Collecting customer feedback is essential to understanding how your business is doing. It can help you identify areas where you need to improve, and it shows you what your customers actually want from you.

In this blog, we discuss the different ways you can find out customer feedback, as well as the best tools to use and the questions to ask.

We’ll also discuss how to analyze all that data so you can make informed decisions about your business.

What is customer satisfaction and why should you measure it?

Customer satisfaction is a measure of how happy your customers are with the products or services you provide.

It is important to always measure customer satisfaction because it can affect your business in a number of ways:

• Satisfied customers are more likely to recommend your products or services to others, which can lead to more sales.
• Dissatisfied customers can leave negative reviews online, which can deter potential customers from using your product or service.
• Satisfied customers will be more likely to spread word of mouth, which of course works in your favor.
• Satisfied customers are more likely to return and buy from you again, while dissatisfied customers are more likely to switch to a competitor. And you don’t want that!

There are a number of ways to measure customer satisfaction, and we will discuss some of them in this blog. But first, let’s look at some facts and figures about customer satisfaction:

According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), customer satisfaction has been declining in recent years. In their 2016 report, they stated that only 55% of customers were satisfied with their experience. That’s down from 60% in 2015 and 64% in 2014!

The 2017 Temkin Experience Ratings report found similar results, with only 59% of customers satisfied with their experience. This is down from 63% in 2016 and 66% in 2015.

But not all industries are experiencing this decline. The 2017 JD Power US Retail Banking Satisfaction Study showed that customer satisfaction increased by 2 points between 2016 and 2017, reaching a record high of 765 points.

There is no single answer for why customer satisfaction is declining in all industries.

Many factors can come into play, such as increased competition, the rise of online retailing, poor representation across channels or changes in customer demographics.

Measuring customer satisfaction: here’s how to do it

Measuring customer satisfaction is usually done with surveys. You can send customers surveys via e-mail, phone or text message.

You can also ask customers to complete surveys after they have made a purchase or used your service.

You can also measure customer satisfaction by tracking customer complaints.

You can track the number of complaints you receive and the severity of those complaints. This information can help you identify areas where you need to improve.

You can also measure customer satisfaction with social media software. Tracking the sentiment of your social media posts can give you an idea of how your customers think about your product or service.

Finally, you can measure customer satisfaction through website analytics. This data can help you identify pages on your Web site that cause customers to leave without making a purchase.

Software tools

There are a number of software tools you can use to measure customer loyalty:

• Survey Monkey: Survey Monkey is a software tool that allows you to create surveys, solicit responses and analyze the data
• Google Forms: Google Forms is free survey software that allows you to create surveys, collect responses and analyze data.
• Qualtrics: You can use Qualtrics software to design and distribute surveys, collect responses and interpret the data.
• Alchemer: Alchemer (formerly SurveyGizmo) is a survey creation and management tool that can help you develop surveys, get responses and analyze the results.

Measurement methods

You can measure overall satisfaction using a number of measurement tools, such as the NPS and the CSAT. The following methods are common:

The Net Promoter Score (NPS)

The Net Promoter Score is a popular method and asks customers how likely they are to recommend your product or service to others.

Customers who answer with a 9 or 10 are considered promoters, while customers who answer with a 6 or 7 are considered passives, and customers who answer with a 4 or 5 are considered detractors.

The Promoter Score measures your most satisfied and dissatisfied customers. It can also help you track the growth of your customer base over time.

Want to read more about the promoter score? Then be sure to read this blog.

The Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT).

The CSAT, or Customer Satisfaction Score, is a measure of customer satisfaction often used in the customer service industry. The CSAT asks customers to rate their satisfaction with a product or service on a scale of 1 to 10.

A 7 or lower is considered unsatisfactory, while 8 or higher is considered satisfactory.

The CSAT can be used to track your customers’ satisfaction over time. It can also be used to identify areas where you need to improve your customer service.

The customer effort score (CES).

The Customer Effort Score (CES) is a measure of how much effort a customer has to make to get what he wants from a company. The CES is measured on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the lowest effort and 10 being the highest.

Post service surveys

Post service surveys can be a great way to measure customer satisfaction. Asking customers to complete a survey after they receive service from your company allows them to rate you on the quality of service received. This information can help you identify areas where you need to improve. You can also track customer complaints through post-service surveys.

Tips to improve customer satisfaction

Scared a bit by your outcomes? Don’t panic! We have some tips to help you increase your customer satisfaction.

1. Make it easy for your customers to let you know what they think

People are lazy. First of all, make sure your customers can actually find your questionnaire. After all, measuring customer satisfaction doesn’t make much sense if you don’t have a high response rate for your customer survey.

Send an e-mail to all the people from whom you want a response and try to initiate interaction. Tell them that their opinion matters and that you actually want to act on the results.

2. Track every contact moment in your customer journey

Be sure to ask for a response after every touch point, no matter through which of your channels the conversation runs. This way you have the entire customer experience in view. Of course, this does not have to be a comprehensive survey every time, a short check to measure the satisfaction of an action is enough.

3. Do something with feedback from your customers

When you receive feedback from your customers, it is important to take action on the information you receive. This means addressing issues identified by your customers and making changes to improve their experience.

It also means thanking them for their feedback and letting them know that their opinion is important to you. Doing something with customer feedback can help improve customer satisfaction, build loyalty and encourage people to provide feedback in the future. It can also help you identify and solve problems before they become bigger problems.

4. Respond to customer complaints

It is important to respond to customer complaints, even if you cannot solve the problem immediately. Customers appreciate knowing that their concerns are being heard and that you are working to solve the problem.

If you take the time to respond to customer complaints, you can turn a negative experience into a positive one, and that is very much worth it!

5. Train your employees to provide excellent customer service

Make sure your employees are trained to provide excellent customer service. This includes learning how to handle difficult customer service situations.

Your employees are the face of your company, and they play a big role in determining whether or not customers are satisfied with their experience. If your employees don’t take care of your customers, your customer satisfaction scores will suffer.

6. Ask smart questions in your customer survey

Asking smart questions in your customer survey is essential for measuring customer satisfaction. If your method is wrong, you will not get the information you need to improve your customer’s experience.

Here are some tips:

• Ask about the customer’s experience with your company as a whole, not just a specific interaction.
• Ask how likely the customer is to recommend your company to others. This is known as the Net Promoter Score (NPS) and also says something about loyalty.
• Ask about specific areas where the customer had a bad experience and ask them to name weak points.
• Also ask for points for improvement.
• Ask how their problem was solved and how they experienced the service.
• Ask about customer expectations and how they were or were not met.
• Ask for points of contact throughout the customer journey.
• Ask what your customer means by exceptional customer service.

Summary: measure customer satisfaction and keep your customers happy

Measuring customer satisfaction is essential to keeping your customers happy. But if you don’t ask the right questions or use the wrong methodology, you won’t get the information you need to improve your customer’s experience.

Be sure to ask about the customer’s experience with your company as a whole, measure the net promoter score nps, the customer satisfaction score and ask about specific areas where they had a bad experience. Also, choose the right method and make sure your e mails inviting research are read.

Also ask for areas of improvement. Taking action on customer feedback can help improve customer satisfaction scores and encourage more people to provide feedback in the future. You always want to answer an email from your customers, even if it’s not so positive.

So, now you have everything you need to measure customer satisfaction. Need more sparring on customer contact? We have been seeing a lot of companies in our industry for 15 years and are happy to spar about your goals. Invite us for a no-obligation consultation and we will look for your company on how to make the relationship with your customers even better and turn a satisfied customer into a fan.