Have you ever wondered why your customers come back? Ultimately, it boils down to the level of satisfaction they experience after interacting with your company. To understand what makes them come back, you need to measure their satisfaction at key moments.
CSAT, or the Customer Satisfaction Score, helps you find this. It provides clear insights into how customers feel after different interactions along their journey, which include experiences such as a support call, a sales chat, or onboarding a product.
Let’s see how CSAT works and how to make it an important part of your customer experience program.
CSAT's overview
A Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) is a key metric that shows how happy customers are after certain interactions, like a support call, purchase, or product setup. It’s usually gathered through surveys where customers rate their satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 5 or 1 to 10.
What it measures: CSAT gauges how happy customers are with specific experiences, like a recent purchase or a customer service interaction. It gives quick insights into how customers felt during specific moments in their journey.
How it is measured: Companies often use short surveys to ask questions like, “How satisfied were you with your recent experience?” Customers rate their satisfaction, and the score is based on the number of satisfied or very satisfied customers.
How it's calculated: The CSAT score is calculated by taking the percentage of satisfied customers. For example, if 80 out of 100 respondents rate their experience positively, the CSAT score would be 80%.
Why it's important: CSAT helps businesses identify areas of excellence and areas for improvement. By tracking CSAT scores, companies can take action to reduce churn, increase loyalty, and improve overall customer satisfaction.
What Is CSAT Score?
The Customer Satisfaction Score is a metric that informs you about how satisfied customers are after engaging with your business. It answers the question, “How satisfied were you with your experience?”
Customers give their rating using a rating scale, usually from 1 to 5 or 1 to 10. The greater the number, the more satisfied the customer feels. The rating system is simple and quick. It is mostly used after a specific interaction, such as a customer support call, product delivery, or an onboarding process.
It literally means Customer Satisfaction. And it’s one of the key customer satisfaction metrics to understand how your services align with customer expectations.
-Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon
Why does CSAT matter for businesses?
It matters for businesses because it provides data that is based on real-time feedback about how your customers feel. It shows what you’re doing right and where you need to improve. By tracking this score, you can reduce churn, boost loyalty, and create better experiences. It helps you stay close to customer needs.
How To Measure CSAT?
To measure CSAT, you first need to create a CSAT survey to collect customer feedback. It should be short, easy to answer, and sent immediately after a certain interaction.
Here is how to do it:
- Ask a clear question like “How satisfied were you with your recent experience?”
- Some customers will rate their satisfaction.
For this 1 to 5 scale works the best) - The rating in these numbers range from:
- Very dissatisfied
- Dissatisfied
- Neutral
- Satisfied
- Very Satisfied
- Collect the survey data.
- Analyze customer sentiment from positive responses and negative feedback.
The direct CSAT feedback gives you the qualitative, actionable data to refine processes and boost customer engagement.
The main way to get feedback is through customer satisfaction surveys. These can be done with forms on websites, in apps, via SMS, or other methods.
Suitable Time to Measure CSAT
To collect the most accurate feedback, survey your customers at these points in time:
- Right after a customer interaction, like a support call, live chat, or in-store visit.
- After a purchase, to understand how satisfied or happy they were with their buying experience.
- Following any events such as workshops, training, or webinars.
- At regular intervals, for businesses with recurring services or subscription models.
- After significant milestones during long-term services, such as onboarding, IT support, or consulting projects.
How To Calculate CSAT Scores?
CSAT calculation is simple. It focuses only on a certain number of satisfied customers. So, once you get the feedback, you calculate the CSAT score.
The customer satisfaction score formula is:
Ratings of 4 or 5 (on a 1-5 scale) are considered good.
Now, let’s say that 80 out of 100 customers have rated your service a 4 or 5. It means that your CSAT score would be (80 / 100) x 100 = 80%
This says that 80% of your customers are happy with your service. This customer satisfaction formula helps to see how satisfied a customer is after a specific interaction.
What Is A Good CSAT Score?
The criteria for a good customer experience score vary between companies. It depends on factors such as the industry, the type of service, and the customers’ expectations.
But generally:
- 75% to 85% is considered a good customer satisfaction score.
- And when it goes above 85%, it means you’re exceeding expectations.
However, it’s essential to evaluate your score against industry standards and monitor your progress. Make sure to focus on specific customer lifecycle moments where satisfaction can be improved.
A CSAT score is considered good based on the following:
- Industry
- Type of product/service
- Channel of communication (email, phone, etc.)
Ways To Use AI in Customer ServicePros and Cons of the CSAT
CSAT helps measure satisfaction, but it doesn’t capture the full picture. To better understand it, it should be used with other metrics like the Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Customer Effort Score (CES). Let us now understand the pros and cons in depth.
Pros
- Easy to set up and understand: Most businesses can quickly start collecting feedback. Plus, its implementation is simple as it has no complex steps.
- Tracks customer satisfaction levels in real-time: You can receive instant feedback from customers. This also allows you to make fast improvements.
- Gives valuable feedback from actual customers: Here, you receive direct customer insights from those who use your service or product. This makes the feedback more relevant.
- Helps reduce customer churn with quick insights: When you identify the problems early on, you can work on them before they become serious. This reduces the risk of losing customers.
Cons
- Limited to specific interactions: CSAT doesn’t give you an idea about the whole customer journey. It only measures certain touchpoints. It doesn’t capture every part of the customer experience.
- Doesn’t always explain why the customer felt a certain way: While the CSAT provides a score, it lacks detailed contextual information. You may need to take the help of other metrics to actually identify the reasons behind the score.
- Prone to survey bias or low response rates: Not all customers will respond. It may lead to unbalanced results. Those who are either very happy or unhappy may be the ones most likely to participate.
Share your CSAT scores with your team and celebrate successes. Recognize the ones who put in those extra efforts to improve customer satisfaction metrics. This not only boosts morale but also drives everyone to focus on enhancing customer satisfaction.
How to Use and Improve CSAT Scores
Improving your CSAT score starts with using it correctly. You must regularly review your customer satisfaction score to identify patterns and areas where you can do better. Plus, act swiftly on negative feedback so that you turn unhappy customers into loyal ones.
1. Use AI for quicker response times: AI can handle your routine queries and provide instant solutions. This helps customers fix their problems faster, reducing the wait time, which in turn increases customer satisfaction.
2. Invest in training for support agents: Give your customer service team the right skills and knowledge. When they get the proper training and some user-friendly tools, it helps them to deliver effective support. And it creates a more memorable and positive experience for customers.
3.Communicate clearly about the wait times: Clear communication is always appreciated. Let your customers know upfront if there will be any delays. Transparency helps customers have realistic expectations, which reduces the chances of a frustrated customer. AI can also be of great use here to give immediate assistance and better customer experiences.
4.Enable self-service options: Customers value it when they themselves can resolve the issues. The reason is simple: the issue is resolved immediately with minimal effort. Offer your customers a comprehensive knowledge base and resources. This will give them the freedom to find solutions at their convenience. This way, the overall customer experience gets improved.
5. Respond to feedback promptly: Customers know that you care when you give fast replies to feedback. When you act fast on negative feedback and positive feedback, it builds trust. Moreover, it demonstrates that you’re committed to improvement.
6. Personalize your interactions : Your customer service approach should be based on your customers’ preferences and past interactions. This approach makes them feel valued, enhances their overall satisfaction, and increases their loyalty to your brand.
Difference Between CSAT, NPS, and CES
All three domains have different roles in the customer journey. However, they complement each other in a customer lifecycle and should be used at particular phases.
Talking about CSAT, it can’t make a prediction on customer loyalty, even if the score comes back positive. But, they can provide you with important insights into some particular behaviors and attributes.
CES, or the Customer Effort Score, provides different insights. It tells you about certain situations, like evaluating service quality or how easy a product is to use. These two assess isolated situations, but the customer feedback will help you improve your product and guide the customer experience. Consequently, it will play a crucial role in shaping your approach.
NPS works differently. It focuses on overall customer loyalty and how likely customers are to recommend your brand. While CSAT and CES focus on specific touchpoints, NPS gives you a sense of the broader customer experience.
The table below clearly shows the role of each metric:
| Difference Between CSAT, CES and NPS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Metric | CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) | CES (Customer Effort Score) | NPS (Net Promoter Score) |
| Purpose | After certain interactions, CSAT measures the customer satisfaction scores. | CES determines how easily customers can interact with your product or service or get any issue resolved. | NPS assesses the general loyalty and how likely the customers are to recommend your business. |
| When to Use | After a transaction or interaction (e.g., support, call, purchase) | After specific service interactions or task completion. | Regularly, mostly after a long-term relationship or post-purchase. |
| Focus | Customer Satisfaction with one particular touchpoint or experience. | The work required by the customer to finish a task or fix a problem. | Customer Loyalty and customer sentiment towards the brand as a whole. |
| Question Type | “How satisfied were you with our (product/service/interaction)?” | “How easy was resolving your issue with (product/ service)?” | “How likely are you to recommend (brand/product) to a friend or colleague? |
| Scale | Typically, 1-5 or 1-10 scale. | 1-7 or 1-5 scale. | Typically, it is a 0-10 scale. |
| Strengths |
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| Weakness |
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How Does ControlHippo Transform CSAT Metrics?
At ControlHippo, we don’t just measure CSAT, we improve it. Our platform helps businesses to send CSAT surveys and collect and analyze CSAT feedback. Plus, it aligns every customer interaction with the customer’s expectations.
With its AI chat assistant, advanced automation, and built-in customer experience tools, ControlHippo helps:
- Simplify feedback collection.
- Improve customer satisfaction in real time.
- Empower teams to act on customer sentiment.
- Strengthen customer loyalty and reduce customer churn.
Updated : April 24, 2025
Jainy Patel is a content strategist who specializes in omnichannel communication solutions. She develops innovative marketing strategies that unify messaging across various channels, ensuring a consistent and engaging customer journey. Jainy is passionate about optimizing communication processes and crafting targeted content that resonates with audiences at every touchpoint.
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