Measuring customer satisfaction is a low priority for many businesses.
This happens for two main reasons.
One, they have hundreds of items on their to-do lists: increasing sales, following up for collections, responding to emails, checking statuses of unresolved issues and just daily fire-fighting.
Two, customers don’t share anything other than the odd issue they faced here and there, but apart from that, everything is fine.
At such times, measuring customer satisfaction feels like a futile exercise.
But one day, businesses realize that though an important existing customer didn’t complain, it moved to a competitor. Now, leaders have to deal with the added problem of losing an essential customer to their daily fire-fighting.
Is this how you want your business to function? If your answer is no, then you will find the rest of this post useful.
Why Customer Satisfaction Is Important
Happy customers are a core aspect of every successful business. Such customers don’t just buy more; they also help a business identify what it’s doing well and how it can build that to increase its customer base.
When you listen to customers, you also identify the reason behind your CSAT numbers – why customers are happy or unhappy. You can fix gaps in your operations to make your business more efficient and effective.
According to research, companies that measure CSAT effectively are thirty percent more likely to have more than 10% of growth each year.
Here are three other ways in which customer satisfaction surveys benefit a business:
1. Creating a Positive Culture
When the customer gets placed at the center of everything, a company does, things move quickly. Decisions get made quicker, issues are resolved faster, and people are accountable for their actions.
Such a culture enables people to learn, improve, and find meaning in their work, creating a positive work culture. People also stick around for longer, thus saving costs for the business in hiring and training new employees.
2. Reducing Costs
One of the most common reasons why businesses don’t engage in customer satisfaction surveys is that they think it will increase costs.
But working to improve customer satisfaction, not only streamlines operations and reduces operational costs, but it also improves customer retention and loyalty, which reduces marketing costs and increases profit and revenue.
3. Staying Ahead of the Curve
Customer satisfaction surveys help you get insights not just into how customers perceive your company, but also into their buying behavior. Thus, you also get an idea when market trends are about to change.
When you know what the next big thing is, you can prepare yourself to ride the new wave. You can test new products, introduce the ones that will prove highly profitable, and train your people on the same. As a result, you stay ahead of the curve.
5 Sample Customer Satisfaction Survey Questions
But like I mentioned before, if customers say “All is well” when you conduct a survey, it’s pointless. Instead, here are five sample customer satisfaction survey questions you can ask to get deeper insights into your customers’ mindsets:
Q1. How would you rate your satisfaction with [product name]?
Feedback Type: 1-5 (1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest.)
- If customers answer between 1-3, say, “Sorry to hear that. What was the biggest challenge you faced?”
- If customers answer between 4-5, say, “That’s nice to hear. What did you love most about the product?”
The answers to this question will give you insights on which aspects customers loved in your offering, and which aspects they didn’t.
Q2. Why did you buy [product name]?
Feedback Type: Open box.
Look for patterns in customers’ answers and also for points that stand out.
Patterns will help you understand which customer pain points your offerings address for customers. You can use them to refine your target audience and buyer persona and craft your marketing message.
Points that stand out can help you decide whether your offering has the potential to enter new markets.
Q3. Which factors were important for you to choose this product?
Feedback Type: Open box.
These insights will help you identify which factors your customers care about the most. You can work to enhance the quality of what you already offer and integrate what customers want, but you don’t offer yet.
Then you can highlight the same in your marketing messages to lower your customer acquisition costs.
Q4. How would you rate our support?
Feedback Type: 1-5 (1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest.)
- If customers answer between 1-3, say, “Sorry to hear that. What was the biggest challenge you faced?”
- If customers answer between 4-5, say, “That’s nice to hear. What did you find most helpful in our support?”
These insights help you understand the causes behind the customer satisfaction scores and how your customers perceive your support team. You’ll also understand where the bottlenecks occurred that created inconvenience for your customers.
Accordingly, you can invest in training to upskill your support agents and employees to provide a quicker and better experience to customers.
Q5. How likely are you to recommend [product name] to a friend or colleague?
Feedback Type: 1-5 (1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest.)
This will give you an overall idea of how customers perceive your product, service, and brand name overall. You can compare the percentage of low scores (1-3 scores) to that of the high scores (4-5) and get an idea of where your company stands.
Related: How to build an effective customer experience strategy
Summing Up
You can ask these questions a week after customers receive your product or use your service, or after a few months if they’re using a subscription-based service.
How has your experience with customer satisfaction surveys been? How have you used them to improve customer satisfaction and understand the market? Do leave a comment. We would love to hear from you.
