Posted by Customer satisfaction or CSAT is one of the key parameters that are tracked to understand the company’s performance. It is often seen that the CSAT score also translates into the brand reputation and sales in the long run. Therefore, companies need to handle customer queries with a planned approach.
CSAT score is usually gathered by taking feedback from the customer. It is on a scale as defined by the company, after an interaction at one of the touchpoints. Based on the score from the customer, the company can track the level of satisfaction. This is amongst consumers and their interaction with the company.
With the changing consumer behavior, many modern technological platforms have emerged to provide solutions that aim at increasing CSAT.
We are going to look at the various ways that can help you in maximizing CSAT.
What is Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) ?
CSAT is the level of customer satisfaction after interaction with the company at one or more touchpoints. Customer touchpoints can be spread across locations like contact centers, chatbots, websites, social media, email, etc. CSAT is one of the major KPIs to understand the level of satisfaction among consumers.
A few years ago, CSAT was only measured primarily after the interaction with the customer service agent. However, with the changing consumer preferences, companies are expected to maintain high CSAT. This is across multiple customer touchpoints like the website, social media, email, and contact center.
This has led to a complete transformation on how CSAT should be tracked, improved, and reported. A CSAT score is either a numerical figure or a percentage that is measured as per the feedback provided by the consumer. For instance, if you expect the consumer to rate his or her experience from 1 to 10, a CSAT score would be an average of that score. The scale would define your performance.
For instance, if the scale mentions that below 5 is not satisfactory, 6 to 8 is satisfactory and above 8 is for exceeding expectations, the average score would also reflect the same.
5 Ways to improve customer satisfaction score
1. Understand expectations of consumers
You can only improve if you understand what needs improvement. For this, you require a clear understanding of what the consumer expects out of the brand.
Also, you can undertake a study and feedback mechanism to understand the current connection of the brand with the existing and prospective consumers.
Once you have complete clarity on the expectation of consumers, you will be able to put in place a solid knowledge management framework that will help build upon the data you have.
With a deep understanding of consumer expectations, you can assess your existing system and see how you are addressing customer queries across touchpoints. This would help you in bridging the visible gaps and undertake other actions listed below to maximize CSAT.
2. Reduce hold time for consumers
No one liked waiting ten years back, and it is still relevant today. With the reduced attention span of consumers, it is all the more important to reduce the hold time for consumers. For instance, according to a study by Microsoft, the attention span of consumers has gone down from 12 seconds in 2000 to under eight seconds today.
As a result, it is more critical to reduce the wait time for consumers. You can use knowledge management tools to build solutions like FAQs, visual guides, chatbots, etc. That will help consumers get answers to usual queries without contacting an agent.
By building these solutions, you are trying to reduce the hold time for consumers. You would have agents willing to assist consumers with complex queries. And, the ones with usual questions will be handled by the other solutions that have been built using techniques focused on knowledge management for C-SAT.
By reducing the average handle time, you can expect a higher number of satisfied consumers that can push your CSAT score.
3. ASAT is connected to CSAT
ASAT, short for agent satisfaction, is directly related to your CSAT score. The agents that are available in your contact center should be motivated. They should also be trained enough to ensure that consumer queries are handled efficiently.
You can create a bunch of solutions under knowledge management for CX, like decision tree software and a comprehensive knowledge base, to ensure that the agents have the required resources at their disposal to handle customer queries efficiently. At the same time, it is equally important to define and share the KPIs with the agents so that they are aware of what they are being measured at.
For instance, if you are looking at increasing the CSAT score, it is not fair to evaluate the agents in a short period. It is rather better to focus on solving the consumer problem in the least possible amount of time. This will help you achieve a high CSAT score.
One of the best ways to maximize your CSAT is to keep the ASAT score high and provide the right training to your agents to handle customer queries efficiently.
4. Improve resolution at first contact
With the consumer being more powerful than ever, you should focus on providing resolution at first contact. Be it your website, social media, email, or chatbot. You should put up a mechanism with which your knowledge base can provide the right information. This should reach the consumer at the first contact point.
For instance, if the consumer has contacted you via a chatbot, an ideal scenario would be that the consumer can get the right answer then and there itself.
However, if the consumer is transferred from the chatbot to email and then asked to contact the customer service agent, there would not be a high CSAT that you would receive from such an interaction.
You should focus on designing the systems. It should be done in a manner that will help you create an efficient resolution at the first contact itself. To start with, you can build solid knowledge management frameworks. In this, you would be providing comprehensive information to the end-user across multiple touchpoints.
By creating such an ecosystem, you can expect that consumers can get the right information at the right time. And, you can provide resolution to consumers at the first contact point itself.
5. Set up automation & self-service
Gone are the days when consumers used to get in touch with a call center representative after the endless wait and were patient enough to go through this ordeal. However, the consumer of today is much more comfortable with self-service tools and chatbots that are installed on websites, social media, and any other platform that can provide them with the right answers.
One of the best ways to increase CSAT is by embracing automation and self-service platforms across multiple touchpoints. Solutions like visual guides, the use of chatbots, and article FAQs that are disseminated across various touchpoints, where will help in increasing customer satisfaction.
All these solutions should give the ability to the consumer to reach an agent in case more information is required. In such a framework, you would be able to create an ecosystem with the right balance of innovation. Oh, and also human touch.
These are some of the ways that can help you improve CSAT. One of the most important steps towards increasing CSAT is to look at the entire ecosystem and solve issues by putting in place a comprehensive knowledge base for customer support. You can then use tools and technologies available across various touchpoints to get a higher CSAT score.