CSAT Surveys: How They Can Help Create Tighter Relationships with Your Customers
Why are CSAT Surveys Useful?
Customer satisfaction surveys, or CSAT surveys, are a valuable way to measure customer happiness and loyalty. They can also help you identify areas where your company is excelling, and areas where you need to make improvements. In this blog post, we will discuss how CSAT surveys can help create tighter relationships with your customers.
Listen to your customers and intervene on their behalf, and they'll love you for life. Conversely, your customers will leave you if you don't listen to them--it's that simple. CSAT surveys are one of the most important first steps in listening to customer feedback and creating opportunities to help when things are not perfect. In a future post, we'll explore how to design and execute perfect CSAT surveys. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay in the know and create the best possible customer experience for your DTC brand.
For now, we will hit on the basics of creating an effective CSAT survey. Here are the basic questions to ask:
Were you satisfied with the service you received?
Was your issue resolved?
Was your issue resolved in a timely manner?
We appreciate your feedback. Please leave any additional comments here.
That's it!
Well, of course, there are other additional and more advanced questions that can and should be asked, but it's incredibly easy to get a CSAT survey program like this off the ground with those four basic questions. Even if you are starting out manually without all the fancy automated CSAT survey tools, collecting a relatively small number of results from your customers can be incredibly insightful.
How to action customers' feedback
There are two parts to the actions that should be taken once feedback is received.
The first important area in addressing customer feedback is internal facing. In other words, customer feedback should impact:
Agent Coaching: CSAT data should be used for coaching support agents if poor feedback was directly linked to their performance. But, don't forget, positive customer feedback should also be used to acknowledge and celebrate great performances. After all, one of the best ways to crate a positive customer experience is through a happy, well supported, engaged customer support team.
Product Quality: No matter how empathetic, smart, and dymanic your CS agents are, they will not be able to overcome a poorly performing product. Gathering CSAT data allows you to spot trends early and intervene with engineering, manufacturing, and other supply chain groups to fix product issues as soon as possible.
Policy & Process Improvements: Similar to product quality, your business policies should be thought of as an extension of your product and overall brand. Rigid return policies, an inability for agents to send replacement parts without delay, and timely access to customer support agents (i.e. responsiveness) are a few of the most common friction points we see when helping our clients improve their customer experience outcomes. Again, CSAT survey feedback can yield important insights and help you make changes quickly.
The second area in addressing customer feedback is external facing. In other words, when customer feedback fits any of the following profiles, you should have mechanisms in place to quickly reply to the customer again:
A satisfied customer provides one or two small points of negative feedback: Thank the customer for completing the survey, reiterate how valuable their input is, and explain what you are doing to address the constructive feedback they shared. End the message on a high note by again thanking the customer for helping you build a better brand. For bonus points here, consider providing a small coupon or referral code at the end of your message. This can turn those warmly positive customers into some of your biggest cheerleaders.
You have a dissatisfied customer: At least 8 times out of 10, we find that dissatisfied customers can be intervened with and effectively turned around into satisfied customers and cheerleaders for your brand. The correct approach here is to fix an obvious mistake or issue caused by your product, your team, or by your processes or policies. If the fix is not easy or not self-evident, don't be afraid to ask the customer to clarify and, more importantly, ask what you can do to make the situation "right" for them. You will be surprised how often the requested fix from an angry customer is actually perfectly reasonable and achievable. An angry or dissatisfied customer who feels like they were heard and taken care of can be a powerful positive influence for your brand.
A happy and/or satisfied customer: These are the best situations, of course, and they are the reason you get out of bed in the morning. However, when brands come to Rush Order for the first time to help improve their customer experience, we're frequently amazed at how rarely brands reply with a simple and heartfelt "thank you for being a great customer". It's that easy and the positive reinforcement can be incredibly effective when it comes to generating positive word of mouth and accelerating the flywheel of your DTC business. Most of the time in this scenario, there's no need for an extra promo code or other giveaway. If anything, especially if you sell a subscription, a referral bonus link may be useful to share with this newfound cheerleader.
Understanding CSAT Scores
So, how do you calculate CSAT? To calculate your customer satisfaction percentage (CSAT), divide all the positive responses by the total number of responses and multiply this figure by 100. Let's say you have 42 positive responses out of 50 total responses. In this case, your CSAT score would be 84%.
What is a Good CSAT Score?
Depending on your product category, you may be able to locate industry specific benchmarks. Ask around with experts in your market and always try a quick online search. A good free example is the Zendesk customer service benchmark tool.
Parting Thoughts
The mechanics of creating CSAT surveys, sending the surveys without violating spam rules, and capturing & reporting actionable results will be discussed in future posts. We hope you will subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to speed on the latest learnings, teachings, tips, and tricks for any DTC brand looking to build the best customer experience possible.
We look forward to YOUR thoughts and feedback on these topics and what types of information you would like to learn more about. Please contact us any time to provide input.
