The Key To CSAT Is To Practise What You Preach

CSAT is short for ‘customer satisfaction’ and is a key performance indicator that tracks how satisfied customers are with your organisation’s products and/or services.

Often retailers or professional service businesses send through an online form or survey post a customer interaction to gather feedback of the efficiency of service a customer has received, so they can both measure and pinpoint any potential gaps in efficiency of service.

But what should be the internal focus for the best use of CSAT scores? At Lokulus, Technical Support Manager, Anthony Greenhough and his team manage this process for the business. As a tech business who encourage some of the world’s largest retailers professional service companies, they believe to truly understand the process they need to practise what they preach. For this reason they put high standards on themselves when dealing with clients and boast a 98% satisfaction rate on their own CSAT scores.

So what are their tips?

1 – Set your own standards i.e. response rate and stick by them – Any business needs to make sure their customer teams are fully aware of what is expected of them. If you want any email enquiry responded to in 24 hours, make sure there are processes in place that allow this and make sure you’re measuring this and making sure it’s done. There needs to be an internal rule book that guides all team members in black and white of what is expected of them and why it matters commercially. That way, when you communicate this in automated responses, you know that you live by this and you aren’t going to further escalate a complaint by letting down a customer twice.

2 – Generate reports and use the detail – Don’t just presume that these standards are being adhered to. Make sure you are going through your performance reports weekly and monthly and noticing any gaps immediately. The minute you take you foot off the gas, is when mistakes are made and timescales slip and in doing so, so do your CSAT scores. Make sure your measurement software allows you to really drill down and see the detail. It may be that your automation responses need a slight change or a certain element needs fine tuning to ensure customer satisfaction, but the closer you are to the detail, the better your CSAT scores will be.

3 – Act on the negative and learn from it – Mistakes happen but make sure you’re constantly learning from them and acting upon it. Be transparent with the team and use their on-the-ground knowledge to remedy a situation or process for the better. We have a triage service that supports this and ensures everyone in the team is notified and educated on any potential problems and resolutions so they are less likely to happen again.

4 – Link into performance goals – To highlight the importance of CSAT scores and emphasise their importance to the business, think about including CSAT targets to employee performance goals, however they are measured. This will drive a team to really make sure that the systems and processes of customer experience are front of centre of their work load and set the tone for their priorities.

5 – Be human and reward – when it comes to dealing with customers and employees, businesses need to remember they are working with humans. No automation or rule is going to cover this 100% effectively so as much as you can, the systems and process will help and support, but be human and reward teams for their efforts. At Lokulus there is a quarterly award scheme that highlights particular team members that have gone above and beyond and this is hugely appreciated. Company wide recognition goes a long way and accelerates motivation and loyalty to both the business and your customers.