Customer Satisfaction metrics play an integral role in CX strategy. Not only are they leading indicators of loyalty and advocacy, but they also identify pain points and high scores correlate with the successful performance of retail teams and brands.
Quick Reference Guide
CSAT 2 = Binary choice - good or bad - indifference is to not respond. Usual icons = 
CSAT 3 = Good, bad or explicitly neutral - icons 
CSAT 4 = For a nuanced response usually displayed with stars 
- Prevents fence-sitting/neutral
CSAT 5 = For a nuanced response usually displayed with stars
- When displayed as stars its a progress metre towards great rather than a metric centred on neutral
- Sometimes combined with words very bad, bad, neutral, good, very good
CSAT 7 = For a detailed opinion scale - usually a number or same as CSAT 5 within between points
- Sometimes combined with words: extremely bad, very bad, bad, neutral, good, very good, extremely good
NPS = 0 to 10 (11 units) scale attached to a specific question "How likely are you to recommend us to a friend"
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
NPS or Net Promoter Score asks customers to quantify how likely they are to recommend your brand, product or service to a friend or colleague using a scale from 0-10. 0 being “Very Unlikely” & 10 being “Very Likely”. The straightforward & easy nature of the survey means you can quickly gauge:
- How satisfied your customers are with your offering in general
- How loyal customers are to your brand
- How likely they are to be advocates for your business
The NPS question is typically asked of active customers at some point outside of a direct purchase experience, but recently enough that their score is based on a fresh experience with the brand - 2-4 weeks after a recent purchase and no more than every 6-12 months for each individual customer is the common practice.
The NPS 0-10 scale breaks customers into three key cohorts:
- Detractors (scores 0 through 6) are customers who are unhappy with your company and are at risk of churning
- Passives (scores 7 or 8)are customers who like your company but don’t “love” it yet
- Promoters (scores 9 or 10) clients who love your company, and will actively advocate for it
Subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters yields the Net Promoter Score, which can range from a low of -100 if every customer is a Detractor)to a high of 100 if every customer is a Promoter.
Australian retailers should be aiming for an NPS score well above +50 from their active customers.
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
Customer Satisfaction Score, commonly known as CSAT is a metric designed to directly measure customer satisfaction and loyalty levels after a particular action has been taken. CSAT surveys normally feature a question asking customers how satisfied they are with a certain service, product or interaction.
CSAT is a useful tool throughout all stages of the customer journey, providing insights on:
- Discovery - Did customers find a solution quickly?
- Evaluation - Does our product/service meet their needs?
- Purchase - Are they satisfied with their purchase?
- Experience - Are customers satisfied with responsiveness, timeliness, professionalism, knowledge etc?
CSAT asks respondents ‘how satisfied are you with your recent experience’ and can be answered using a thumbs up/down or tick/cross (CSAT2) or a rating between 1-5 stars (CSAT5). As these are normally attached to a specific transaction or other tracked experience, this means the score can also be attached to stores and staff in aggregate as well as to the individual customers who gave them.
The CSAT score is determined by taking an average for a composite customer satisfaction score.
While CSAT & NPS have similar approaches. The biggest difference between the two is that CSAT leans more towards customers loyalty after purchase or interaction, while NPS is more about customer advocacy and can be taken throughout a customers lifecycle.
Are There Other Metrics?
A common approach to these 2 simple question types is to ask for follow up questions about specific elements of the brand or experience such as:
- How was the staff knowledge?
- How well did the product fit?
- How clean were the store and change rooms?
It is also a good opportunity to capture free text comments to capture sentiment and from the heart feedback that can be used to motivate your teams. Omneo makes sure these written responses are properly connected to your customer service platform so you get a chance to respond to issues that warrant one.
Another growing metric is the Customer Effort Score (CES) which designed to measure customer satisfaction levels by focusing on efforts customers make to interact with your brand. Watch this space for how this might be incorporated into the Omneo offering, as we keep a keen eye on its adoption by the industry and customers.
Anonymous or Tracked
While there are dozens of physical or digital satisfaction tools out there, most focus on anonymous collection of scores and data - and while this can have some advantages, we believe that the right to give feedback is a fundamental benefit of being a known customer and that open and trusting relationships between a brand and its best customers can only happen when we communicate directly and not behind the cloak of anonymity.
Genuine and intentional feedback is an earned benefit for the customer and an asset for the brand.
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