Top Techniques to Measure Customer Satisfaction [+Role of AI]

" Was this helpful?"  

"Rate your service experience on a scale of 1 to 5."  

"You spoke to Beverly from our customer service team. How satisfied were you with your experience today?"  

Though they may seem redundant, these questions are central to how businesses measure customer satisfaction.  

There is constant and immense pressure to hire the right people, invest heavily in a robust technology stack, offer comprehensive training and continuously improve customer service performance. All these efforts boil down to one critical goal: ensuring customer satisfaction. This has a profound ripple effect on your business's bottom line.  

Measuring customer satisfaction is critical for your business's success. In this blog, you'll learn how to measure customer satisfaction accurately, discover effective techniques and understand technology's pivotal role in this process. 

What is customer satisfaction?

Customer satisfaction is all about how happy customers are with your products, services and overall experience. It boils down to whether you meet or even exceed what the customer was expecting. 

Think of it like this: if a customer gets exactly what they wanted from your product or service and the interaction with your company is smooth and easy, they're likely to be satisfied. But if something falls short, disappointment sets in. 

Why is measuring customer satisfaction important

Measuring customer satisfaction in your contact center is essential for several reasons. Let's explore these.  

🔍Identifies areas for improvement  

Measuring customer satisfaction is invaluable for making targeted improvements. Businesses use customer service channels to survey customers and obtain data that helps identify gaps in products, services and customer service.

If feedback data indicates inefficiencies in fulfillment processes, you can improve offerings and optimize customer service operations to enhance customer satisfaction.  

💌 Enhances customer loyalty  

According to CX statistics, 74% of consumers perceive loyalty as rooted in the sense of being understood and appreciated. Understanding what makes your customers happy allows you to replicate and enhance their positive experiences, fostering customer loyalty.  

Satisfied customers are more likely to return, repeat purchases and recommend your business to others. Furthermore, loyal customers are often willing to pay a premium for a trusted brand, driving higher customer lifetime value and contributing significantly to revenue growth.   

 📣 Improves brand reputation  

Consistently measuring customer satisfaction helps build a strong, positive brand reputation. Customers appreciate brands that act on their feedback, leading to increased trust and loyalty.  

Moreover, in an age where online reviews and social media significantly influence purchase decisions, maintaining a high customer satisfaction score can result in positive reviews and social proof.   

📊 Powers strategic decision-making  

Customer satisfaction data provides actionable insights that can guide strategic decisions. This data ensures that your business decisions, like product enhancements and upgrades, are timely and align with customer expectations and market demands.  

For instance, if data indicates a need for a feature that simplifies the purchase, such as adding a dynamic search feature or a new payment mode, you can prioritize the development before customers switch to your competitors.  

👑 Offers competitive advantage  

Understanding and leveraging customer experience metrics can give your business a competitive edge in a crowded market. By strategically utilizing customer service analytics to enhance marketing and sales performance, you can achieve growth rates that surpass the industry average, outperforming your peers.   

Moreover, satisfied customers often provide constructive feedback, offering critical insights your competitors may lack. This enables you to stay ahead in innovation and customer service excellence. 

How to measure customer satisfaction: 7 innovative techniques

Quantifying customer satisfaction is no easy task. It requires a meticulous approach. Here are 7 techniques, including crucial KPIs, to help you gauge and enhance customer satisfaction: 

Technique #1: Measure CSAT Score

Measuring the customer satisfaction score (CSAT) provides prompt feedback on customer service, product or service viability, product or website usability and more. 

Deriving the CSAT score is a straightforward process. You can do it by asking a few key questions, such as 'How satisfied were you with your experience?' or 'How likely are you to repurchase from us?' Customers rate their satisfaction on a scale of 1-5 or 1-10, which is instrumental in gauging overall customer sentiment. 

Here’s the formula to calculate CSAT: 

For example, if 50 customers rate their experience as 4 or 5 out of 5 in a survey of 80 responses, your CSAT score will be: (50/80) ×100 = 62.5% 

Do you know 

Modern AI-powered omnichannel survey software enables you to predict CSAT scores across 30+ channels, including voice before customer conversations conclude. This innovative tool monitors and evaluates real-time interactions for crucial indicators like sentiment shifts, CSAT levels, tone variations, intensity fluctuations, intent signals and more.     

By harnessing these powerful insights, you can stay one step ahead, anticipating potential escalations and taking proactive measures to enhance customer satisfaction. 

Track CSAT Trend Now

Technique #2: Net promoter score

Net promoter score (NPS) measures customer loyalty and brand advocacy by asking customers how likely they are to recommend your business on a scale of 0 to 10. Respondents are categorized into promoters (9-10), passives (7-8) and detractors (0-6). The NPS score is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. 

Formula:  

Example: Say you survey 100 customers: 50 are promoters, 30 are passives and 20 of the passives are detractors. Then you have: 

Promoters: 50/100×100 = 50% 

Detractors: 20/100×100 = 20% 

So, your NPS score would be 50%−20% = 30 

Regularly tracking your net promoter score (NPS) provides valuable insights into how changes based on customer feedback are impacting overall customer satisfaction and loyalty. To gain deeper insights into customer sentiment, follow up with open-ended questions like, "What is the primary reason for your score?" This approach helps you understand the specific factors driving your customers' ratings and uncovers actionable insights for further improvement. 

📚 Bonus Read: How to Improve the Net Promoter Score of Your Brand 

Technique #3 Customer effort score (CES)

Customer Effort Score or CES evaluates the ease with which customers accomplish tasks or resolve issues with your company. It identifies friction points in customer interactions by highlighting the effort required to resolve issues. The standard question posed is: "How easy was it to resolve your issue today?" Customers rate their experience from "Very Difficult" to "Very Easy.” 

Formula:  

Example: Imagine you have 50 responses with a total effort rating of 175 

Then, your CES score would be 175/50 = 3.5 

Technique #4 Social media sentiment analysis

Social media sentiment analysis is highly recommended to identify customer intent and overall sentiment around your brand. Here’s how you can go about it:  

Step 1: Monitor social mentions  

Social listening plays a key role in collecting and monitoring extensive unstructured data. These tools employ advanced algorithms to sift through the continuous flow of social media content, identifying and extracting mentions pertinent to your brand and areas of interest.   
By automatically scanning platforms such as Facebook, X (previously Twitter), Instagram, LinkedIn and others, social listening software gathers a comprehensive dataset of social mentions, ensuring you have all the data you need for your analysis. 

Step 2: Analyze customer sentiment 

By examining user comments and feedback regarding your brand, you can delve deeper into understanding sentiment. Sentiments are typically categorized as positive, neutral or negative. Keywords found in reviews and posts are instrumental in categorizing sentiments: 

• Positive: love, happy, great, amazing, best 
• Neutral: okay, decent, works 
• Negative: hate, awful, worst, horrible, unhappy 

Step 3: Calculate the social sentiment score 

Social sentiment score is often derived through sentiment analysis, which involves using natural language processing (NLP) techniques to determine the sentiment (positive, negative, or neutral) expressed in social media posts, comments, or reviews.  

• Scoring methodology: So, how do you assign a score to each piece of content? It's a two-fold process. First, you analyze the sentiment. Then, you assign a score. This score can be numerical (e.g., on a scale from -1 to +1) or categorical (e.g., positive, negative, neutral).   
• Aggregation: To calculate an overall social sentiment score for a brand, product or topic, you aggregate the scores from all the content you've analyzed. This could involve averaging numerical scores, counting the frequency of positive vs. negative sentiments, or using weighted averages based on the importance of different sources or types of content.  
• Normalization (Optional): In some cases, scores may be normalized to ensure consistency and comparability across different periods or brands. Normalization adjusts scores to a standardized scale or baseline, allowing for easier interpretation and benchmarking.   
• Presentation: The final social sentiment score is often presented as a single metric or index that indicates the overall customer sentiment (positive, negative, or neutral) associated with the entity being analyzed (brand, product, etc.) on social media.  

💰 Two cents from Sprinklr 

Timing is crucial when measuring social media sentiment accurately. Events such as sudden issues or PR crises can trigger a surge in negative mentions. However, it's important to note that these spikes do not necessarily reflect customers' overall sentiment.  

Understanding the context and timing of data collection in social media analytics is essential. Real-time social media monitoring helps differentiate between temporary fluctuations caused by specific events and long-term trends that indicate sustained sentiment. This distinction allows you to respond appropriately and strategically to maintain positive brand perception.  

Technique #5 Customer journey mapping

Customer journey mapping is a strategic tool to visualize and understand the entirety of the customer experience, from the initial point of contact through to post-purchase interactions and beyond.  

Customer journey mapping typically involves the following steps:  

• Defining customer personas: Develop detailed profiles of your target customer segments to understand their needs, preferences and behaviors.  
   
• Identifying touchpoints: Map out all the customer touchpoints where customers interact with your brand online and offline.   
   
• Capturing customer emotions and actions: Document customer emotions, actions and perceptions at each touchpoint. This will help you understand the customer journey from their perspective.  
   
• Analyzing and identifying pain points: Analyze the customer journey maps to identify pain points and areas of friction where customers may encounter challenges or dissatisfaction.  
   
• Developing solutions and improvements: Based on insights gained, develop strategies and initiatives to address identified pain points and improve the customer experience.  
• Monitoring and iteration: Continuously monitor customer feedback and customer service metrics to assess the impact of improvements. Iteratively update the customer journey maps as customer behaviors and market conditions evolve. 

Technique #6 In-app and on-site surveys 

In-app and on-site surveys are like chatting with your customers right where they use your product or browsing your website. Instead of waiting for them to send an email or fill out a form later on, you ask them questions right then and there.  

Imagine you're using a new app and suddenly, a little pop-up asks, "How's your experience so far?" That's an in-app survey.  

Or you're shopping online and a quick question pops up: "Did you find what you were looking for?" That's an on-site survey.  

These surveys are not only short and sweet, usually just a few questions, but they also capture feedback while it's fresh in the customer's mind. The real-time nature of the surveys is what makes them super helpful for understanding what users think about specific features or services, providing you with immediate and valuable insights. 

Source

Technique #7 Voice of customer (VoC) program

Voice of the customer (VoC) programs are like a comprehensive listening system that captures what customers say about your business through various channels, such as surveys, social media, online reviews and customer service interactions.  

Consider the wealth of insights that can be gleaned by aggregating the different types of customer feedback. Surveys provide direct and structured responses, social media offers immediate and unfiltered reactions, reviews share detailed and personal experiences and customer service interactions deliver real-time and direct feedback.  

Whether identifying recurring issues that need attention or uncovering opportunities for enhancement, VoC programs empower businesses to adapt and refine their approaches based on direct customer feedback. 

🤖 Sprinklr powers AI-first surveys 
 
Sprinklr is revolutionizing customer feedback management with its AI-first surveys, a breakthrough powered by the Unified-CXM platform. These surveys promise improved response rates, higher quality responses and significantly reduced time to insights. Here's how they achieve it:  

AI-assisted survey builder: Leveraging generative AI capabilities, Sprinklr enables insights teams to generate customized questionnaires swiftly. Creative AI further streamlines survey design based on brand assets and guidelines, drastically reducing setup time and deployment speed.  

Modernized conversational surveys: Moving beyond traditional forms, Sprinklr introduces conversational surveys that offer an interactive respondent experience. AI-driven capabilities empower these surveys to adapt dynamically, probing unexpected responses to uncover hidden insights.  

Automated insights: Utilizing industry-specific AI and Generative AI, Sprinklr Surveys automate the interpretation of results, offering insights into the "what" and the "why" behind customer feedback. This automation accelerates time to insights and facilitates strategic initiatives to enhance net promoter scores (NPS).  

Hypothesis testing with digital data: Your insights teams can validate survey findings by cross-referencing them with extensive unsolicited social and review data, all within the intuitive Sprinklr survey platform. This integration boosts confidence in survey outcomes and enhances actionable decision-making.  

Unified platform integration: Sprinklr Surveys seamlessly integrates with the Sprinklr Insights platform, allowing users to consolidate solicited customer feedback with CX data from over 30 leading platforms. This unified approach empowers you to gain comprehensive customer insights across diverse digital touchpoints. 

See How AI-first Survey Works

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Measure customer satisfaction effortlessly with Sprinklr

In today's competitive market, understanding and improving customer satisfaction isn't just a nice-to-have—it's a necessity. Yet, many businesses face significant pain points in this endeavor. From fragmented feedback channels and delayed insights to the sheer volume of unstructured data, these challenges can obscure the true voice of your customers and hinder your ability to respond effectively. 

This is where innovative solutions like Sprinklr's omnichannel customer survey software come into play. By leveraging advanced AI capabilities and a unified platform, Sprinklr addresses these pain points head-on. It empowers businesses to collect, analyze and act on customer feedback in real-time across more than 30 channels, ensuring you never miss a beat. 

How about exploring Sprinklr’s capabilities on your own?