What Is CSAT? – CSAT Meaning, Calculations and Tips

If you run a business, you’ve likely heard of a KPI called CSAT—it determines how satisfied your clients are with your product or service. In fact, the term CSAT stands for “customer satisfaction.” This is a crucial factor in your success as a business. After all, dissatisfied customers are unlikely to return, nor will they speak positively about your brand to potential customers. That’s why it’s important to consider your company’s CSAT score when developing your customer satisfaction strategy.

This article will discuss this critical facet of your overall customer satisfaction strategy so you can achieve an above-average CSAT score. Please remember to reach out if you have any questions; at TeleDirect, customer service is our expertise, and we are delighted to share it with you.

How Does CSAT Apply to the Call Center?

Your call center will be able to help your company determine their CSAT score through conducting customer satisfaction surveys. If you work with a call center who offers outbound call and customer survey services (like TeleDirect,) they will handle everything from developing survey questions to contacting customers. Your company will then be able to review these surveys and calculate your CSAT score.

Working with a call center is also a surefire way to ensure that your CSAT score is at a good level. This is because call centers like TeleDirect have specifically been developed with customer satisfaction in mind. By outsourcing a dedicated call center, your customers will spend less time on hold or frustrated over dropped calls and unsolved cases, and more time seeing their issues resolved and enjoying your product!

Why Is Your CSAT Score Important?

Your CSAT score indicates how happy your customers are with your product or service. Businesses need to be aware of their CSAT score so they can make necessary changes to promote better customer satisfaction levels. This benefits everybody involved—your customers will enjoy your product more and your brand will have a better chance of retaining them as a customer. A good CSAT score will also reflect better on your company—remember, word of mouth is a powerful form of marketing and unhappy customers aren’t afraid to speak up.

CSAT Score Calculation: How Does It Work?

CSAT score calculation is simple. To determine your CSAT score, you will need to conduct a customer satisfaction survey. This is typically done by phone, email, website or app. While there are several ways to conduct customer experience surveys, when calculating your CSAT score, many companies choose to do so through numeric scaling. Your customers will be asked to answer a set of questions by selecting a number on a scale. Typically, this scale is 1-5 or 1-10.

When you have collected a fair amount of surveys, it’s time to calculate your score. This is done by determining each customer’s satisfaction score, which is calculated by adding their numbers together to get an overall amount. Once you’ve found all of those, you can combine all of those scores into one overall score. You will then divide that number by the largest possible sum you could have received if every customer who submitted a survey gave you a perfect score. The resulting number should then be multiplied by 100. This final result is viewed as a percentage and is your CSAT score. So, if 50 customers completed a survey with a 1-10 scale, your highest possible sum would be 500. If you received an overall sum of 390, your CSAT score would be 78%.

Yes/no questions can also be used for CSAT score calculation. In this case, you divide your overall amount of “yes” responses over the highest possible sum and then multiply it by 100. So, if you ask 400 customers if they are satisfied, and 230 say “yes,” your CSAT score is 57.5%.

Sample CSAT Questions to Consider

Your CSAT questions will depend largely on what you want to improve and know about your product and customer service strategy. Here are a few examples to help get you started:

Thanks for visiting us! How was your time at our museum?

1. Terrible
2. OK
3. Average
4. Good
5. Excellent

How satisfied are you with the help you received from our team today?

1. I am dissatisfied
2. Slightly satisfied
3. Satisfied
4. Very satisfied
5. Extremely impressed and satisfied

How likely are you to recommend our restaurant to your friends/family?

1. Extremely unlikely
2. Unlikely
3. Potentially
4. Likely
5. Very likely

Wording Questions for a CSAT Survey

While there is an enormous amount of value to open-ended customer satisfaction surveys, they aren’t beneficial when calculating a concrete score. That’s why it’s best to word all your questions in a way that can be answered through a numeric scale (as seen above) or by selecting yes/no responses.

So, let’s say you run a resort, and want to know how satisfied your guests are with the hotel rooms. There are two ideal ways to ask this:

How comfortable was your hotel room?

1. Very uncomfortable
2. Uncomfortable
3. Average
4. Comfortable
5. Extremely comfortable

Was your hotel room comfortable?

• Yes
• No

Best Practices for Conducting a Customer Satisfaction Survey

Let’s get started! These are some of our recommended ways to create a CSAT survey:

• • Create an Exceptional Customer Experience Program

When you put your customers’ needs and experience first, it shows, which will reflect in your CSAT score.

• • Create a Solid Plan for Surveying Your Customers

To collect a good amount of data, you should be organized in your approach to surveying customers. Work with your team to develop the best ways to hear from your customers, whether it’s through phone outreach, free incentive or app/email notifications.

• • Ask the Right Questions

Consider what data and knowledge will help your business grow and evolve, and ask questions that will help get you there.

• • Check Your Data Collection Methods

Modern technology is key. It’s the most secure, efficient and thorough way to crunch data. You need to utilize the right measurement tools and it might be worth investing in some dedicated supplier evaluation software. Or, if that sounds too complicated, we recommend …

• • Outsource When Necessary

At TeleDirect, we deliver straightforward, effective customer support and communication tools to brands across America. This includes conducting personalized CSAT surveys and helping businesses calculate and leverage their scores. Contact (800) 776-1081 today to learn how we can help your CSAT score boom.