CSAT Survey: Measuring Customer Satisfaction the Right Way

Assessing customer satisfaction is crucial for your business as it helps you understand how satisfied your clients are and how committed they are to your company. 

CSAT survey helps you gather customer feedback and calculate customer satisfaction score to pinpoint areas for improvement and identify the aspects in which your business is excelling.

However, many businesses struggle with designing effective survey questions, dealing with potential biases, low response rates and interpreting survey results.

Customerly, our customer satisfaction tool enables you to streamline the CSAT survey process and helps you get more accurate and actionable feedback from your customers.

You can use pre-designed survey templates and automate survey distribution and follow-up messages to minimize survey fatigue and maximize response rates. 

You can also segment customers by different attributes, collect real-time customer feedback and use advanced analytics to identify and filter out biased or unreliable survey responses.

Where do you begin with designing a CSAT survey that provides valuable customer satisfaction data, and how do you measure the results? 

Let’s explore these questions and dive into the topic!

A CSAT survey is a type of customer feedback survey that measures how satisfied customers are with a specific product or service, typically by asking them to rate their experience on a scale.

A customer satisfaction survey aims to provide valuable insights into your customer’s needs and preferences, help you meet your customers’ expectations, and create a better customer experience that promotes customer retention, long-term loyalty, and growth.

Measuring customer satisfaction is critical to creating a successful and sustainable SaaS business.

It helps you prioritize resources and make data-driven decisions to improve your product or service. You can develop new features or offerings to meet customer expectations and differentiate your product on the market.

It enables you to increase customer retention and loyalty, which is critical for SaaS businesses with recurring revenue models. 

Happy customers are more likely to continue using your product, renew their subscriptions, and refer others to your business, driving growth and revenue.

By creating and distributing CSAT surveys, you can

• Benchmark performance against competitors
• Enhance brand reputation
• Improve customer support
• Identify customer churn
• Increase the customer lifetime value
• Optimize pricing strategy
• Boost employee morale

These are just some benefits of measuring customer satisfaction. Now, let’s discuss what makes CSAT surveys special.

CSAT survey differs from other customer satisfaction metrics in that it measures the customer’s satisfaction with a specific interaction or experience with a product or service rather than their overall satisfaction with the brand or company. 

Let’s compare it with Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Customer Effort Score (CES).

CSAT vs. NPS survey

CSAT surveys help you improve specific customer interactions or experiences, while NPS surveys provide a more holistic view of customer sentiment. 

You can use NPS to track brand perception and customer loyalty over time and CSAT to improve specific touchpoints with your customers.

CSAT vs. CES survey

Customer Effort Score (CES) measures the level of effort customers must expend to complete an action. For instance, you can use CSAT to measure customer satisfaction with your onboarding process and use CES to measure the level of effort it took for a customer to complete a purchase.

Here are some situations when it’s helpful to conduct CSAT surveys:

1. After a customer account setup or configuration
2. After a customer support interaction
3. After a software upgrade or new feature release
4. After an onboarding process
5. After a purchase or trial period
6. After a sales interaction

By gathering feedback at crucial touchpoints, you can get data-driven insights to enhance the customer experience, boost retention rates, and increase revenue.

Although customer satisfaction surveys can be powerful for measuring customer satisfaction, they come with challenges we outlined below.

Low response rates

Low response rates make identifying trends or patterns in customer feedback challenging, reducing the survey’s effectiveness.

Inaccurate data

Customers may not provide honest feedback, leading to skewed results. 

Additionally, the questions in the survey may not be relevant or may be imprecise, leading to confusion and inaccurate responses.

Insufficient data

If the sample size is too small, the survey results may not represent the overall customer base, leading to unreliable data. It can impact the customer experience and your business performance.

If you want your CSAT survey to be successful, it’s vital to prepare well. Here are some tips to consider.

Set survey objectives

If you want to achieve your desired outcomes, it’s crucial to define your objectives. It will provide a roadmap for designing your survey to align with your goals and ensure you get the insights you need.

Identify target audience

Having a good understanding of your target audience is essential for getting accurate information. 

When selecting your sample group, make sure that the group is representative of the larger population and consider the specific product or service you are surveying. 

It will ensure that the feedback you receive is relevant and reliable.

Select a survey software

Selecting the right survey software is critical to meet your specific business needs. When choosing a solution, consider factors such as usability, customizability, data analysis capabilities and pricing. 

These factors will ensure that the software you select suits your requirements and enables you to analyze and interpret survey results effectively.

Why Customerly should be your first choice

Customerly is a customer service solution you can also use as a marketing automation tool and onboarding software for SaaS.

It provides you with a set of intelligent features to manage the customer journey, communication, engagement, and feedback.

It includes email marketing, live chat engagement, helpdesk software, and tools and templates for creating and distributing customer satisfaction (CSAT) surveys. 

With Customerly, you’ll get real-time notifications, detailed reports and analysis to evaluate your customer satisfaction metrics.

It helps you build stronger relationships with your customers and gather valuable feedback to improve your products and services.

Choose the right method

Choosing the best method to send surveys can significantly impact the quality of the feedback you receive. If it’s unsuitable for your audience or the type of feedback you need, you may end up with incomplete or inaccurate data. 

Here is how Customerly helps you overcome this challenge.

NPS email surveys

With Customerly, you can send NPS email surveys to learn how many customers are willing to recommend your product to their friends. 

To speed up and facilitate the process, you can create customized rules and automatically deliver surveys to customers’ inboxes whenever you want.

Thanks to our advanced filters and Business Intelligence integration, you can save time and find relevant feedback faster. You can quickly evaluate who your detractors are and start creating a strategy to turn them into promoters.

To learn more, read our guide on how to send your NPS survey.

In-app surveys

With Customerly, you can collect customer feedback while they actively engage with your product and get real-time insights into their experiences. 

It eliminates the need for customers to visit a separate survey page or leave the app, improving response rates and reducing the likelihood of drop-off. 

Additionally, in-app surveys are non-intrusive, and you can deliver them at strategic points during the customer journey, increasing the chances of receiving helpful feedback.

Finally, you can easily customize our in-app survey templates, target specific customer segments, and get user-level reports to improve the customer experience and ultimately drive growth.

To learn more, read our guide on creating and delivering surveys to your users.

Creating a CSAT questionnaire that accurately reflects the customer experience is critical in measuring customer satisfaction. To craft an effective CSAT survey with Customerly, consider the following tips.

Align the CSAT survey design with your brand guidelines

It helps you ensure a consistent and professional look and feel that reinforces brand values and creates a cohesive customer experience.

Define question types 

Defining question types helps you structure the survey and ensures the questions align with your objectives. It will make your survey easier and more intuitive to complete, increasing the likelihood of receiving a higher response rate.

You can use scale questions to rate satisfaction levels or open-ended questions to gather qualitative feedback. Read our guide to learn more about Customerly question types.

Ask the right questions

Your questions need to be well-crafted, easy to understand, and effectively capture the customer’s satisfaction levels, pain points, and other feedback that can help you improve your products, services, or customer experience.

Avoid jargon and use simple language

Avoid using jargon or technical language in your CSAT survey. Instead, use simple, straightforward language that is easy for customers to understand.

Determine the length of the survey

To determine the optimal length of a CSAT survey, you should consider the complexity, the number of questions, and the time it takes to complete the survey. 

It should be long enough to gather the necessary feedback but short enough to keep customers engaged and willing to participate.

Make it easy to fill out

Use a visually appealing design with a clean and uncluttered layout, and create a logical flow to make the survey more engaging and encourage customers to complete it.

Optimize for mobile devices

Many survey respondents will access the survey on their mobile devices. You should include a responsive design that adjusts to screen sizes, while survey questions and response options should be easy to read and tap on.

After designing your survey, it’s time to deploy it. Let’s share some helpful tips.

Focusing on the following aspects ensures the highest response rate and accurate data.

Choosing the right time

For the best results, plan your CSAT survey carefully. Send it right after customers have been in contact with your business when their experience is still fresh in memory. It could be after purchase or contact with a customer service representative.

Delivering surveys to customers

Depending on your target audience and survey goals, you can use various methods like email, in-app surveys, text messages, or web-based pop-ups. 

Email surveys are popular because they can reach a large number of people. In-app surveys help obtain feedback quickly, as specific events within the app, such as the completion of an order or milestone in the customer journey, can trigger them. 

With Customerly, you have both types of surveys at your disposal.

Follow-up and reminders

Use Customerly to follow up with customers who have not responded to the initial CSAT survey to increase response rates. Sending reminders or even incentives to complete the survey can improve the quality and quantity of responses.

Once you collect customer feedback, you should focus on customer experience analytics.

Understanding data

Understanding the data collected in the CSAT survey is the first step toward analyzing the results. It includes examining the response rate, completion rate, drop-off rate, rejection rate and responses to each question. All this data is available with Customerly.

Calculating customer satisfaction score

With Customerly, you can automatically calculate the customer satisfaction score and eliminate any manual effort or human error. 

Alternatively, you can calculate the score by analyzing the percentage of customers who gave positive ratings for their experience. 

For example, if 80% of customers rated their experience as favorable, the satisfaction score would be 80 out of 100.

Identifying trends and patterns

For instance, if several customers express dissatisfaction with a particular aspect of your product, it may indicate that you need to make some changes in that area. 

Similarly, if customers consistently express satisfaction with a specific feature, consider highlighting it or promoting it more. 

You can make data-driven decisions and improve customer satisfaction by identifying these patterns and trends.

Acting on CSAT survey results involves taking appropriate actions based on the insights gained from the survey to improve customer satisfaction levels. Here are the two key activities to consider.

Prioritizing actions

Prioritizing actions allows you to focus your efforts and resources on the most critical areas and significantly impact customer satisfaction. 

It’s crucial to balance the issue’s urgency with the feasibility of taking action, considering the available resources and potential outcomes. 

Implementing changes and improvements

Implementing changes and improvements is the final step of the CSAT survey process. 

It can involve adjusting products or services, improving customer service processes, or addressing any other issues identified through the survey. 

Communicating these updates to customers is crucial, as this demonstrates a commitment to their satisfaction and can lead to increased loyalty and retention.

Since we covered all crucial topics, let’s share some customer satisfaction survey examples to get you inspired.

B2B SaaS usability survey

A B2B SaaS usability survey helps you identify any issues or pain points that users experience when interacting with the product and gather feedback on the product’s overall functionality and user experience.

Product review survey

A product review survey helps you collect customer feedback on a particular product or service, evaluate its effectiveness and gain insights into customer preferences and trends.

Feature relevancy survey 

A feature relevancy survey typically asks participants to rate the relevance of each feature on a scale from very important to not necessary. 

It can provide valuable insights into customer preferences and help guide product development decisions, determine pricing strategies, which features to emphasize in marketing campaigns, and how best to prioritize product updates.

These are just a few options at your disposal when using Customerly.

For any business to thrive, it’s essential to measure customer satisfaction. 

A customer satisfaction score (CSAT) is a great way to gain valuable insights into the customer experience and use those insights to improve your product. 

Before you start your CSAT survey, it’s crucial to set specific goals, define your target audience, and select the right survey tool. 

Customerly makes it easy to create and deploy CSAT surveys. Our intuitive survey builder allows you to customize the survey to fit your brand, choose the right questions, optimize for mobile devices and distribute them via email or in the application. 

Once you send out the survey, Customerly can help you analyze the results and make informed decisions to boost customer happiness.