The Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) is a metric that provides insight into customers’ overall satisfaction with a company’s products and services. It combines various individual aspects of customer satisfaction into a single, meaningful index. The CSI therefore provides valuable insights into overall customer perceptions and can help companies identify strengths, weaknesses and areas for improvement. The following sections explain the fundamentals of measuring the Customer Satisfaction Index, how the CSI differs from CSAT, how the index is determined and calculated, and which factors need to be considered.
Table of Contents
What is the Customer Satisfaction Index?
The CSI is one of the key metrics companies use to assess overall customer satisfaction. Rather than considering individual areas of a company, such as product quality, customer support and the ordering process, separately, the Customer Satisfaction Index looks at them collectively. Its purpose is to provide a comprehensive picture of customer satisfaction. In short, the Customer Satisfaction Index encompasses various dimensions of customer satisfaction.
It is based on ratings for a range of individual criteria, which are combined in the CSI. The Customer Satisfaction Index is therefore calculated from an aggregate assessment of various satisfaction factors. The overall assessment should include as many factors relevant to the company’s success and growth as possible. These may include satisfaction with the product range or service quality, the usability of the website, customer service and value for money.
Depending on the business model, sector and industry, a number of other satisfaction factors may be relevant. The factors that should be included in the overall satisfaction score also depend on the specific needs and expectations of the customer base, which should be identified regularly through customer surveys. To produce a meaningful CSI, the relevant factors should not only be included but also weighted according to their importance. Areas that contribute particularly strongly to customer satisfaction and therefore business success should receive a higher weighting when calculating the CSI.
Customer satisfaction – other indicators: In addition to the comprehensive CSI, many companies are interested in recording other individual key performance indicators (KPIs). These include the Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), the Customer Effort Score (CES) and the Net Promoter Score (NPS).
CSI vs CSAT: what is the difference?
While CSAT indicates how satisfied customers are with one specific aspect, the CSI examines overall satisfaction across several aspects. The Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), for example, evaluates a particular interaction, such as satisfaction with customer support. In the Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI), this rating would be considered as just one aspect alongside other assessment criteria.
The various aspects included in the CSI may therefore comprise several ratings obtained through CSAT surveys. Depending on their relevance to the company, these may include satisfaction with customer service, the ordering process, the brand itself and/or a specific product or service purchased. Ratings of the company’s website or app may also be relevant to the CSI.
The Customer Satisfaction Index can therefore be calculated by combining the results of different CSAT assessments. Alternatively, all relevant factors can be assessed in a single, comprehensive CSI survey.
The individual aspects of the customer experience should ideally be weighted to obtain a meaningful CSI score for your company. First, consider which aspects matter to customers and are therefore particularly relevant to business success. These should be weighted more heavily when calculating and analysing the CSI. While satisfaction with the ordering process may be crucial for an e-commerce shop, satisfaction with products or specific product features is often decisive for a manufacturer. Customer service satisfaction may also be relevant to both companies.
Other aspects that can be included in the CSI with different weightings include satisfaction with complaints handling, the usability of the company app or website, value for money, the company’s sustainability strategy and its overall corporate image.
Which factors are considered in the CSI?
The CSI considers a range of factors to provide a comprehensive picture of customer satisfaction with a company’s products and services. The factors may vary depending on the industry and specific circumstances, but some are generally relevant across sectors. A meaningful CSI must incorporate several dimensions of customer satisfaction.
The most important criteria and factors included in the CSI are:
- Product quality: How satisfied are customers with the quality and performance of the product or service?
- Customer service: How satisfied are customers with customer service, including the friendliness, expertise and availability of staff?
- Value for money: Do customers feel that they receive appropriate value for the price they pay?
- Delivery and availability: How satisfied are customers with delivery times, product availability and the reliability of deliveries?
- Experience and ease of use: How good is the customer experience in terms of the website’s usability or the in-store purchasing experience?
- Meeting expectations: Do the products or services meet or even exceed customer expectations?
- Problem resolution and returns: How satisfied are customers with the way the company handles problems or returns?
- Communication: How transparent and efficient is communication with customers?
- Brand image: What impression do customers have of the brand, and how connected do they feel to it?
- Sustainability: How satisfied are customers with the social and environmental conditions in the manufacturing process or supply chain?
The Customer Loyalty Index (CLI) is a metric indicating how likely customers are to remain loyal to a company over the long term. It also incorporates factors such as repurchase intention, willingness to recommend and upsell rate.
How is the CSI calculated?
Calculating the CSI involves asking customers how satisfied they are with various areas and weighting the importance of these aspects according to their relevance. The company can determine the weighting based on estimates and experience, or ask customers directly (“How satisfied are you with our customer service? How important is this service to you?”). The ratings for the individual weighted areas are all included as components of the comprehensive Customer Satisfaction Index. Unlike CSAT, the Customer Satisfaction Index therefore asks for differentiated ratings of a range of individual criteria and then aggregates them using weightings.
Customers are asked to rate individual aspects, such as customer service, order processing, a particular service and/or product quality, either in several separate CSAT surveys or in one comprehensive CSI survey. The CSI therefore considers several dimensions of the customer experience, which are first evaluated individually and then combined. In short, ratings of different areas that are important to business success are examined separately and brought together in the Customer Satisfaction Index.
Example CSI calculation
Suppose you have conducted several separate CSAT surveys and the percentage CSAT score is 66% for the ordering process, 85% for product quality and 70% for customer service. You have also assigned a weighting to each area. If, for example, you give product quality a higher weighting than the ordering process and customer service, the calculation would look like this:
CSI = (CSAT A × weighting) + (CSAT B × weighting) + (CSAT C × weighting) | Example: (66% × 0.3) + (85% × 0.4) + (70% × 0.3) = 19.8 + 34 + 21 = 74.8% |
|---|
Calculate the CSI in 6 steps
The CSI can be determined and calculated in different ways. One of the most common methods involves six steps:
- Define relevant areas: Identify the areas that influence customer satisfaction. Ratings of relevant areas, such as the ordering process, product quality, value for money and customer support, should be included in the CSI.
- Apply weightings: Weight the various areas and criteria according to their importance to business success. Product quality, for example, might be more relevant than the usability of the website.
- Collect customer feedback: Conduct surveys and ask your customers to rate the various areas.
- Calculate satisfaction scores (CSAT): Use the survey results to calculate the Customer Satisfaction Score for each area.
- Weight the CSAT scores: Multiply the individual CSAT scores by the previously defined weightings.
- Calculate the CSI: Add together the weighted CSAT scores.
Questionnaire templates for calculating the CSI
When creating your online questionnaire, you are welcome to use our free questionnaire templates as a guide. You can copy them to your LamaPoll account with just one click and adapt them there as required. The Customer Satisfaction Index can be determined either with a comprehensive CSI survey or with several CSAT surveys. The templates for both approaches can be adapted to your company’s specific circumstances.
You can find more questionnaire templates for a wide range of customer and employee surveys here: questionnaire templates
CSI - Fast Facts: The Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) is a key indicator for measuring customer satisfaction. Using surveys and scaling methods, it determines how satisfied customers are with the individual areas of a company. With the CSI, the ratings of the individual areas are aggregated with weighting to reflect overall satisfaction. The CSI helps you identify strengths, weaknesses and areas for improvement within the company and derive optimisation measures. It is also well suited to analysing satisfaction trends over a given period, making it an ideal basis for strategic planning.
Reliable, flexible and GDPR-compliant: our clear recommendation. As a professional football club, we depend on a powerful yet user-friendly survey tool. With LamaPoll, we have found exactly that. We use the tool across the company, both internally for employee surveys and externally for customer and fan surveys. We were particularly impressed by the platform's high flexibility and ease of use. Thanks to hosting in Germany, LamaPoll also meets the highest data protection standards, which is a decisive criterion for us. The customer service is also excellent: enquiries are answered quickly, competently and in a friendly manner. We are completely satisfied and can recommend LamaPoll without reservation.
