What's CSAT Score? How to Measure and Improve It

Businesses across industries have changed or evolved over the decades, but one thing that has remained the same is that their growth is pretty much dependent on customer satisfaction. Your customers will always offer repeat business if they are satisfied and happy with your services. They will also recommend you to their friends and family. Hence, maintaing that customer satisfaction level is important. For this purpose, Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) is a popular way to confirm if your customers are indeed happy. In this blog post, we will break down how to calculate CSAT scores, explore the pros and cons, and share proven strategies to improve your scores for a better customer experience.

What’s CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) Score?

CSAT is one of several key performance indicators that measures the level of customer satisfaction with a business's product, service, support, or overall relationship. It is usually measured by surveys, with customers rating their experience in terms of a numeric scale (1-10) or qualitative measures such as "unsatisfied, neutral, and satisfied". The higher the CSAT score, the more customer satisfaction and strong brand reputation.

Why’s CSAT Metric Important for Your Business?

CSAT is a key customer success metric that monitors customer satisfaction and points out areas of concern. Gaining collective feedback is only the start. Businesses can then analyze it to gain valuable insights, leading to well-informed, customer-driven decisions. The CSAT feedback also helps in refining your customer services to achieve greater retention and long-term loyalty.

How to Calculate CSAT Score (Step-by-Step) Process

CSAT is a rather easy and straightforward way to evaluate customer satisfaction. However, that is only on the surface. The metric can become relatively complex based on what changes a business is looking to make. Below is a detailed, step-by-step guide for calculating CSAT effectively.

Define the Survey Questions

The first step in calculating CSAT is creating clear and concise survey questions about overall customer satisfaction after an interaction. These should be kept simple to ensure higher response rates and more accurate data. 

• How satisfied were you with your recent experience?
• How would you rate our customer support?

Choose the Method and the Time

Feedback can be obtained through several channels, and choosing the right one for your business and audience is key to maximizing participation. A higher response rate ensures more meaningful data for analysis. Additionally, timing matters. Customers are more likely to provide accurate feedback when surveyed immediately after an interaction.

• Surveys via emails (for post-purchase feedback in bulk)
• Surveys via SMS (for quick and convenient feedback)
• Surveys via website or app pop-ups (for digital interactions)

Decide on the Sample Size

Businesses cannot just send out surveys at random. Several factors must be considered to ensure reliable insights, such as choosing a combination of different customer segments for diverse feedback or the total number of customers served during a given time. Additionally, compare the new sample pool with the previous one. What was the response rate for previous surveys? Pulling old data often gives new insight into your current feedback cycle.

Send Out the Survey

Now comes the part where businesses can finally send out their surveys. Remember that personalizing messages can yield higher engagement, and as mentioned before, keep the questions short and straightforward. Another tip for high response rates is to encourage customers with incentives. This includes offering discounts, loyalty points, or vouchers.

If your customer service platform lacks survey distribution features, you can use any of several automated survey tools like Google Forms, Typeform, etc. 

Gather the Responses

While it is generally good practice to wait a defined time window before diving into responses, you can monitor responses in real-time to confirm participation rates. If the responses are low or lacking, you might need to reevaluate your survey. 

Calculating the CSAT Score

Share the formula for calculating the CSAT score, both in percentage and rating. You can use dummy data as an example to explain the process.

CSAT is calculated using the percentage of positive or satisfied responses. Note that most surveys include multiple positive responses, such as "very satisfied, somewhat satisfied, satisfied". You can include all such positive responses to calculate your customer satisfaction score. Some businesses, however, might consider being stricter for more accurate results.

• CSAT = (Total no. of positive responses / Total no. of responses) x 100

For example, consider a survey in which 110 out of 150 customers rated their experience as 4 or 5 on a scale of 1-5, or chose "very satisfied" and "satisfied". Using the same formula, the CSAT score would come out as 73 percent. 

Next Steps

Once the CSAT score has been calculated, you can start analyzing feedback to identify patterns and pain points. There are always areas for improvement even if a business calculates a high CSAT score. 

Be quick and efficient about addressing customer concerns to enhance overall customer satisfaction for the next round of feedback. Additionally, reward your employees for driving exceptional service. This boosts their morale and happiness levels.

How to Evaluate the CSAT Score

The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) provides a national standard for industry benchmarking, with scores over 80 typically considered to be excellent and scores under 70 indicating potential issues that must be addressed.

But CSAT scores cannot be considered good or bad in absolute terms based on the ACSI 0-100 scale alone. It is essential to evaluate them relative to your own industry. What constitutes an "excellent" CSAT score is very different between industries, so a good score in one industry may not hold the same weight in another.

For instance, the mean ASCI CSAT benchmark score for full-service restaurants was 84 for 2024. That for banks, though, stood at 80. Also, full-service restaurants experienced a three-point rise in 2024, which implies that companies should also take industry trends and year-over-year comparisons into account when measuring their CSAT scores.

Finally, consider external factors like economic conditions and market competition. They can shift customer expectations to make your CSAT score seem lower than it is. 

Below are the expected CSAT scores by industry for 2024, according to the ACSI framework. These benchmarks can help guide you in setting a target CSAT range for your industry or business in 2025.

Comparing CSAT With Other Customer Satisfaction Metrics

CSAT is just one of many customer satisfaction metrics. Each metric serves a unique purpose, providing different insights into the customer experience. The specific aspect of CX you want to improve determines which metric is most relevant to use. That said, a multi-metric approach provides the most comprehensive insights, giving businesses a more complete picture of customer experiences to identify both immediate and long-term trends.

CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) measures how satisfied customers are with a specific product, service, or interaction. It provides direct feedback about particular touchpoints but may not capture overall customer loyalty or relationship strength.

CSAT is best for:

• Gaining feedback on specific touchpoints, such as customer support. 
• Measuring satisfaction with new products or features.
• Assessing customer service interactions.

NPS (Net Promoter Score) measures the likelihood of customers recommending your business. It predicts long-term customer relationships and business growth potential.

NPS is best for:

• Gauging customer loyalty and advocacy.
• Competitive benchmarking and strategic planning.
• Predicting customer retention.

CES (Customer Effort Score) measures the ease of customer interactions, focusing on how much effort customers must expend to resolve an issue or complete a task.

CES is best for:

• Streamingling processes. 
• Support ticket resolution.
• Self-service effectiveness.

Is CSAT Score a Good Metric to Assess Customer Satisfaction

CSAT is a useful and one of the most widely applied measures to quickly find customer satisfaction levels. Like any measure, though, it has its strengths and weaknesses. It must be used in conjunction with other measures for a complete picture of customer experience. Some of the key advantages and disadvantages of using only CSAT as a measure are:

Pros:

• Simple to Understand: Never undervalue the strength of simplicity. CSAT surveys normally have brief, simple questions so that customers can easily respond.
• Quick Feedback: In contrast to other metrics, CSAT enables you to capture valuable insights nearly instantaneously following a customer interaction.
• High Response Rates: CSAT tends to garner more responses than others because it has brief and straightforward surveys.
• Applicable Across Industries: CSAT can be used for various business types in any industry. 

Cons:

• Short-Term Focus: CSAT has a limited scope, focusing only on immediate customer satisfaction rather than long-term loyalty or overall customer experience.
• Can Contain Bias: Catching customers at a bad time can be damaging. Their mood, timing, and emotions at the time can heavily influence their answers even if they are neutral or somewhat satisfied with your service. 
• Can Be Misleading: While a high CSAT score is good, it does not truly reflect the positive experiences of customers who are neutral but not necessarily thrilled with your service or product. 
• Covers Only Active Customers: Your silent customers, who do not respond to surveys, may have negative experiences that CSAT could potentially ignore. 

Tips to Improve CSAT Score

Improving your CSAT score requires a strategic approach focused on enhancing customer experience at every touchpoint. Let's explore some proven strategies to boost customer satisfaction.

Try Proactive Customer Service

Customers look for proactive service at all touchpoints, so anticipating their needs before they become potential problems indicates that their voice is heard. It indicates they are valued customers, not a number in the system. Providing regular updates, customized outreach, and tailored solutions is how a proactive customer service initiative can greatly increase satisfaction and create stronger, more enduring relationships.

Customers Love Personalized Service

Personalizing goes a long way in improving customer satisfaction, and eventually, increasing your CSAT scores. Reference past interactions and preferences to make relevant recommendations. Large-scale businesses can segment their customers to create customized service strategies for different groups. 

Listen and Improve

Feedback only gives you an edge if you are willing to act on it and that too in time. An excellent customer-centric culture starts with actively listening to your customers. Take their concerns seriously, and address their issues promptly to ensure they do not face them again in the near future. This is essential to a business' growth, so have a process in play that regularly collects and analyzes feedback. This responsiveness generates trust, loyalty, and ultimately higher satisfaction.

Build a Customer-First Culture

A customer-first culture starts at the top. Leadership should model customer-centric behavior and make it part of company values. Encourage all departments, not just customer service, to consider customer impact in their decisions. Create metrics that measure customer satisfaction across all touchpoints and make them visible throughout the organization.

Training the Customer Service Team Would Help

Your customer journey often starts with your customer support agents and teams. This initial interaction sets the tone for your customers. Hence, training your employees becomes fairly important. Have regular training programs that cover both technical and soft skills. Communication is also critical. Make sure your agents are not only problem solvers but can also show empathy to acknowledge customer issues. The best customer training workshops take into account real-life customer interactions. Such training scenarios provide hands-on experience, readying your agents to handle any situation with confidence and care.

Own Your Mistakes and Compensate for Them

It is okay if your customer support has made a mistake. These things happen. What's important is that you do not ignore them. This brings us to the main point: do not make excuses! Customers do not appreciate that. Rather, try to put things right through compensation or necessary action. 

It is also useful to have clear-cut guidelines for compensation ready for support staff to act upon, for instance, issuing a refund or providing a special discount for various types of problems. The important thing is to reverse a bad experience into a positive one by showcasing how well you managed the problem, giving the customer a positive impression of how dedicated you are to making them happy.

Find Ways to Reward Customers for Loyalty

Another excellent tip for improving CSAT scores is offering meaningful benefits. Businesses can create structured loyalty programs with tiered rewards. Making them relevant to every customer is another excellent strategy. For instance, you can grant exclusive access to upcoming new products or services to your long-time customers, or announce special discounts for proactive messaging, etc. 

How Can Conversational AI Help to Improve CSAT Score?

Conversational AI is central to driving customer happiness and satisfaction, resulting in greater CSAT scores via round-the-clock immediate support. IVAs greatly shorten call handling times and can also automatically solicit feedback after every customer interaction without human intervention. This instant feedback gathering allows companies to quickly detect pain points and respond before they become full-fledged crises, making AI-powered systems and software invaluable for companies wishing to enhance their customer experience. 

Moreover, conversational AI provides personalized interactions. Its capacity to interpret customer information in order to customize responses according to individual taste enhances the experience as a whole. Through learning and adaptation with every interaction, conversational AI can become increasingly effective over time to provide hyper-personalized and scalable customer support, which results in improved CSAT scores.

Improve Customer Satisfaction With Tailored AI Solutions by Mosaicx

Mosaicx offers cutting-edge AI solutions that transform customer interactions by providing seamless, intelligent, and personalized support. Mosaicx Engage understands natural language used by your customers and responds in kind. It empowers customers to find answers quickly and resolve issues without waiting for an agent, creating a smoother, frustration-free experience. With advanced automation and real-time insights, businesses can strengthen customer relationships, boost satisfaction, and drive long-term loyalty.

Ready to revolutionize your customer experience with AI-driven efficiency? Schedule a demo today, and watch your business thrive.