The Customer Satisfaction Score, or CSAT, is a metric that allows you to measure customer satisfaction directly. A survey, usually consisting of just one question, can determine how satisfied customers are with a product, service or customer support interaction. At its core, you ask customers directly how satisfied they are with your company or products and invite them to respond on a scale from 1 to 5 (very dissatisfied to very satisfied). Below, you will learn what a CSAT survey can look like in detail, how to calculate the CSAT score and what conclusions you can draw from the result.
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Definition: What is the Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)?
Customer satisfaction is an essential metric for many companies. The Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) is used to measure it. The calculation is based on a questionnaire that you send directly to your customers. It asks how satisfied they are with a specific product, service or interaction, such as an interaction with customer support. In other words, you assess the extent to which your company meets your customers' expectations.
Because the CSAT can be measured at numerous points along the customer journey or for the company as a whole, it is worth using a survey tool such as LamaPoll. This allows you to collect relevant feedback easily at a wide range of touchpoints. Depending on the calculation method, the CSAT is expressed either as the percentage of all customers who are satisfied or as an overall average. This provides a basis for subsequent measures and strategies, solutions to problems, or new developments and improvements within your company.
Measuring the Customer Satisfaction Score: questionnaire templates
To measure the CSAT score, create a survey for customers to complete after a transaction, such as purchasing or receiving a product, or after an interaction with customer support. This questionnaire generally contains just one specific question relating to the purchase or interaction. Relevant questions might include:
- “How satisfied are you with the quality of our product?”
- “How satisfied are you with the usability of our website?”
- “How satisfied are you with our customer support?”
- “How satisfied are you with the information you received about our services?”
These examples show that it is best to keep your customer survey short, concise and unambiguous. However you phrase the question, its core purpose is always to measure customer satisfaction. Avoid open-ended and overly broad questions. This ensures that customers understand what you are asking and need to spend as little time as possible completing the survey, helping you achieve a higher response rate.
Next, use a response scale with five options: 1 (“very dissatisfied”), 2 (“dissatisfied”), 3 (“neutral”), 4 (“satisfied”), and 5 (“very satisfied”). You can use a conventional numerical scale or opt for a more creative approach. Depending on the topic, a smiley scale, traffic-light scale or star rating may be more suitable and add some variety. Take a look at our CSAT questionnaire template, or copy the template directly to your LamaPoll account.
Finally, you need to find a sensible interval that suits your survey. It makes sense to survey your customers after every interaction with customer service. The same applies to specific orders and to satisfaction on completion of a service. Things are different, however, for more general questions such as satisfaction with a company overall. Users who engage with your company regularly may feel bothered by constant enquiries of this kind. So think carefully in advance about which touchpoint to follow up on, and how often.
Besides regularity, timing also matters. Do not let too much time pass between a transaction or interaction and the survey. The fresher your customers' impressions are, the more honest and valuable their feedback tends to be.
How is the CSAT calculated?
With the results of your CSAT survey, you can calculate the average of all responses or focus on the percentage of customers who are satisfied with what you offer. The latter group is particularly relevant, that is, the customers who answered “very satisfied” and “satisfied” in the survey. These responses are the basis for the customer satisfaction score.
- Percentage CSAT score: add up the number of satisfied customers (very satisfied + satisfied), divide by the total number of survey responses and then multiply by 100
An example of calculating the percentage CSAT score: 80 of 120 participants answered your survey with very satisfied or satisfied. Your calculation then looks like this: 80 / 120 x 100 = 66.67 per cent. 66.67 per cent of the customers surveyed are satisfied.
- Average CSAT value: add up the sum of the survey scores and divide by the total number of all responses
An example of calculating the average CSAT value: you asked 229 participants how satisfied they are with your customer service. The answer options were very dissatisfied, dissatisfied, neutral, satisfied and very satisfied. For the calculation, each answer option is now assigned a score from 1 to 5 (very dissatisfied = 1, dissatisfied = 2, neutral = 3, satisfied = 4, very satisfied = 5).
Your survey produced the following results: 17 respondents are very dissatisfied, 30 are dissatisfied, 38 are neutral, 75 are satisfied and 69 are very satisfied. Now add up the products of the respective scores and divide the result by the total number of participants.
This is how the calculation works: 17 x 1 + 30 x 2 + 38 x 3 + 75 x 4 + 69 x 5 = 836 / 229 = 3.65.
With LamaPoll, by the way, you can save yourself the manual calculation of the average CSAT value. Simply go to the “Results” menu item, select the relevant question and click on average values (Ø values).
And what does your result mean? As a general rule: the higher your CSAT score, the more satisfied your customers are. A higher value is therefore better. When a customer satisfaction score can be considered “good”, however, is individual and depends heavily on the company's industry. So there is no universally valid CSAT benchmark that you should aim for. On average, you could say that a value of 80 per cent or more is good, while anything below 50 per cent calls for prompt investigation of the causes.
In general, the Customer Satisfaction Score is not a metric you should measure once and then forget. Rather, the aim is to build a long-term picture that reveals both positive and negative changes. Fluctuations may arise from seasonality, for example, or result from changes or adjustments within your company. Also make sure that as many customers as possible take part in your CSAT survey. The more feedback you receive, the easier it becomes to generate meaningful results.
Customer satisfaction surveys such as the CSAT are highly individual and subjective. The expectations that different customers have of a product, a service or a company can vary widely. That makes it all the more important that the number of participants taking part in your CSAT survey is as large as possible. Only then do you obtain a meaningful score that helps you derive further steps and actions.
CSAT - customer satisfaction survey
Is it worth measuring the CSAT?
As a metric, the Customer Satisfaction Score makes a valuable contribution to a company's development. Thanks to the CSAT, you are able to identify weak points along your customer journey. At the same time, customer feedback gives you a sense of which products, services or touchpoints may be problematic or in need of improvement. After analysing your CSAT survey accordingly, these insights give you a basis for developing further strategies and implementing them in a targeted way.
You also have the opportunity to align products or services with your customers' wishes and expectations. Use this approach and let your customers know how much impact their feedback has. This relationship builds growing customer loyalty and creates trust in you and your brand. That is precisely why CSAT surveys are part of a continuous process that should be treated neither sporadically nor as an afterthought.
An example of CSAT surveys in a company: your company has launched a new washing machine. Since the launch, your customers have increasingly contacted customer service because the machine occasionally produces error messages during the spin cycle. Your customer support reliably provides the solution when customers ask. A CSAT survey about support therefore returns a great deal of positive feedback. It is a different story with a CSAT survey about customers' satisfaction with the new washing machine. Many customers are dissatisfied or very dissatisfied.
Analysing the CSAT for both problem areas shows you the following: your customer support does a good job and resolves your customers' problems satisfactorily. At the same time, it becomes clear that many customers are dissatisfied after buying the new appliance. Now you need to take action, find a simple and comprehensive solution to the problem and win back your customers' shaken trust. This fictional example also shows how valuable it is to embed CSAT surveys at various touchpoints along the customer journey, that is, everywhere your customers come into contact with your company. In turn, you gain a complete picture of customer satisfaction.
Another opportunity for a CSAT survey arises in the months before a contract expires. These might be mobile phone contracts, gym memberships or subscriptions for services or delivery providers, for example. As the end of the contract approaches, measuring customer satisfaction is particularly worthwhile. Dissatisfied customers will leave and stop using your service or product. So it is important to identify this group and take preventive action to avoid churn. You can find more on this topic here: Churn management
Whether satisfied customers also become loyal in the long term is something you can calculate using the Customer Loyalty Index. It factors in additional aspects such as repurchase intention, willingness to recommend and upsell rate.
What distinguishes the Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) from the Net Promoter Score (NPS)?
The Customer Satisfaction Score is highly versatile and can be used anywhere an interaction takes place between customers and a company. At its core, it is about determining how satisfied customers are. The Net Promoter Score also focuses on customer satisfaction, or rather customer loyalty, but measures it indirectly through willingness to recommend. Both NPS and CSAT are captured via a survey that contains just one question to generate customer feedback.
Whereas the CSAT asks a customer very specifically about their satisfaction with a company segment, a product or a service, the NPS is much more about the overall experience. “How likely is it that you would recommend our company to a friend or colleague?” is the classic question, or a variation of it, that an NPS survey contains. Respondents can answer on a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 stands for “very unlikely” and 10 for “very likely”. Here, customer satisfaction, or rather customer enthusiasm, is asked about more indirectly through the recommendation rate. The NPS therefore initially provides indications and first pointers to possible weak points, which then need to be examined more closely.
Both metrics centre on the customer's experience, with the CSAT capturing more short-term and specific experiences and the NPS more long-term ones. It is therefore not at all advisable to choose between measuring the NPS or the CSAT; instead, measure both. Using the NPS in particular helps you find out whether changes you have introduced on the basis of CSAT surveys also have a lasting effect. So make full use of your options. The more you know about your customers, the easier it becomes to make customer-focused decisions.
Conclusion: understanding and correctly interpreting the CSAT
- CSAT surveys are enormously versatile and can be integrated anywhere customers come into contact with your company. So take a look at your customer journey and use relevant touchpoints for the customer survey.
- Do not let too much time pass between interaction, transaction and survey. The fresher your customers' memories are at the time of the CSAT survey, the more honest and useful the feedback you receive.
- Regular CSAT surveys are crucial for generating meaningful feedback, recognising changes and making comparisons.
- CSAT surveys are highly subjective and a snapshot in time. So do not rely on them alone when assessing your customer satisfaction; use additional KPIs (key performance indicators) such as the NPS or the Customer Effort Score (CES).
- Surveys alone are not enough to tackle negative customer feedback. Use your Customer Satisfaction Score and go looking for clues. Where are the weak points in the company and what can you do to work on them? So treat this as an ongoing process.
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