Measure Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) with QuestionPro. Definition, example, evaluation, live online demo

With the Customer Satisfaction Score you can quickly and easily determine the level of customer satisfaction. Use QuestionPro and the predefined CSAT question!

Definition: Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

What is the Customer Satisfaction Score?

The Customer Satisfaction Score (abbreviation: CSAT) is, similar to the Customer Effort Score and the Net Promoter Score, a key performance indicator that indicates the degree of satisfaction of a company’s customers. While customer satisfaction can only be derived indirectly by means of the Customer Effort Score and the Net Promoter Score, the aim of the Customer Satisfaction Score is to directly measure and present customer satisfaction, and to get to the heart of the matter.

How is the Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) determined?

Determining the “CSAT” is relatively simple, as it is basically asked via a single question and by means of very direct questioning within a customer survey or touchpoint analysis, as follows

“Looking back at all your experiences you have had with our company, products and services: How satisfied are you?”

Possible answer variants for the CSAT survey

Companies usually give their customers 5 possible answers in a single-choice question:

▢ Very satisfied
▢ Satisfied
▢ I do not know / neutral
▢ dissatisfied
▢ very dissatisfied

To avoid the so-called “mean trap”, i.e. the probability that customers not infrequently tend to use the middle answer option, some companies also use 4 or 6 answer options to determine the CSAT, such as in the following examples:

CSAT with 6 answer option

▢ Totally satisfied
▢ Very satisfied
▢ Rather satisfied
▢ Rather dissatisfied
▢ Very dissatisfied
▢ Totally dissatisfied

CSAT with 4 answer option

▢ Very satisfied
▢ Rather satisfied
▢ Rather dissatisfied
▢ Very dissatisfied

Basically, all variants are useful for determining the CSAT.However, one should bear in mind that especially in the case of “mobile surveys”, i.e. customer surveys or touchpoint analyses that are most likely to be answered via smartphone, the questionnaire and the corresponding answer options should be designed as concisely and clearly as possible in order to obtain the highest possible number of CSAT feedback.

Numerical values for CSAT determination

Another variant for determining a CSAT score is the possibility of using a 10-number scale, similar to that of the Net Promoter Score, where 1 represents the worst and 10 the best rating.

▢ 1  ▢ 2  ▢ 3  ▢ 4  ▢ 5  ▢ 6  ▢ 7  ▢ 8  ▢ 9  ▢ 10

Response options via symbols

Of course, symbols are also very popular for determining the CSAT. The preferred variants are, for example, asterisks or smileys.

But we have also encountered the use of 2 response options to determine the Customer Satisfaction Score via Like/Dislike symbols.

What makes the Customer Satisfaction Score so valuable and important?

As already described above, the question to determine the CSAT is very pointed. Without further ado, customers are confronted with it and have to react to it ad hoc, quasi from a “Top Of Mind” situation, which guarantees unfiltered and honest feedback. And it is precisely this that makes the CSAT a very important indicator of whether your employees are ensuring that your company’s customers are satisfied and that they are at the centre of all their thoughts and actions.

CSAT calculation: How to determine the Customer Satisfaction Score

There are different calculation models for determining the CSAT, whereby the following calculation has become established: Number of satisfied customers multiplied by 100 divided by the number of all respondents.

Example of the calculation of the CSAT score for a question with 4 expressions.

Let us assume the following response distribution:

very satisfied: 123
rather satisfied: 77
rather dissatisfied: 62
very dissatisfied: 9
———————–
Total respondents: 271
thereof satisfied: 200

Calculation: 200 x 100 / 271 = 73.8

Example of the calculation of the CSAT score for a question with 5 expressions.

Let us assume the following response distribution:

very satisfied: 123
rather satisfied: 77
neutral / no opinion: 82
rather dissatisfied: 62
very dissatisfied: 9
———————–
Total respondents: 353
thereof satisfied: 200

Calculation: 200 x 100 / 353 = 56.7

Bear in mind that for any benchmarking, it is necessary that the published CSAT scores with which you compare your company’s CSAT scores were determined on the same basis of calculation.

Reasons and advantages for determining customer satisfaction through the use of the Customer Satisfaction Score

Simple application of the CSAT question

The Customer Satisfaction Score is very easy to determine through a single question. This simplicity makes the use of the CSAT question ideal for micro-surveys as part of touchpoint analyses. So you don’t have to ask umpteen questions to find out if your customers are satisfied.

Simple evaluation of the CSAT score

As simple as the application of the Customer Satisfaction Score is within a questionnaire, so is the evaluation, as there is little to no room for interpretation here due to the clarity of the question. At the end of this article you will find a link to a sample CSAT questionnaire including evaluation. The following CSAT sample evaluation gives you a first impression of the simplicity.

Interaction-based Customer Satisfaction Score

As described above, the Customer Satisfaction Score can be wonderfully determined by means of touchpoint analyses. This means that you can initiate a CSAT survey after every interaction between your customers and your company, for example following a support request or complaint, after a telephone enquiry, after an e-mail enquiry, after an ordering process or even after a visit to a store, for example via a feedback terminal. By assigning them to the respective contact points, you thus receive an interaction-based Customer Satisfaction Score.

High feedback response

Due to the simplicity of determining the Customer Satisfaction Score, you receive a lot of feedback, as your customers do not have to work through a long questionnaire. For example, if customers receive a questionnaire by e-mail with only one question, possibly already integrated into the e-mail body, without having to click on a link to a survey, the willingness to answer is quite high.

Simple CSAT benchmark

There are a lot of CSAT benchmark publications circulating on the net, divided into sectors and areas, with which you can compare your own scores. Please make sure that – as already described above – the basis for calculating the CSAT score is consistent.

Determine Customer Satisfaction Score with QuestionPro

If you are familiar with QuestionPro, you may know that the survey and analysis platform consists of different modules, namely one module each for surveys and market research, for customer experience management and for employee experience management. You can determine the CSAT score with the survey and market research module as well as with the customer experience management variant in just a few steps.

CSAT determine with the survey software and market research platform

QuestionPro offers you very simple options for determining the Customer Satisfaction Score within its survey software. Simply open the questionnaire editor and select the question type “Single-Choice” from the question library. Then formulate your question and add a certain number of answer options as desired.

Another variant for determining the Customer Satisfaction Score within the survey and market research platform is to use the Net Promoter Score question types. Here you can define a different number of answer options on a number scale. First select the Net Promoter Score question type, then click on SETTINGS and select the desired answer format.

Then switch the view from the questionnaire editor to the ANALYSIS menu item. Here, select the dial next to the question and choose “Customer Satisfaction Score” as the custom evaluation model.

Identifying CSAT with the Customer Experience Management Platform QuestionPro

QuestionPro’s Customer Experience Management Platform is the module for creating touchpoint analyses with which you can sustainably track and thus optimise customer touchpoints within the customer journey. The creation of a questionnaire to determine the Customer Satisfaction Score is very similar to the example described above, but here there is a predefined set of questions that we would like to show you in a 1:1 live presentation!

1:1 Live Online Demo: Customer Satisfaction Score: Gain and analyse data with CX software from QuestionPro

We would be happy to show you in a 1:1 live online presentation how you can quickly and easily determine the Customer Satisfaction Score with QuestionPro’s CX software and automatically generate a CSAT analysis.

CX software for calculating the Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) can now be tested free of charge for 14 days.

Do you have any questions on the topic of Customer Satisfaction Score? Simply contact us via the contact form. We look forward to the dialogue with you. Test QuestionPro’s web-based survey software, market research software and experience management platform 14 days for free!

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