of concern, as well as for target setting and remuneration.
Net Promoter Score (NPS) vs CSAT
It's important to realize that NPS and CSAT measure two very different things. NPS measures your Customers loyalty to your Company, where as CSAT measures your Customers Satisfaction with the service they receive. Unlike NPS there is no lag, CSAT measures the here and now; and can be a very useful tool, allowing you to probe into specific areas of your business.
The Questions
CSAT can assess your Customer's satisfaction of any chosen aspect of your company, from your products to your staff. Simply follow your NPS question with one or more satisfaction questions which are relevant to the specific touch point. For instance, for help surveys you could ask:
I recommend no more than 5 CSAT questions per survey page. The more questions you ask and the longer your survey is, the high likelihood that the Customers will abandon your survey halfway through.
Scale
Unlike NPS you don't have to use a Zero to Ten scale, however when including CSAT questions in the same survey as your NPS question it's advisable to use the same scales to avoid confusion. Where zero is equal to very unsatisfied and ten is equal to very satisfied. Its also perfectly acceptable to use emojis headers rather than text :)
The Formula
Alternatively if you surveyed your Customers using emoji buttons you can simply display the total number of Happy, Neutral, and Sad smiles. Likewise if you used a star rating you can display both the number of stars and the average number of stars, similar to the way Amazon Customers review their products.
How to survey your Customers
As with NPS, one of the best way to survey your Customers is via an online survey, either built directly into your website (often know as intercept surveys), or by sending email invites. There are plenty of companies providing this capability, from the the free (but limited) Survey Monkey, to the all encompassing services of Medallia.
Email surveys tend to give you more honest feedback than surveys carried out with a human interaction, such as face to face or over the phone. Face to face or phone surveys tend to be more positively biased, because Customers often feel reluctant to complain or give detailed answers when questioned in this manner, however you will get a much better response rate than for emails. The industry standard response rate for email surveys is between 10% to 20%, where as for phone or face to faces surveys you can expect closer to 45%.
However, as CSAT is not dependent on a Zero to Ten scale, you can measure satisfaction in far more interesting ways. For instance I'm sure you have all seen and maybe used the satisfaction buttons found in shops, toilets, and airports. This type of interface is a great way to capture real time Customer satisfaction .
The only drawbacks are that Customers can't leave comments so you have to guess at the reasons why Customers left the feedback they did, and that the results can't be incorporated into your survey results due to the difference in scale. The same goes for post call IVR surveys, and zero to five star ratings.
Touch Points
If you have ever conducted Customer Journey Mapping you will have already come across touch points. A touch point is a point in time when your Customer interacts with your company. You can define as many touch points and have as many different types of touch point surveys as you desire. Some typical touch points are: Buy, Install, Pay, Help, Change, and Exit. These touch points can be made in many ways, such as: over the phone, in person at a shop, or online.
Having multiple touch point surveys allows you to tailor your surveys to match the type of interaction your Customer had with your Company. Allowing you to ask specific questions relating to their experiences and gaining a more insight into your Customers experience.
Voice of your Customer
In addition to asking your Customers fixed zero to ten questions, it is important to allow your Customers the chance to express themselves freely.
Follow your questions, with an open question and text box, asking the Customer why the gave the scores they did. In most cases you only need one text box per survey, because most Customers will write all their points at the first opportunity, and are likely to leave subsequent boxes blank.
Read more on the power of VoC!
Influencing your results
There are many factors that can influence your Customers Satisfaction, from a grumpy employee, to an amazing product.
Getting things wrong, or carrying out certain activities such as price increases can easily have a negative impact on your Customers Satisfaction. However improving your CSAT doesn't have to be hard, a simple thing such as a smile can go a long way.
Check out my pages on Turbo Charging CSAT
and Employee Engagement
for ways to turn your Customers frown upside-down :)
