Understanding customer dissatisfaction (DSAT) and strategies for preventing it
Businesses have a problem. Although 49% of customer experience (CX) professionals believe that customer satisfaction has improved in the past six months, only 18% of consumers agree.
Customer dissatisfaction can hinder business growth, leading to lost sales, negative word of mouth and a damaged brand reputation.
To protect your brand and bottom line, it’s crucial to understand the root causes of dissatisfaction and address them proactively. Companies that do so can turn setbacks into opportunities, strengthening customer loyalty and employee engagement.
In this article, we’ll explore customer dissatisfaction, its common causes and some practical strategies for preventing it.
What is customer dissatisfaction?
Definition of DSAT
Customer dissatisfaction refers to the negative sentiment that customers experience when a product or service fails to meet their expectations. This dissatisfaction can stem from any number of reasons, including poor customer service, product quality issues and a mismatch between the customer’s expectations and their experience with your brand.
Although it’s not always possible to completely avoid customer dissatisfaction, a company’s response to customer satisfaction can make all the difference. In addition, identifying and rectifying common causes of customer dissatisfaction with your business can help you to avoid long-term consequences and a sustained impact on your business.
Related reading: Why customer satisfaction is important and how to focus on it
Consequences of high rates of dissatisfaction
Let’s explore what can happen if you don’t keep your customer dissatisfaction in check. High rates of customer dissatisfaction can lead to several negative outcomes, including:
- Loss of revenue. Dissatisfied customers are less likely to make repeat purchases or recommend the product or service to others. This can have a direct impact on your bottom line, affecting both new sales and recurring revenue. In addition, it’s important to remember that retaining your existing customers is typically more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. Because of this, a focus on customer satisfaction is crucial for the sustained financial performance of your business.
- Damage to reputation. Negative experiences shared by dissatisfied customers can tarnish a company’s reputation, leading to a loss of trust and credibility in the market. In the age of the internet, dissatisfied customers can quickly share their negative experiences through social media and online reviews, making it difficult to contain the impact.
- Increased customer churn. Dissatisfied customers are also much more likely to switch to competitors, leading to higher customer churn rates and loss of market share. High churn rates can significantly impact long-term business growth and stability.
- Decreased employee morale. Dealing with dissatisfied customers can negatively affect employee morale and job satisfaction, lowering employee productivity and engagement. Moreover, high levels of customer dissatisfaction can create a stressful work environment for customer-facing employees.
What is DSAT in customer service?
DSAT in customer service refers to instances of customer dissatisfaction experienced related to the service that they receive from your company. DSAT encompasses a variety of different factors, including interactions with customer support representatives, support response times, issue resolution times, the overall service quality and whether the issue was satisfactorily resolved. Monitoring DSAT in customer service is essential as it directly affects customer perceptions and loyalty.
What are the common causes of DSAT?
Now that you understand the consequences of customer dissatisfaction, let’s consider its most common causes.
Although this is not an exhaustive list, these areas are often the first place to look as they will give you an insight into the root cause(s) of the issues so you can address them proactively. In general, customer dissatisfaction will come down to one (or both) of these things: poor customer service and product quality issues. Let’s look at a few examples.
Poor customer service
Poor customer service is a significant cause of dissatisfaction. You’ll need to dig a little deeper into why your customers are having poor experiences with your customer service.
- Unresponsive or slow customer support. One common cause of dissatisfaction is slow or unresponsive customer support. Your customers expect timely responses when they contact your company for support. They don’t want to send an email and then wait days for a response. Nor will they be happy sitting on hold for hours on end or being constantly redirected to a different team, with no resolution in sight. If a customer has contacted support for help, they are most probably already frustrated because something isn’t working quite right. Getting answers to their concerns at a snail’s pace will only amplify their frustration and drive them to look for alternatives.
- Rude or unhelpful staff. Negative interactions with customer service representatives can also leave a lasting impression on customers, making them less likely to continue doing business with the company. Again, customers are contacting support to have their problem resolved. If your staff are dismissive and unhelpful, this can make the situation worse.
- Inefficient problem resolution. Let’s suppose your waiting times are short and your staff are extremely friendly and eager to help. What else could be causing customer satisfaction? Maybe your staff don’t have the necessary training to handle customers’ problems effectively. When that happens, it may take a long time to troubleshoot customers’ concerns and their issues may not be resolved at all during the conversations between them and your staff. When issues are not resolved quickly and effectively, customers may feel neglected and undervalued.
Product quality issues
Customer dissatisfaction can also occur when the product fails to meet expectations, which might even be the original reason for them contacting your support team in the first place.
Common product quality issues that lead to customer dissatisfaction include:
- Defective or malfunctioning products. Products that do not work as intended or break down earlier than expected can cause frustration and disappointment. Customers may contact support to get a warranty repair or replacement, or they may simply look for alternative options.
- Misleading product descriptions. If the product does not match the description or fails to deliver the promised benefits, customers may feel misled by your marketing and sales.
- Lack of reliability or durability. Products that do not last or require frequent repairs can further erode customer trust and satisfaction.
5 strategies for preventing customer dissatisfaction
Preventing customer dissatisfaction is key to driving positive business outcomes and building a thriving community of brand advocates. However, customer dissatisfaction often runs deep and won’t be solved overnight.
If your business is serious about improving its customer satisfaction, you’ll need to take the time to understand your audience’s needs and expectations, identify the root causes of the dissatisfaction and turn those negative experiences into opportunities to improve your customer satisfaction.
Here are a few key strategies.
1. Reduce customer effort
The customer effort score (CES) measures how much effort customers have to put in to get their issues resolved. Reducing customer effort can significantly improve satisfaction. Implementing CES surveys can help to identify pain points and streamline processes.
Here are a few practical steps that you can take to reduce customer effort:
- Make it easy for customers to contact support. Check the ease of navigation of your website or app. Is it user-friendly? How many clicks does it take for customers to find what they need, such as support contact information?
- Automate simple tasks. Where possible, implement automations that enable customers to find information themselves. For example, instead of requiring them to contact support, consider automating order tracking and account updates. This allows customers to find the information they need quickly, where possible, while freeing up your support staff to focus on more complex questions.
- Empower customers with self-service options. Consider publishing comprehensive self-service resources such as FAQs, knowledge bases and video tutorials to help customers resolve their issues independently.
- Offer multi-channel support. Give your customers options to contact you. For example, offer support via phone, email, live or automated chat, as well as social media, so that customers can choose the most convenient option.
2. Gather customer feedback throughout the customer lifecycle
The regular collection of feedback at various stages of the customer lifecycle will help you to identify issues early and address them proactively. Use surveys and feedback forms to gather insights and make necessary improvements.
Here are a few examples of cases where you should consider capturing your customers’ feedback:
- Onboarding surveys: Collect feedback from new customers to understand their initial experience and identify any areas of confusion or dissatisfaction.
- Post-purchase surveys: After a purchase, ask customers about their satisfaction with the buying process, product quality and overall experience.
- Usage surveys: Check in with customers periodically to see how they are using your product or service and to identify any emerging issues or unmet needs.
- Transactional NPS surveys: After a customer interaction with your support team, consider sending out an NPS survey to measure the customer’s satisfaction with the level of service that they received.
- Exit surveys: When customers choose to leave, ask them about their reasons for leaving and what you could have done to retain their business. This will give you valuable insight to take into account in future customer interactions.
3. Enhance customer communication
Clear and transparent communication can prevent misunderstandings and manage customer expectations. For example, regular updates, clear instructions and timely responses can enhance customer satisfaction.
It’s also important to scrutinise your marketing and sales messaging in order to understand where there may be a disconnect between customer expectations and the realities of the product. Consider how you can work cross-functionally to deliver a seamless end-to-end customer experience from the first marketing touch to customer success.
4. Add personalisation to your customer service process
Personalising customer interactions can make customers feel valued and understood. Use customer data to tailor communications, offers and support to individual preferences and needs.
Here’s how to implement personalisation:
- Segment your audience. Divide your customer base into segments based on demographics, purchase history and behaviour so that you can tailor messages to each audience more effectively.
- Offer tailored support. Use customer history and data to provide more personalised support, addressing customers by name and referencing their past interactions. This helps customers feel valued, even if they’re dealing with a complex issue.
- Enable customisable experiences. Allow customers to customise their experience with your product or service, such as choosing preferred communication channels or setting product preferences.
5. Improve customer support
Investing in excellent customer service can significantly reduce dissatisfaction by ensuring that customers receive timely and effective assistance. Consider implementing comprehensive training programmes for support staff to equip them with the necessary knowledge, empathy and conflict resolution skills to respond effectively to the gamut of customer issues.
It’s also a good idea to consider whether you have the right systems in place to drive your customer support team’s success. For example, effective customer relationship management (CRM) tools can help you to streamline support processes and keep track of customer interactions, allowing for more personalised and effective service.
Finally, establishing feedback loops to collect data about support interactions enables continuous improvement of support processes, ensuring that customer service remains responsive and effective.
Related reading: 6 tips to improve your team’s customer service skills
Improve customer satisfaction with SurveyMonkey
Customer dissatisfaction can have a profound impact on your business. However, when you have an in-depth understanding of your customers’ needs and expectations, you can turn customer dissatisfaction into learning opportunities, drive higher rates of customer success and satisfaction and take your business to the next level.
Learn more or get started with a free customer service feedback survey template.
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