When measuring customer satisfaction, the experts seem to agree that no single measurement can properly address all the service factors that influence customer satisfaction. The recommendation is usually to engage in some trial-and-error experimentation to find out which mix of measurements is the most effective for your company.
The "mix" typically comprises three widely used measures for gauging what customers think about your company and your products/services: CSAT, NPS, and CES.
Measuring Customer Satisfaction with CSAT, NPS and CES is Not a Comprehensive Solution
CSAT, short for Customer Satisfaction, is a broad term that describes many different types of customer surveys that are designed to elicit a "score" measuring customer satisfaction with your company's product, service, or interaction. Typically, survey respondents are asked to rate their experience in levels ranging from very satisfied to very dissatisfied. The number of respondents who answer somewhat satisfied, satisfied, and very satisfied are added up, and this sum becomes the company's CSAT Score. CSAT surveys can ask a variety of questions which makes them a versatile tool, but they tend to focus on a specific product or interaction, and not on the customer's overall relationship with the company.
Another way to measur customer satisfaction is by using a Net Promoter Score (NPS), which quantifies customer loyalty. NPS surveys ask respondents to rate, on a scale of 0 to 10, how likely it would be for them to recommend the company to a friend, colleague, or relative. NPS measures three categories of customers:
- promoters (9-10 rating)
- passives (7-8 rating)
- detractors (0-6 rating)
The NPS Score is a number ranging from -100 to +100 and any score >0 is considered to be good. It is calculated as the percentage of promoters minus the percentage of detractors in any given survey. For example, if the survey results in 30% promoters, 55% passives and 25% detractors, the NPS Score will be +5. NPS is a broader measure of customer satisfaction with the company. It does not lend itself to pinpointing specific areas for action unless follow-up questions are asked. Also, there is no guarantee that customers actually will recommend your brand.
The Customer Effort Score (CES) is yet another metric for measuring customer satisfaction. CES is used primarily by service organizations who want to create satisfied customers by making it easy for them to interact and resolve their issues with the company. Less effort equals happier customers. CES surveys ask respondents to agree or disagree with a statement such as, "The Company made it easy for me to resolve my complaint." Like CSAT, answers may range from strongly agree to neutral to strongly disagree. Responses are aggregated and averaged. The higher the average, the easier it is for customers to deal with your company, and the more satisfied they are.
Surveying is Not an Accurate Method
CSAT, NPS, and CES scores are widely used today as part of a strategic approach to measuring customer satisfaction. Companies spend significant time and effort on conducting surveys, managing and analyzing the data, and taking new actions to move customers up the scale from somewhat dissatisfied to loyal promoters. According to Bain & Company, the ability to tap into customer feedback and shape winning strategies is a clear indicator of a company's future growth potential.
While customer surveys have become ubiquitous, SurveyGizmo says that the response rate for external (i.e., customer) surveys is only 10-15%.
The trouble with CSAT, NPS, and CES is that they are all based on surveys, which means that companies have no idea what 85-90% of their customers think. In fact, you may be looking at the tip of the customer satisfaction iceberg and missing the unseen mass below the surface.
Even more telling is a statistic from OpinionLab, which found that 72% of customers said online surveys interfered with their website experience. The same study found that 80% of customers abandon surveys at the half-way point. Think about it: in the quest to measure customer satisfaction, companies may actually be contributing to customer dissatisfaction!
As the old saying goes, "There's got to be a better way." And there is.
Taking the 100% Approach
To truly understand what each customer wants, what each customer expects from your business, and how satisfied each customer is, you need to see and measure every interaction of every customer journey. Only then will the entire picture come clear.
Surveys can help you tap into feedback that some customers want to give. But what about the majority of customers who don't answer surveys? And what about all the unspoken feedback such as:
- The sentiment you hear in a customer's voice
- The words a customer uses during an interaction
- The number of times they get lost in IVR menus
- The number of times customers get bumped from one channel to another
- The number of times they have to re-authenticate or repeat their story
- The number of times they have to call back or try again before their issue is resolved
This kind of insight requires intelligent automation technologies to collect, aggregate, and store 100% of customer interaction data across all channels. It also requires omnichannel analytics that intelligently connects and weaves the data into customer journeys, so you can filter out the noise and focus on understanding why your customers are contacting you and what they want you to know.
Measuring Customer Satisfaction with NICE Nexidia Customer Engagement Analytics
NICE Nexidia provides the most powerful omnichannel solution available for understanding every customer journey.
Journey analytics is based on hard data that represents 100% of interactions across all channels in the organization. It includes the silent majority of customers who will not fill out survey forms or be involved in interviews. It employs hundreds of customer attributes to define, view, and visualize a journey, enabling organizations to see gaps and bottlenecks that impede customer journeys and take away from the quality experience. With the intelligent data integration of NICE Nexidia, your organization will no longer be swamped with too much data and not enough clarity on how to use it.
Get Serious About Customer Satisfaction
Many brands claim to put the customer experience at the center of their business and to be driven by customer satisfaction. To make good on that claim, it is important to choose industry-leading solutions, such as those offered by NICE Nexidia, that provide the technologies, platforms, applications, and managed services to help you advance toward becoming an organization that leaves nothing to chance when it comes to understanding what each customer wants and delivering complete customer satisfaction with every interaction.
