- 15 March 2021
- Alex Penfield
Tips for Measuring Customer Satisfaction
Your business is buzzing, sales are rising, and customers are smiling. Everything seems to be going great. And then it happens — a post, review or passing comment that signals customer unhappiness. Regardless of whether or not the criticism is warranted, receiving harsh feedback about your business is never fun. And in today’s digital age, a single bad review can spread quickly and turn away hundreds of potential customers. As a small entity that relies on customer loyalty and affinity to stay afloat, it’s important to keep customer satisfaction high. While you can’t control every customer emotion and perceived experience, you can make an effort to measure customer satisfaction and make the necessary tweaks to keep your clients coming back.
Wondering how you can measure just how happy your customers are? There are a few different strategies, both quantitative and qualitative, that can provide a solid sense of how your customers are feeling about your small business and the services it provides. Below you will find a list of four different ways to measure customer satisfaction depending on your business and data measurement needs.
- Customer Satisfaction Survey — Customer satisfaction surveys measure client happiness through a list of questions relating to your small business. These surveys are a great way to collect a wide range of data and can be easily tailored to gather information that fits your unique business structure. You can distribute a hard copy survey at checkout or serve it up digitally after an order has been placed online. For best results and completion rate, try to keep the questions brief and easy to answer.
- CSAT — A company’s average CSAT, or customer satisfaction score, is the percentage of people who are satisfied with the products and services a business provides. Responders are asked to answer customer satisfaction surveys on a five-point scale — one being very unsatisfied and five being highly satisfied. To calculate your score, take the number of satisfied responders (those who rated your business four or five) and divide this number by the total number of responses. Your CSAT will be in the range of zero to one hundred and provide you with an actionable, data-driven metric with which to monitor and work toward improving. High CSATs are also a great way to advertise your business’s effectiveness.
- Review Sites — Crowdsourced rating sites such as Yelp and Google reviews provide your customer base with a space to share their love of your business and spread the word to other customers. Be aware that these sites also serve as a platform for customers to air their less-than-stellar experiences or negative feedback. By carefully monitoring these spaces, you’ll be able to get a real-time sense of how your business is performing. Additionally, responding to negative reviews in a timely manner with a sincere apology and promise to do better can show potential customers you are committed to the success of your products and services.
- Social Media — Social media platforms provide a real-time, uncensored look into customer sentiment. Monitoring and quickly responding to comments on your page, direct messages, tags and mentions will provide you with a direct line of communication that can help you build a closer relationship with your clients. Being readily available on these platforms to help answer questions and fix issues can go a long way in keeping customers happy.
Measuring customer satisfaction is a great way to help you and your small business continually improve and provide better products and services to your customers. Armed with constructive feedback, you can better assess what you are doing well and, sometimes more important, what needs to change in order to retain business and keep a smile on your customers’ faces.