Customer satisfaction is no longer a nice-to-have concept for modern companies.
According to research from PwC, 73% of consumers say that customer care is a crucial consideration when choosing which businesses to buy from.
Today, your clients aren’t just looking for the products with the best selection of features, or even the lowest price point. Instead, they want to know that the companies they buy from have their best interests at heart. Give your customers the satisfaction they crave, and the results are fantastic, including improved brand loyalty and even better word-of-mouth marketing.
Here’s why businesses of all sizes need to learn how to appreciate and measure customer satisfaction.
What is customer satisfaction?
For some companies, customer satisfaction has become a kind of a buzzword, like “cloud computing”, or “blockchain.” However, there’s more to this phrase than most people think.
Increasingly, satisfying customers isn’t just about making sure that you deliver quick solutions to your consumer’s problems. Instead, you need to ensure that you’re providing the meaningful moments that your customers need, on the platforms they prefer to use. For instance, Microsoft found that 66% of customers are now using more than 3 channels to interact with businesses.
To compete in the modern marketplace, brands need to be active on those preferred channels, and capable of giving a consistent experience across them.
Higher customer lifetime value: Consumers will pay up to 17% more to do business with firms that have a good reputation. Click To Tweet
Whether you’re investing in messaging apps to provide users with convenient conversations, self-service bots to provide 24/7 assistance, or video for more contextual discussions, it’s crucial to meet and even exceed customer expectations today.
If your clients like the way they feel when they’re interacting with you, then they’ll be more likely to continue buying your products or services – regardless of the deals that other vendors can offer. Benefits of better satisfaction include:
- Repeat purchases: 52% of consumers make additional purchases from a business after a good experience.
- Higher customer lifetime value: Consumers will pay up to 17% more to do business with firms that have a good reputation.
- Better revenue: Businesses that excel in delivering great customer experiences drive revenues up to 8% higher than their counterparts.
How to measure customer satisfaction
The concept of customer satisfaction can seem quite broad at first.
Some people define a satisfied customer as someone happy to go out and advocate on behalf of a brand. Other companies simply see satisfaction in the continued loyalty of a client. Measuring CSAT gives you an insight into how clients think and feel about you, so you can make sure you’re staying in line with their expectations.
For instance, you can:
- Create a customer satisfaction survey and collect feedback from clients.
- Analyse what people are saying about you with social listening tools.
- Check metrics like bounce rates and abandoned calls in your customer contact centre.
A CSAT survey can ask clients to measure their satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 10 or ask for qualitative feedback, which provides more detailed views into a client’s interactions with your brands. Before you begin looking for ways to measure satisfaction, make sure you have a strategy in mind. Ask yourself what your goal is, how frequently you’ll survey your customers, and what kind of feedback you expect to get.
How to improve customer satisfaction
The more you measure your satisfaction rates, the easier it is to show your customers that you care about the quality of their interactions with you. It’s even possible to identify areas where your customer service needs to be improved.
Engaging with your customers regularly, both happy and unhappy will give you an insight into what you need to do to transform your brand. Click To Tweet
Using the feedback and CSAT score you collect, make sure that you’re continually investing in new ways to improve your service reputation. Engaging with your customers regularly, both happy and unhappy will give you an insight into what you need to do to transform your brand. Some of the ways you can boost customer satisfaction today include:
- Finding out which channels your customers use most and offering omnichannel contact options on those platforms.
- Providing quick resolutions to your customers in the form of self-service solutions, AI, and personal human contact.
- Using previously collected feedback to make informed improvements to your products and services.
When you make customer satisfaction a critical KPI for your brand, you’ll find that you start putting your customers first in every decision you make. This leads to better revenue, greater differentiation, and more opportunities over time.
Read more: Drive Better Customer Engagement
Originally published Jul 02, 2019, updated Jan 17, 2023
