The task of the support service is to qualitatively and quickly process the requests of customers of a certain company to get satisfied users as a result. However, how can this be measured? And how do know what customers think about a specific product or service?

For this, there is a basic and one of the most popular indicators — Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT).

Why do you need a CSAT score?

CSAT is an average indicator of customer satisfaction with the interaction with the company. Its main advantage is that this metric measures reaction immediately after the end of his interaction with the product or service.

CSAT is measured by answering rating questions. They can refer to anything, its essence comes down to an accurate assessment of some single event. For example, when a customer is asked how his conversation with a support agent went and given options for answers. Therefore, the client chooses exactly the answer that suits him best, and can also leave a comment/feedback in a designated field for this.

However,  one person may be satisfied with the service received, and another may not be. We at A.R.C.E. believe that the impression of what an agent should or could do is, in most cases, a subjective judgment that varies from one person to another.

Therefore, from many years of experience, in our opinion, several factors should be taken into account when obtaining CSAT results:

  • Customers often rate the entire experience they received during interaction with the company, that is, the product or service and customer support.
  • In practice, customers usually tend to value negative experiences because positive experiences are taken for granted.
  • Users whose rating ranges from neutral to unsatisfactory are more likely to answer questions.
  • Dissatisfied customers are more likely to take surveys, but it all depends on the level of dissatisfaction with the product or service.
  • Different customers have different expectations. For someone, a certain phrase said by the manager can irritate the client and encourage him to leave a worse reaction, and for someone, it is important to have a long meaningful conversation. Therefore, all these circumstances must be considered when obtaining the result.

Recommendations

First, it is worth determining what indicator can be considered good for the company. For example, is 85%, 87%, 92%, 79% good for the customer or not?

Secondly, you need to regularly maintain communication with customers. With the option where customers can leave an evaluation about the support work, there is usually a field for comments. Users will be especially pleased when they receive feedback also on positive reviews.

Thirdly, you should immediately collect feedback. Therefore, agents can quickly process the client’s request/reaction and not lose the client in the event of a conflict situation. Feedback is needed primarily to improve support algorithms and the product or service itself.

Even refusal of feedback from the client is also feedback that should be used for working with data.

CONCLUSIONS

Benefits CSAT is an average indicator that helps to evaluate the specific interaction of the customer and his immediate reaction with the company at the point of contact: when buying a product or service, talking to technical support, etc. When an imbalance of negative evaluations appears, specialists will be able to see it to change the situation in time and improve the indicator.

The disadvantages of CSAT are subjectivity and ambiguity. Even when the customer receives perfect service from the support service — CSAT can be negative. After all, customers can leave them because they are thus dissatisfied with the product or service. However, at this moment, they may not understand that they are evaluating the support service and not the company.