What is Customer satisfaction score (CSAT)?

CSAT, or Customer satisfaction score, measures and quantifies how customers feel after a specific customer journey. This can be with a product or an experience.

Measuring customer satisfaction is key to increasing retention, impacting all business areas. Higher retention equals more customer loyalty, which means more long-term revenue.

In most cases, CSAT can be measured with a score. Different organizations use different forms of scores, from ratings to emojis. Measurable CSAT can be based on interaction, support, ease of purchase, resolution, conversation, customer service, onboarding, etc.

The metric looks explicitly at the percentage of happy customers, which is why the CSAT score is calculated by looking at the 4 to 5 ratings.

For example, when using 1 to 5-star ratings (1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest), only 4 and 5 ratings are used to calculate the CSAT score.

The formula is (The total number of 4 and 5 responses) ÷ (Number of total responses) x 100 = % satisfied customers.

Customer satisfaction surveys are a conventional approach for collecting data on customer satisfaction. A few variations are available – including in-app, post-service, and email surveys.

While it is not a required step in any customer journey, it is important to measure customer satisfaction to identify areas that are likely causing churn. If you are not measuring customer satisfaction, you are less likely to be able to resolve customer issues.

Depending on the industry, expectations can vary, but a good CSAT score usually falls between 75% and 85%. A 75% score represents that four out of five customers gave you a positive rather than a neutral or negative score.

To calculate CSAT, it is practical to send customer satisfaction surveys after a meaningful part of the customer cycle is completed, before renewal, or after customer support or other interactions.

Some tips to achieve a high customer satisfaction score include: