How to improve CSAT [15 tips and tricks for businesses]

Customer satisfaction (CSAT) is a CX metric that reflects customer experience. Improving your customer satisfaction score should be your priority because a high score strongly predicts customer retention, loyalty and business success. 

This article will share 15 actionable tips for improving your CSAT score.

These 15 ways to improve CSAT are all tried-and-tested methods for improving overall customer satisfaction. Browse this list to find a solution that works for your team. 

The first tactic is to invest in regular customer service training.

Conduct quarterly training to ensure that customer service representatives have the knowledge they need to succeed. Regular sessions also give opportunities for representatives to realign with company goals.

When conducting training sessions, it’s essential to gather feedback on the perceived value of the sessions. A training survey enables you to assess each trainee’s progress and satisfaction levels. You can also ask employees for their thoughts on the training structure and instructors.

This data can assess employees’ understanding of the material and guide improvements to your training programme. And by soliciting feedback, you can continuously enhance your training initiatives to support customer satisfaction more effectively.

Today more than ever, customers are looking for personalised brand interactions. According to Forbes, 81% of customers in the US prefer companies that offer personalised experiences. To enhance customer satisfaction, your business should prioritise personalised experiences. 

Utilise a demographic survey to gather customer data. By gaining an understanding of your customers, you can create tailored experiences that consider their background, preferences and purchase history.

Personalisations could include adding a “you may also like” feature to your website. In this section, you can recommend other products based on a customer’s browsing history. 

Proactively communicating with customers via email, SMS and even physical mailshots can boost customer satisfaction.

Customers can plan their shopping for the best deals when informed of your latest offerings and sales. Proactive communication will encourage customers to make repeat purchases and participate in special money-off events for your business.

It’s never a bad thing to overcommunicate. Share company updates and behind-the-scenes content via email to give loyal customers a peek behind the curtain. Your customers will certainly appreciate the transparency and clear communication. 

Reducing response times for customer enquiries or support tickets is a fail-safe way to improve CSAT.

Let’s face facts: people don’t have the same patience as they did 30 years ago. Advanced technology has supported an instant gratification mindset. 

Customers aren’t going to be satisfied waiting 40 minutes on hold to speak to a customer service representative. Nor will they be happy waiting a week for an email response to a technical support ticket. Reducing response times can have a significant impact on customer satisfaction. 

Send feedback surveys and forms to measure customer satisfaction with response times. This will give you the insights that you need to improve response times and is a relatively simple method of enhancing customer satisfaction. 

Self-service options are something that every company should have, regardless of its size or the industry it operates in. If you want to improve the satisfaction of your customers, consider implementing self-service options such as a frequently asked questions page or a troubleshooting guide.

Some customers prefer to resolve issues independently and avoid interacting with customer service representatives via chat, email or phone. This can be quicker and less of a hassle for both parties.

If you don’t have any self-service options, it may be time to implement them. Providing customers with tools for self-service increases the likelihood of higher satisfaction ratings on CSAT and other customer service surveys.

Are you providing the highest-quality products at affordable prices? You should ask this question regularly, as product quality has a direct impact on customer satisfaction. Also, improving your product can help to maximise your CSAT scores.

A Net Promoter Score® (NPS®) survey is a CX metric that measures customer satisfaction. It can also help you to identify any reservations that customers may have.

NPS surveys ask the following question: “On a scale of 1–10, how likely is it that you would recommend our product/service to a friend or colleague?” A high percentage of promoters, i.e. respondents who give a 9–10 rating, indicate high customer satisfaction. In other words, your product is so great that customers are willing to tell their friends about it. Detractors, i.e. respondents who give a 0–6 rating, are dissatisfied with your product and won’t recommend it.

In addition to NPS surveys, product feedback surveys can help you identify areas for improvement. This feedback can be implemented to create better customer experiences with your products and, in turn, improve CSAT. 

Offering multiple support channels, such as virtual chat, phone and email, ensures that customers can access help in their preferred way.

Some customers have strong preferences about how they like to communicate with brands. By providing multiple support channel options, you can give customers the opportunity to tailor their experience. 

If you only offer one support channel currently, then it’s time to rethink. Providing multiple support channels helps to create positive customer experiences that make a lasting impression. This drives customer satisfaction and loyalty to your business. 

Setting clear expectations for customer support employees is key to high performance. Without clear guidelines and expectations, employees may unintentionally deliver subpar customer experiences.

If expectations are clear and well communicated, employees will understand their responsibilities and the consequences of failing to meet the specified standards. However, if expectations are unclear or haven’t been properly communicated, it’s time to address this and implement them effectively. You should provide concrete examples of model customer support interactions (ideally during regular training) to clarify employee expectations. 

Your support teams should feel empowered by management to thrive in their roles and provide top-notch customer service. How do you empower your teams? There are a multitude of ways to do this, but here are just a few recommendations: 

Every customer interaction is a chance to improve CSAT scores. Following up with customers after a customer service interaction demonstrates that you value their feedback. Sending an automated customer service feedback survey allows customers to share both positive and negative aspects of their experience, thus providing valuable insights.

Customers appreciate feeling heard by their favourite brands. Follow-up surveys are an excellent way to gather feedback from customers and reinforce their sense of value, making this a simple yet effective method of boosting customer satisfaction.   

Customers aren’t looking for identikit or one-size-fits-all solutions. You’re already one step ahead by offering personalised and innovative solutions to customers. Many companies focus more on the number of people that they help rather than on the quality of the customer service that they provide. 

By offering customised solutions where your employees listen to customer concerns, you will ensure that your customers feel valued and special. Everyone likes to feel like more than just a number. By taking the time to personalise each customer service experience, you can significantly improve satisfaction across the board. 

Take the time to analyse your company’s CSAT data regularly in order to monitor trends and progress.

By analysing this data, you will be able to determine whether your initiatives to improve customer satisfaction are making a difference to your CSAT scores. Benchmark your CSAT against others in your industry to see where you stand in relation to your competitors.

To analyse CSAT data, you should determine whether your score has stayed the same, decreased or increased over the last year and make changes based on the results.  

Related reading: What is a good CSAT score?

The user experience (UX) – in particular, the website UX – plays a significant role in customer satisfaction. A website that is difficult to navigate, glitchy or not mobile-friendly can cause stress and interrupt the customer journey.  If you enhance these aspects, you may see a ripple effect that elevates customer satisfaction.

Website usability is key, especially if your business is conducted via your website. For ecommerce businesses, you must provide a seamless user experience on your website. Our research determined that 88% of customers who have a poor experience with a company lose trust in that brand. This poor experience can easily be linked to a subpar website journey.  

Show your customers that you are listening to them by acknowledging their pain points. Acknowledging customer pain points helps to build trust and provides a better customer experience. This can be done in a few ways, including the following: 

Customer feedback is essential for sustaining high satisfaction and CSAT scores. Review feedback from customer service surveys on a regular basis, analysing it for any trends and recurring issues. Identify common themes and develop an action plan to address these concerns and prevent the same thing happening again.

Leverage customer feedback as a roadmap to improve CSAT scores; customers often highlight precisely what your team can do to enhance their satisfaction.

Eliminate poor customer service and improve CSAT by following the 15 tips above. From conducting regular staff training sessions to acting on customer feedback, there are plenty of different ways to improve customer satisfaction levels.

Improving CSAT isn’t just about a score; it’s also about the impact that satisfied customers have on your business. When customers are satisfied, they return to your brand, share your products with others and remain loyal for years. 

SurveyMonkey provides customer satisfaction solutions for businesses that are interested in building a foundation of loyal and satisfied customers. Sign up for SurveyMonkey today to measure and improve customer satisfaction with ease.