Answer to Question #248651 in Marketing for Beyonce

Question

Techniques on how to assess customer satisfaction

Answer 1

Discussion

Customer satisfaction is a measurement that determines how happy customers are with a company's products, services, and capabilities It's one of the most important indicators of purchase intentions and customer loyalty. As such, it helps predict business growth and revenue.

A business can’t underestimate the importance of customer satisfaction. It’s the best way to secure loyal customers who’ll eventually turn into brand ambassadors. Every company should treat customer satisfaction as an essential business factor and work on improving it. The number one objective of any business should be to create happy customers. Businesses that do, grow and flourish; those that don't, stagnate and perish.

Every day unsatisfied customers cost businesses a lot of money. In fact, studies that at least 80% of customers will switch companies after one poor service experience.

Below are some techniques used to assess customer satisfaction;

1. Customer Feedback Through Surveys

Surveys are an essential method of measuring the quality of customer service. It is better to ask customers directly what they think of the service, rather than just self-calculations. Initiate different types of surveys on various channels, mostly after the service is provided. Surveys can be hosted in different ways: 

• In-App Surveys. Customers often tend to ignore such surveys unless they are caught in the action. The best way to get an honest feedback is while they are availing the services on the business app. Initiate a post-purchase or post-service survey. The response rate is definitely higher and the feedback is most likely to be honest. 
• Post-Call Surveys. This type of survey focuses on the customer’s satisfaction with a specific service he/she just received. Ask it right after the delivery, when it's still fresh in the mind. This can be done the phone, but it's somewhat problematic because it takes more time from the customer, and he/she might not feel comfortable sharing an unfiltered opinion.
• Email Surveys. These surveys are for long-time customers who have made repeat purchases. Email them a form-based study with insightful questions. Keep those questions relevant to the customer’s goal, for better engagement. The answers are often lengthy; hence the response rate might be low. Send out those surveys whatever feedback comes back is bound to be valuable.
• Voluntary Feedback. Sometimes customers tend to provide feedback willingly without any follow-up. This can be for various reasons. Either they had a bad experience or an extremely good experience and they want to let the company know. However, an automated response often repels them from further engagement. Thus, ensure a personalized response or arrange a phone call to understand the customer’s expectation. Furthermore, positive feedback's can be recorded as success stories to encourage other customers.

2. Customer Satisfaction Score

This is the most standard customer satisfaction metric, asking a customer to rate his/her satisfaction with the business, product, or service. The business CSAT score is then the average rating of customer’s responses.

The scale typically ranges between 1 – 3, 1 – 5, or 1 – 10. A larger range is not always better, due to cultural differences in how people rate their satisfaction. More than often, customers vaguely choose either of the options because the service was indifferent. However, CSAT should not be eliminated as it is still an essential indicator. 

3.Net Promoter Score

NPS determines how likely a customer will recommend a particular product/service to their friends. The scale ranges from 1-10 where 1 denotes ‘not at all likely’ and 10 denotes ‘extremely likely.’ Calculating the business NPS score is quite easy. Take the percentage of respondents who fall within the ‘promoter’ category (10 - 9) and subtract the percentage of ‘detractors’ (0 - 6).

4.Customer Effort Score

The customer effort score, is a customer-centric approach for understanding the quality of customer service. Here the customer is asked about the amount of effort he/she had to put to avail the customer service for getting an issue resolved. Alternatively, it is asked if the organization had made it easier for the customer to interact with the customer support team. The scale ranges from 1 to 5, where 1 denotes very low effort, and 5 denotes very high effort.

5. Web-Analytics

Analytics is a data-driven metric that works without any direct involvement of the customer. Web-analytics crawls the business website traffic actively, reads the sales funnel, understands the customer behavior, and predicts future conversions. In-built attribution models give better insights of touch-points, most frequently visited FAQs, and more. These insights, if compiled and utilized smartly, can result in a successful customer service strategy that can be a crucial differentiator in the economy.

6. Social Media Monitoring

Customers are more vocal on the social media currently. They flaunt their purchases online while dissing the brands who dissatisfy them. Social media is a two-way sword. Keeping that in mind, it can be used to understand what the customers are saying about the company’s product. Most social media platforms come with a business account facility that provide an analytics dashboard. Observe the audience and focus on their comments, on their recommendations. Customer support teams can gather these data and formulate strategies to improve the satisfaction/engagement levels for better social media presence. 

Conclusion

Customer service metrics are the fodder for every business. It is an imperative factor that enables the process of improvement. Methods for measuring customer satisfaction might vary across industries. Businesses cannot improve what they don't know. Thus, measuring customer satisfaction must be a prevalent practice at businesses of all sizes, irrespective of industry.

Reference

Abd-El-Salam, E. M., Shawky, A. Y., & El-Nahas, T. (2013). The impact of corporate image and reputation on service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty: testing the mediating role. Case analysis in an international service company. The Business & Management Review, 3(2), 177.