When it comes to running any successful business, one thing should always be at the top of the priority list: improving customer satisfaction. Simply put, when customers are not happy with their experience (with a brand), they're not going to stick around.
1 in 3 customers1 will completely abandon a brand after just one bad experience.
In today’s increasingly competitive landscape, with customers expecting ever-higher levels of quality and services, learning how to improve customer satisfaction (CSAT) is key to growing a successful business.
What is a CSAT?
Customer satisfaction, or CSAT, measures customers' satisfaction with a company’s products or services. In short, it measures how happy your customers are with your business. Brands need to know how to increase customer satisfaction as it is directly linked to their reputation, revenue, and success.
High customer satisfaction leads to repeat business, positive word-of-mouth, and better profitability. Conversely, low customer satisfaction results in lost customers, negative reviews, and decreased revenue.
Companies use surveys or voice-of-customer programs to measure customer satisfaction with their products or services and identify improvement areas. Some common methods of gathering customer feedback include asking the customer to rate their satisfaction during a call or live chat support.
By leveraging customer feedback, businesses can work on ways to improve customer satisfaction. It all starts with understanding what drives customer satisfaction; What motivates customers and why do they purchase from a certain brand? Companies should also be aware of the customer's needs, preferences, values, expectations, and, most importantly, what makes a great customer experience.
How important is customer satisfaction for businesses?
Customer satisfaction is absolutely essential for businesses. A satisfied customer is a loyal customer; loyal customers are a business's best asset. Moreover, happy customers are more likely to repeat purchases and recommend brands to family and friends.
Studies2 show that improved retention of customers can boost a business’s bottom line by 25% to 95%.
Brands that overlook strategies to improve customer satisfaction risk losing not just one customer, but potentially many more. Negative word-of-mouth is a significant risk for businesses that fail to deliver satisfactory customer service. According to CCMC3, “Rage is shared like never before with friends and neighbors. 17% seek to raise public awareness of their experience, dissatisfied complainants tell twice as many people about their negative experience than satisfied customers do.” Businesses that neglect customer satisfaction in favor of pursuing new business opportunities run the risk of wasting valuable resources and ultimately harming their reputation.
Customer acquisition can be 25 times4 more expensive than retaining existing customers.
By focusing on ways to improve customer satisfaction, you can save valuable resources and build a solid, loyal customer base that will benefit your business long-term.
The importance of keeping customers satisfied in a nutshell:
90%
of American consumers5 use high customer experience ratings as a factor when deciding whether to purchase from a company or not.
89%
of consumers6 would happily make another purchase after a positive customer service experience.
63%
of consumers7 expect brands to have an idea of their unique needs and expectations when interacting with them.
54%
of customers8 feel that the majority of the brands they purchase from do not prioritize customer service and consider it a secondary concern.
36%
of customers9 will share their brand experience with others, regardless of whether it was a positive or negative experience.
Guaranteed Ways to Higher Levels of Customer Satisfaction
It’s crucial for brands to focus on providing consistently positive customer experiences. Understanding how to improve CSAT requires a strong commitment to providing exceptional customer service and prioritizing the needs and preferences of your customers.
Here are some proven strategies to improve customer satisfaction:
1. Cultivate a customer-driven culture
A brand with a customer-driven culture is constantly learning how to improve customer satisfaction. A customer-centric culture is important for brands because it encourages a customer-first mindset. Training customer service with this mindset allows them to prioritize positive customer experiences and build strong customer relationships.
Here are some examples of customer-driven practices:
Creating customer loyalty programs: Rewarding customers for their loyalty encourages them to keep coming back. Reward customers based on their most frequent transactions with your brand, so they don’t have to go out of their way to meet loyalty tiers.
Focusing on customer feedback: Listening to customer feedback is essential to understanding your customers, but acting on it is even more important. Make the changes needed to address the issues or concerns your customers frequently raise, and they’ll feel like your brand values their voice more than others.
Being proactive: Proactive customer service means being responsive to customer inquiries and anticipating their needs before they even ask. Doing so helps to create a better customer experience.
2. Make it easy for customers to reach you
The easier it is for customers to reach you in the channel they prefer, the higher your customer satisfaction levels will be. Offering omnichannel support is one of the best ways to improve customer satisfaction. By offering omnichannel support, brands can ensure customers have a consistent experience across all channels, allowing them to quickly and easily reach out for help or ask questions.
A great way to start would be to offer social media customer service. This will allow customers to contact a company directly through social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram and receive quick, personalized responses.
Additionally, offering customer self-service options is an easy way to make customers feel like your brand is accessible. 69% of consumers10 say they are willing to resolve their issues on their own before contacting customer support. It can be as simple as an online knowledge base for finding frequently asked questions or even a chatbot.
3. Step into your customer’s shoes
Business owner or not, we’ve all been customers at least once in our lives. Putting yourself in your customer’s shoes can help you anticipate their needs, and, more importantly, lead with empathy.
One of the most important strategies to improve customer satisfaction includes understanding your customer inside out. How can you create a product or service that truly resonates with them if you don't understand their needs, preferences, and pain points?
Stepping into your customer’s shoes will allow you to go above and beyond to deliver personalized and exceptional customer experiences.
Create a customer profile: Get to know your customers on a deeper level by knowing their purchasing habits, pain points, and other unique characteristics.
Lead with empathy: Showing empathy can make a customer feel understood, respected, and cared for, especially the frustrated ones. When customers feel like their concerns are being taken seriously and their frustrations are heard, they are more likely to have a positive experience with the customer service process.
Take accountability for missteps: As with any business, glitches, errors, and mistakes are inevitable. Brands can still ensure customer satisfaction simply by being honest about them and taking ownership. Trust is critical to every customer relationship so transparency is a must, especially during frustrating times.
- Create a customer profile: Get to know your customers on a deeper level by knowing their purchasing habits, pain points, and other unique characteristics.
- Lead with empathy: Showing empathy can make a customer feel understood, respected, and cared for, especially the frustrated ones. When customers feel like their concerns are being taken seriously and their frustrations are heard, they are more likely to have a positive experience with the customer service process.
- Take accountability for missteps: As with any business, glitches, errors, and mistakes are inevitable. Brands can still ensure customer satisfaction simply by being honest about them and taking ownership. Trust is critical to every customer relationship so transparency is a must, especially during frustrating times.
Delivering Ridiculously Good CSAT Scores for Highly Competitive Brands
Ever-increasing user expectations and competition necessitate only the best in customer service and care. TaskUs has been up to the task for more than a decade, growing beside the most disruptive across multiple niches and spaces. Recognized by the Everest Group as the World's Fastest Business Process (Outsourcing) Service Provider in 2022 and with glowing reviews in Gartner Peer Insights Review, we’ve been a consistent provider of high CSAT scores for our partner clients.
Our people-centric approach puts both employees and customers at the top of our priority, creating a Ridiculously Good culture of proactive support. From industry-leading frontline CX to back-office brilliance, we cover all aspects of your customers’ journey to ensure a satisfying, seamless, secure, and superb experience.
- 1^32 Customer Experience Statistics You Need to Know for 2023
- 2^The Economics of E-Loyalty - HBS Working Knowledge - Harvard Business School
- 3^2020 National Customer Rage Study - Customer Care Measurement & Consulting (CCMC)
- 4^The Value of Keeping the Right Customers
- 5^40 Customer Service Stats to Know in 2022
- 6^Salesforce
- 7^https://cx-trends-report-2022.zendesk.com/challenges
- 8^Contact Center Satisfaction Index (CCSI) 2020
Abegail Matitu
Vice President, Global Digital Experience
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