essay about customer satisfaction

ESSAY SAUCE

FOR STUDENTS : ALL THE INGREDIENTS OF A GOOD ESSAY

Essay: Customer satisfaction

Essay details and download:.

• Subject area(s): Business essays
• Reading time: 2 minutes
• Price: Free download
• Published: 26 October 2015*
• File format: Text
• Words: 442 (approx)
• Number of pages: 2 (approx)

Text preview of this essay:

This page of the essay has 442 words. Download the full version above.

Customer satisfaction is one of the most important key factors for customer’s future purchase (Mittal & Kamakura, 2001). Those clients that have been satisfied by consuming or buying any goods or services will most likely inform others about their great encounters likewise those dissatisfied customers will without any doubt communicate about their bad experience of the products or services. This is another reason why a company should take into consideration the level of customer satisfaction, as it defines the image of the products/services and the company that the customers have in their mind. By delivering goods and services that meets with the needs and wants of consumers, they will have a positive image and will talk good about the company, but in case a company do not meet the needs or wants of the customers, it will create a negative image for the company in the mind of the customers and thus discouraging the customer to buy products or services from that particular company. Moreover, according to Gundersen, Heide and Olsson, customer satisfaction is regularly defined as an evaluative conclusion made by a customer after consuming a particular product or service (Gundersen, Heide and Olsson, 1996). That is in regards to Gundersen, Heide and Olsson’s definition of customer satisfaction, the customer is able to conclude whether he/she is satisfied or not with the product or service only after consuming it. On the other hand, according to Oliver, consumer satisfaction is the process that compares the expectations of customer’s before buying any products or services to the process where the customer is consuming the product or service and after the consumption of the product or service (Oliver, 1980). In other words, according to Oliver, consumer satisfaction is the course where they compare what the buyer has in his mind about any products or services before buying it to what the buyer feels and has in his mind while consuming and after consuming any products or services. While analyzing the definition of Gundersen, Heide and Olsson to that of Oliver, we can see that the definition of Oliver is more detailed compared to that of Gundersen, Heide and Olsson. The definition of Oliver takes into consideration the expectations of the consumer about a product or service before he evens purchase it and compare it to what the buyer feels while consuming and after consuming the product or service. Therefore using the theory of Oliver, it will be easier for a company to have a better idea about what types of products or services customer’s want to consume and what do consumer’s expect while consuming and after consuming any products or services.

...(download the rest of the essay above)

About this essay:

If you use part of this page in your own work, you need to provide a citation, as follows:

Essay Sauce, Customer satisfaction . Available from:<https://www.essaysauce.com/business-essays/essay-customer-satisfaction/> [Accessed 09-04-24].

These Business essays have been submitted to us by students in order to help you with your studies.

* This essay may have been previously published on Essay.uk.com at an earlier date.

Essay Categories:

• Accounting essays
• Architecture essays
• Business essays
• Computer science essays
• Criminology essays
• Economics essays
• Education essays
• Engineering essays
• English language essays
• Environmental studies essays
• Essay examples
• Finance essays
• Geography essays
• Health essays
• History essays
• Hospitality and tourism essays
• Human rights essays
• Information technology essays
• International relations
• Leadership essays
• Linguistics essays
• Literature essays
• Management essays
• Marketing essays
• Mathematics essays
• Media essays
• Medicine essays
• Military essays
• Miscellaneous essays
• Music Essays
• Nursing essays
• Philosophy essays
• Photography and arts essays
• Politics essays
• Project management essays
• Psychology essays
• Religious studies and theology essays
• Sample essays
• Science essays
• Social work essays
• Sociology essays
• Sports essays
• Types of essay
• Zoology essays

• SUGGESTED TOPICS
• The Magazine
• Newsletters
• Managing Yourself
• Managing Teams
• Work-life Balance
• The Big Idea
• Data & Visuals
• Reading Lists
• Case Selections
• HBR Learning
• Topic Feeds
• Account Settings
• Email Preferences

10 Ways to Boost Customer Satisfaction

• G. Tomas M. Hult
• Forrest V. Morgeson

Takeaways from an analysis of millions of consumer data points.

Customer satisfaction is at its lowest point in the past two decades. Companies must focus on 10 areas of the customer experience to improve satisfaction without sacrificing revenue. The authors base their findings on research at the ACSI — analyzing millions of customer data points — and research that we conducted for The Reign of the Customer : Customer-Centric Approaches to Improving Customer Satisfaction. For three decades, the ACSI has been a leading satisfaction index (cause-and-effect metric) connected to the quality of brands sold by companies with significant market share in the United States.

Despite all the effort and money poured into CX tools by companies, customer satisfaction continues to decline . In the United States, it is now at its lowest level in nearly two decades, per data from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). Consumer sentiment is also at its lowest in more than two decades. This negative dynamic in the customer-centric ecosystem in which we now live creates the challenge of figuring out what is going wrong and what companies can do to fix it.

• GH G. Tomas M. Hult is part of the leadership team at the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI); coauthor of The Reign of the Customer: Customer-Centric Approaches to Improving Customer Satisfaction ; and professor in the Broad College of Business at Michigan State University. He is also a member of the Expert Networks of the World Economic Forum and the United Nations’ World Investment Forum.
• FM Forrest V. Morgeson is an assistant professor in the Broad College of Business at Michigan State University; (Former) Director of Research at the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI); and coauthor of The Reign of the Customer: Customer-Centric Approaches to Improving Customer Satisfaction .

Partner Center

The importance of customer satisfaction for business

We are living in a new era. The transformation of commerce over the years has gone from prioritizing products and services to putting emphasis on the consumer; a trend we predict will remain for quite some time. Customers are the centerpiece of your business and all marketing efforts. Every business should not only reach for a high level of customer satisfaction but should always be actively pursuing it through various support operations .

Most businesses do strive for customer satisfaction, but the problem is that their understanding of what makes a satisfied customer is vague and their goals lack intention. There are a few ways you can analyze your customer satisfaction and determine the success of your CX critical care plan , but before that, let’s get a firm grasp of what exactly customer satisfaction is.

What is customer satisfaction?

In simple terms, customer satisfaction is a measurement that determines how well a company’s products or services meet customer expectations. It includes making a human-to-human connection at every touchpoint with the customer, going above and beyond to provide solutions, and proactively reaching out. When we say every touchpoint, we don’t mean that lightly.

61% of consumers switch to a competitor after just one poor customer service experience. (Zendesk, 20220)

To say that customer satisfaction is important is an understatement. Customer satisfaction is a necessity. Most of the time, customers purchase with preexisting expectations regarding what they will receive from you. Maybe they saw one of your marketing campaigns and ended up giving your product a try. If you made promises to them or were even slightly disingenuous about your deliverables, your customers will be disappointed. You may also lose them forever.

A large part of customer satisfaction is being honest, real, and genuine with your customers. The integrity of your business will bleed through into your employees, the quality of your services, and the way your buyers perceive your brand.

The key word in our definition of customer satisfaction is ‘measurement.’ It may come as a surprise to you that customer satisfaction can be measured, but you can and should take a data-driven approach to your customer satisfaction strategy.

How to measure customer satisfaction

Having a bunch of customers is not going to cut it when determining their contentment with your brand. We have to dig a little deeper than that. One of the best ways to determine this is by calculating your customer satisfaction score (CSAT). It’s a commonly used metric that acts as a KPI for customer service and product quality. Your score will be a percentage—0% being horrible and 100% being wonderful—and is always determined by feedback.

Creating a customer survey follow-up email after buyers shop your products is one of the simplest approaches. You can do this by setting up a campaign segment so your customers receive an automatic email upon receiving the product. Automatic email surveys are low-hanging fruit that helps to reveal your CSAT and give you valuable insights into what your customers really think about your services.

Some customers may not be signed up for your newsletter. Maybe you don’t have one yet, or maybe they purchased the product in-store or through a third party. Ideally, an omnichannel marketing strategy yields the most success, but whatever platform your brand is on, customers will most likely share their thoughts. This could be through social media comments, support chats , or review systems such as your Google Business Profile or Yelp.

Customers are 2 to 3 times more likely to write an angry review than customers who had a great experience are to post a happy review. (Online Reputation Management)

Striving to give each customer an experience so profoundly positive that they feel compelled to share their interaction with your business should be a goal for customer satisfaction.

The main point here is that customer satisfaction is determined by feedback, and customers will share their opinions wherever they have a voice. They also won’t lie to you. A large part of building a customer satisfaction strategy is giving your audience the opportunity to share their voice, and then fully listening to them when they do so. The benefits of simply listening to your customer can propel your organization towards growth. Besides listening to your customers, which is vital, let’s discuss a few other ways you can encourage customer happiness.

How to improve customer satisfaction

There are two important questions to ask when you establish customer support : who is your customer base? And what do you need to do to satisfy them? Here are a few techniques to begin implementing in your customer relations journey, if you aren’t already.

1. Segment your customers

This can be done in many different ways, whether you do so demographically, geographically, or behaviorally, to name a few. The value of learning more about your customer base allows you to tailor your content to fit their specific needs. It further emphasizes that you are listening and taking action. Segmenting ensures that you effectively reach your audience and helps to boost your conversions.

2. Be genuine

If your company makes a mistake, own it. Tell your honest story and stay true to your company’s mission. Hire employees who are authentic and prioritize a transparent-centric work culture.

3. Build credibility

You can accomplish this with case studies , testimonials, or influencer/guest blog features from people who genuinely enjoy supporting your business.

4. Bring value wherever possible.

When customers typically evaluate your services, they perceive the value compared to the price. However, many customers are willing to spend more for product attributes, support of your brand’s mission, convenience, and overall quality. In fact, 67% of buyers are willing to pay more to get a better customer service experience. (Sales Force) How can you make the buying process better?

5. Prioritize connecting with your current customers.

Focusing too much on gaining new customers can leave gaps in relationships with preexisting customers. An increase in customer retention of merely 5% can equate to an increase in profit of 25%. (Bain & Company) Spending less on operating costs increases your success and your customer’s happiness. It’s a win-win.

Our top 7 reasons why customer satisfaction is important

1. customer satisfaction drives customer loyalty and business growth.

High-quality products and systematic support services that are designed to meet customer needs will create high levels of customer satisfaction. This increases customer loyalty and is the single most important driver of long-term financial performance.

2. Customer satisfaction improves churn rate

U.S companies lose $138.6 billion per year due to avoidable consumer switching. (CallMiner) If customers are unhappy, they leave. It’s as simple as that.

3. Customer satisfaction helps you stand out

There are a handful of businesses that are known for being over-the-top with their empathy to customers. Take Chick-fil-a’s ‘my pleasure’ as an example. The phrase itself is so effortless, yet, has completely elevated their verbiage in a way that makes the customer feel appreciated. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, but something as small as a trademark phrase can elevate any business.

4. Customer satisfaction attracts new customers

93% of customers say that online reviews influence their purchase decision. (Qualtrics) Honest testimonials speak for themselves and create a community of individuals who believe so strongly in your company that they feel the need to share it with the world.

5. Customer satisfaction represents your brand’s mission, values, and image

You don’t want to be known as a business with horrendous customer service. Nowadays, the chances of going viral for a negative situation can severely impact your reputation that can sometimes never be recovered. Working with an experienced and trained support team assists in keeping your image golden.

6. Customer satisfaction is cost-effective to retain customers

There is a 60-70% chance of selling to an existing customer. (Finances Online) Prioritizing existing relationships with your customers cuts down on operating costs and increases overall customer happiness, driving you further towards growth.

7. Customer satisfaction grows customer lifetime value (CLV)

The longer your customer stays with you, the more profit they bring. This assists with maximizing your ROI since you don’t need to spend additional money on customer acquisition to drive sales.

Improve customer satisfaction with Influx

Increasing your customer satisfaction is a long game that requires patience to establish trust between your customers and your brand. Outsourcing support solutions to a 24/7 team of trained professionals with expertise in all things related to CX ensures that your customer satisfaction increases in staggering amounts. Get a quote today !

About the author

Mikayla fuller.

Mikayla is an avid copywriter. If she’s not out on an adventure, you can find her somewhere with a book in hand.

Read these next

Stay up-to-date with the latest CX news and insights with our biweekly newsletter.

Receive top curated content straight to your inbox. Sign up now.

See how top companies are building their support teams.

Monthly updates on strategy, management and more!

Why Customer Satisfaction Should Be a Top Priority for Your Business

Table of Contents

Are you putting enough focus on customer satisfaction in your business? If not, it is time to do so! Besides, you already know this – it’s all about the customer.

Customer satisfaction should be a top priority of every business because happy customers are more likely to stick around and recommend your business to others . Satisfied customers are also more likely to return after making a big purchase and become loyal supporters of your brand .

Are there really sweeter words to the ears of entrepreneurs? We don’t think so.

What many business owners do not realize, though, is that there are a few specific things they continuously need to keep their customers satisfied.

In this blog post, we will list all the reasons ‌you should invest in customer satisfaction and suggest some ways to improve it, to help your business thrive!

So read on–your customers will thank you later.

Table of contents

• 1 The Importance of Customer Satisfaction
• 2 The Negative Effects of Poor Customer Satisfaction
• 3 How to Improve Customer Satisfaction
• 4 Measuring the Success of Your Efforts to Improve Customer Satisfaction

The Importance of Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction (CSAT) is a way of measuring how content and satisfied your customers are with your company’s product and services. It is used to help you understand how well your customer experience meets your customers’ expectations , and how potential buyers perceive your product.

As one of the most important metrics and key performance indicators – KPIs , customer satisfaction comes in handy, especially when you want to measure the effectiveness of your wider customer training initiatives.

Apart from bringing big returns and profits for your business , ‌high customer satisfaction is important for a multitude of additional reasons. According to research by Zendesk , customer satisfaction leads to greater customer retention, increased lifetime customer value, and stronger brand reputation.

In a nutshell, these are the key benefits of customer satisfaction:

• Reduced marketing costs
• Advantage over competitors
• Decreased customer churn
• Increased customer loyalty
• Brand reputation boost
• Healthy sales revenue
• Enhanced customer retention
• New customer acquisition

Customer satisfaction relies on customer experience (CX) and is important because all the aforementioned points are great indicators of business growth . According to Gartner’s 2017 report , two out of three marketers say their companies compete mostly based on CX and 81 percent of them believe ‌it is the main competitive factor of their industry.

Another research led by Bain & Company confirms that it is less costly to keep an existing customer happy than to gain a new customer. This means that building loyal customer relationships will generate higher ROI as repeat customers will keep buying from a company‌‌. ROI may vary among different industries, but for the financial services, a 5% increase in customer retention produces more than a 25% increase in profit. Imagine what it could do for your business!

Therefore, it is essential to ensure that customers who are already engaged continue to be happy every step of the way throughout the entire customer journey. Keeping customer satisfaction high allows you to predict your business revenue and growth while helping you create a loyal customer base that keeps coming back for more.

The Negative Effects of Poor Customer Satisfaction

Unhappy customers will almost certainly have something bad to say about your product or service. If they do not get what they need on time, are not treated right, or are simply not satisfied with the quality of your product or the support you offer, they are going to put you on their blacklist and even start telling others to do the same.

As there are many similar products out there nowadays, many people rely heavily on reviews to make an informed decision. Online reviews can have a big impact on your sales, especially when they are shared on social media. Positive reviews have the power to get a customer to convert, but a negative review will prevent many from doing so.

PwC’s Future of Customer Experience survey showed that 59 percent of customers will stop interacting with the company after several bad experiences, and 17 percent will ‌do the same after just one bad experience. Bad customer service can also cost a business a billion of dollars a year as a result of lost revenue and lower profits. Such numbers show that customers may leave a company forever because of poor customer satisfaction.

Luckily, though, there are strategies that help you move past this.

Despite of all the negative impacts of low customer satisfaction, it can ‌reveal some profound information about your business. Low levels of customer satisfaction offer the opportunity to identify your customers’ needs and give your customer success team access to customer insights that help you improve the entire customer experience journey.

How to Improve Customer Satisfaction

Just because technology moves fast and customer demands and priorities change in an instant, it is a considerable risk to assume you already know what your customers want. Yes – you might have a general idea; if you want to be 100 percent sure, you must check in with them regularly .

The best way to do this is by interacting with them, asking and getting their feedback , and working your way up to building their trust in you by offering them exceptional customer service.

Here are some ways how to do this effectively:

1 Conduct customer satisfaction surveys

Assuming that you already know your customers, you need to learn what it takes to satisfy them . An excellent way to do this is by encouraging them to participate in a customer satisfaction survey after interacting with your company.

These surveys are easy to understand and analyze, but they also save time and help you identify problem areas. To make the survey process even more convenient for your customers, you can leverage modern technology like any of these best QR code generators to create scannable codes that lead directly to the survey. The surveys can take different formats depending on which customer touchpoint you want to explore, measuring the customer satisfaction score – CSAT .

For example, it could be a customer service survey after interacting with your support team, a product satisfaction survey after they have used your product, or even before purchasing your product.

Customer satisfaction surveys are typically a list of questions that request customers to rate their service experience either on a simple 5 or 10-point scale, or express how they felt about it with pre-defined responses, from ‘Highly Dissatisfied’ to ‘Highly Satisfied’.

💡 You can create any type of survey using LearnWorlds’ powerful multi-purpose form builder ! Use it to capture leads easily, learn more about your customers, or gather feedback.

Your professional looking Academy in a few clicks

2 use net promoter score – nps surveys.

Like customer satisfaction surveys, net promoter score surveys can measure customer satisfaction , but they investigate a more long-term perspective, focusing on overall brand satisfaction and customer loyalty.

Whereas CSAT surveys ask specific questions about customer interactions with your company, NPS surveys will determine if customers would refer your products or services to their friends and family, taking into consideration their overall experience. If they have a positive experience, you can measure the likelihood of recommending your brand to others.

This can help you classify your customers into specific categories – e.g., promoters (those who rated a likelihood of 9 or 10), passives (those who rated a possibility of 7 or 8), or detractors (a probability of 6 or below) and then take the appropriate measures to engage them more.

3 Invest heavily in your support team

No matter how unique your product is, business success and growth largely depend on how you treat your customers . Since your customer support members are at the frontline of your company, they are the ones who talk regularly with your customers and need to be good customer service providers.

As long as your support team eliminates poor customer service practices and strives to deliver fast responses , you have nothing to fear. So train your customer support team effectively and get them accustomed to your customers’ most essential needs. Create canned responses to the most common inquiries if you must, but make sure your customer support employees will go the extra mile to get customers what they need as quickly as possible. Trust us – it works!

4 Reward customer loyalty

Not all your customers are the same. In fact, they are different in the rate they interact with you and at the level of engagement with your organization. To encourage them to stick around, love and trust your brand, ‌you can offer incentives to your top ambassadors .

Here are some ideas:

• Celebrate and share their achievements
• Invite them to a special event
• Offer them a referral bonus
• Give them a discount
• Provide them early access to your product (e.g. your course)

Rewarding your customers’ loyalty shows that, as a company, you appreciate their valuable contribution. It also shows that you like to keep things personal, and that you prefer to engage with each customer at an individual level.

5 Act on customer feedback promptly

Whenever you get a review or a complaint, try to react in real-time or as soon as possible. To avoid churn, take your customers’ feedback seriously, use it to improve your business processes, and never ignore their complaints. Also, ‌‌ address negative customer feedback right away and come up with alternative suggestions or any compensation that suits their situation.

Upset and disappointed customers are more likely to share their opinions , which often backfires, as it helps build a bad reputation through word-of-mouth.

So challenge your existing perceptions and keep track of customer interests every step of the way. You will gain a better understanding of the value they expect from you and come up with actionable solutions to their problems.

6 Offer omnichannel support

Customer feedback is the most valuable piece of information you can get your hands on as an entrepreneur, so ‌you need to keep that communication channel with them open at all times.

Paying attention to your customers and hearing what they have to say always comes first, which means you want your support representatives to follow up on them through multiple channels, including social media, phone calls (using mobile or local phone service ), and live web chats . Making use of a VoIP software solution is sensible if you want to get the best in terms of call quality, convenience, cost-effectiveness and cross-device compatibility for customer support purposes.

Doing so should help you resolve queries quickly, meet customer expectations, providing them with quick tips and directions while avoiding giving out repetitive information.

7 Build an integrated community

With a dedicated online community in place, you get to improve the customer journey and gradually build more trust in your brand. It will also make it easier for them to network with others, feel part of a group and get more value and opportunities to use your product effectively. In such a friendly environment, you are more likely to foster and maintain greater brand loyalty.

Meet customers where they are and create a special online space where they can connect and interact with each other often. Enable them to exchange information, views, ideas, and opinions on things that matter to them. Encourage conversations, answer their questions or let existing customers guide the newbies around your website or give a tour of your product.

8 Educate your customers

Start creating a customer-centric culture and focus on providing customers with your best and most valuable resources for free. Do not just offer training and additional support to your customers; be proactive and give specific directions and advice before they even ask for it.

If you do not yet have a customer education program , this is the best time to do so. As part of a broader and collective customer training effort, it will help you increase the customers’ level of interaction with your product. On top of this, you will help them learn how to use it to its maximum potential and allow them to integrate it better into their everyday lives.

You can also create a customer portal by using customer service software, such as any of these Zendesk alternatives . A customer portal can help answer queries, reduce tickets, and educate customers on the use of your product, but would not replace a customer-faced academy with dedicated training.

This way, customers will get to know how to search for answers on their own and resolve their issues quickly, leaving them feeling as satisfied and connected with your brand as never before.

Measuring the Success of Your Efforts to Improve Customer Satisfaction

At any point, measuring the level of customer satisfaction towards your company is very easy. Being consistent and having a sustainable customer satisfaction measurement process to check if your customers are happy with your product and service is the key to success.

The key metrics to monitor for customer satisfaction are:

Customer satisfaction score (CSAT):

The customer satisfaction score metric uses questions related to specific interactions of customers to measure whether your product meets their expectations.

To calculate the CSAT score, simply add the sum of the survey responses using a 5-point scale satisfaction rating question – ‘Satisfied’ to ‘Very Satisfied.’ The higher the number is, the happier your customers are.

Customer satisfaction index (CSI):

The customer satisfaction index metric shows the overall customer satisfaction with a company regarding product quality, customer service, price, and more. It is like the customer satisfaction score, but this combines different attributes and helps determine why customers are satisfied or dissatisfied.

CSI = (attribute 1 + attribute 2 + attribute 3) / 3

For example:

Attribute 1 – Customer care = 65 Attribute 2 – User experience = 50 Attribute 3 – Price = 60

CSI = (65 + 50 + 60) / 3 Then the CSI is 58.33.

Net Promoter Score (NPS):

The net promoter score is an index that ranges from (-100) to (+100) and reflects the willingness of customers to recommend your product or services to others. With NPS, you can gather quantitative data that you can compare against your industry’s benchmark.

To calculate NPS, ask your customers to answer a survey question on the likelihood of recommending your product and rate it using a 10-point scale.

Customer effort score (CES):

The customer effort score is a metric that combines CSAT and NP; it calculates how much effort customers have put into specific interactions with your company.

To measure it, count the average of all the answers you collected from respondents. When the number is low, it means that customers are putting too much effort into interacting with you.

💁 Even though customer lifetime value, customer acquisition, and customer churn are more related to sales and marketing, they can also help you get a more accurate view of overall satisfaction. Learn more about these KPIs here .

What’s Next: Make Customers Your Number One Priority

Even more so today, there is a major focus on customer satisfaction with a growing interest in offering the best service to existing customers.

A Gartner’s 2021 report shows that 64 percent of customer service and support leaders say growing the business is the most critical priority in 2022. This shows a shift towards adding value and growing existing clients having customer retention as the main goal.

How does this affect you?

Regardless of your industry, achieving high customer satisfaction is a must. After all, your customers are the people who help to keep your business alive.

Brands that have high customer satisfaction levels have a defensible advantage over their competitors. Since it can either make or break your business, ‌try to keep your customers happy, and get brand ambassadors that will help you stay relevant in the market.

Further reading you might find interesting:

• How to Create and Sell Profitable Online Courses: Step-by-Step Guide
• How to Teach Online & Earn Money in 2022: Definitive Guide
• How Much Money Can You Make Selling Online Courses?
• How to Design an Online Course in 2022: Best Practices, Tips & Templates
• What is an LMS (Learning Management System)?
• 18 Amazing Outline Templates to use in Course Design [3 Downloadables]
• The Essential Guide on How to Create Cohort-Based Courses

Kyriaki Raouna

Kyriaki is a Content Creator for the LearnWorlds team writing about marketing and e-learning, helping course creators on their journey to create, market, and sell their online courses. Equipped with a degree in Career Guidance, she has a strong background in education management and career success. In her free time, she gets crafty and musical.

How to Measure Customer Satisfaction for Your Business

If there’s one thing that’s bad for business, it’s unhappy customers. When your customers are frustrated with the quality of your products, services, or support team, they’re likely to ditch your company for a competitor — unless you can help resolve their issues satisfactorily.

But how do you even know if your customers are happy or not? The answer is: You keep track of customer satisfaction. By analyzing the data, you can figure out what you need to do to make your customers happier with your business. Of course, that leaves the question of how to measure customer satisfaction in the first place.

That’s just what we’ll be discussing on this page. Keep reading to learn more about measuring customer satisfaction.

Table of Contents

What is customer satisfaction, why is it important to measure customer satisfaction, important customer satisfaction metrics to track, methods for measuring customer satisfaction.

Customer satisfaction is a measurement of how well your company meets your customers’ standards. If you do everything right and they have no complaints about your products or services, your customer satisfaction will be extremely high. But if you aren’t living up to their expectations, it will be a lot lower.

Customer satisfaction is important for a fairly obvious reason—if your customers aren’t happy with your business, they probably won’t continue to be customers for long. Unhappy customers mean less revenue, which is a problem.

That’s why measuring customer satisfaction is so important. By knowing when and why your customers are dissatisfied, you can resolve the issues they’re experiencing, retaining more customers and keeping your revenue from taking a hit.

For your customer satisfaction data to mean anything, it has to be quantifiable. That means you should track your customer satisfaction by looking at specific metrics. But what metrics are those?

Here are a few customer satisfaction indicators to track:

• Customer satisfaction (CSAT)
• Customer effort score (CES)
• Net promoter score (NPS)
• Customer churn rate (CCR)

1. Customer satisfaction (CSAT)

All of the metrics on this list can help you measure customer satisfaction. However, there’s actually a metric called customer satisfaction, or CSAT.

The customer satisfaction score involves simply asking your customers how satisfied they are (typically on a scale of 1 to 5). Then you just calculate the percentage of people who were satisfied (which usually means the people who answered with either a 4 or a 5), and there you go — your CSAT.

As a formula, it looks like this:

CSAT = number of satisfied responses / total number of responses x 100

2. Customer effort score (CES)

Customer effort score (CES) measures how easy it is for customers to complete tasks related to your business, such as making a purchase or signing up for a free trial.

In terms of how you measure it, it’s very similar to CSAT. You send out a survey asking customers to rate how easily they were able to complete a task, and then you use the same formula as CSAT to determine what percentage of those customers gave a positive response.

3. Net promoter score (NPS)

Net promoter score (NPS) assesses how likely your customers are to recommend your business to others. Like with the previous two metrics, you determine this by sending out a survey. Specifically, you should ask customers to give their answers using a scale of 1 to 10.

With NPS, anything below a 7 is considered a negative response, and those customers are considered detractors . People who answer with a 7 or 8 are considered passives , while people who answer with a 9 or 10 are considered promoters .

To calculate your NPS, you use the following formula:

NPS = percentage of promoters – percentage of detractors

For an NPS to be considered good, it must be above zero. The higher it is, though, the better.

4. Customer churn rate (CCR)

Customer churn rate, or CCR, refers to the percentage of your customers that leave your business in a given period of time. Unlike the other metrics listed here, this one doesn’t involve any customer surveys. You simply keep track of how many people stop being customers over time.

CCR = number of customers lost / total number of customers x 100

If your churn rate is high, you should put together a strategy to improve customer satisfaction, which will lead to improved customer retention.

Want even more sales and marketing tips from our experts?

Join 30,000+ other sales and marketing professionals in signing up for our free Sell to Win newsletter!

SIGN UP FOR THE NEWSLETTER

Now that you know which metrics to track, let’s talk about how to measure customer satisfaction. How do you actually track those metrics? What are the best ways to monitor the satisfaction of your customer base?

Here are four methods to consider using:

• Send out surveys
• Track engagement metrics
• Read reviews
• Monitor social media

1. Send out surveys

Probably the best way to track customer satisfaction is to send out surveys to ask your customers directly. This shouldn’t be surprising since we already mentioned this as a good method for gathering several of the metrics listed above.

There are numerous ways to do this. One method is to direct users to a survey page after they make a purchase on your website. Another is to send them an email a few days later. Whatever channel you use, though, sending out surveys is a great method. Just be sure that your surveys are short and easy to fill out.

2. Track engagement metrics

Another way to gauge how satisfied your customers are is to track how they engage with your business. For example, you can track things like how they navigate your website or how often they reorder your products. Or, if you provide services to long-term clients, you can track churn rate, as we talked about earlier.

If you see a lot of customers losing engagement or becoming frustrated, you know you need to make some changes.

3. Read reviews

Online reviews are a huge help to potential customers when they’re trying to decide on a purchase. But they can also be a big help to businesses like yours. Your reviews will give you a pretty clear picture of what your customers think of you. If they have any complaints, you’ll be able to find those complaints in their reviews.

Use online reviews to figure out exactly what you’re doing well and what needs improvement to make your customers happier. If you don’t have any online reviews, consider encouraging your customers to leave some for you, either on your own site or on third-party sites like Amazon or The Yellow Pages.

4. Monitor social media

Not all reviews are posted in official forums. A lot of people prefer to vent their feelings about businesses through social media. Sometimes, people will post positive things, but a lot of them will be negative. That might not be what you want to hear, but it’s a big help when it comes to figuring out what could make your customers happier.

To take advantage of that, be sure to monitor social media platforms for mentions of your brand. When you see people posting about you, check out what they’re saying, and then factor that into your considerations when looking for things to improve in your business.

Use Nutshell to help you track and improve customer satisfaction

When you use the practices outlined on this page, you’ll end up with a lot of customer satisfaction data — and you’ll need somewhere to put it. That’s why you should be sure to use a customer relationship management (CRM) platform like Nutshell.

Not only can Nutshell help you store and analyze your data, but it can also help you send out emails and organize marketing campaigns to help improve customer satisfaction. Plus, it’s affordable and comes with the support of an excellent customer service team.

Interested in trying out Nutshell? Just check out our 14-day free trial today!

Looking for an easy-to-use CRM with all of these features and more?

Nutshell has what you need.

Explore Nutshell’s Features

Ready to try Nutshell for Free?

How to Craft an Effective Elevator Pitch in 7 Easy Steps

How to Calculate Email Marketing ROI (and Why You Should)

Crush Your Backlink Outreach With These Tactics And Templates

How to implement a sales process: the complete guide, how to use a sales activity report to coach your sales team, 7 sales follow-up strategies you can try.

Join 30,000+ other sales and marketing professionals. Subscribe to our Sell to Win newsletter!

Cookie Preference Center

Your preferences, strictly necessary cookies, functional cookies, targeting cookies.

As described in our Corporate Privacy Notice and Cookie Policy , we use cookies (including pixels or other similar technologies) on our websites, mobile applications and related products (the “services”). The types of cookies we use are described below.​

These are cookies necessary for the services to function and are always active. They are usually only set in response to actions made by the user which amount to a request for services, such as setting privacy preferences, logging in, or filling in forms. ​

These cookies enable the services to provide enhanced functionality and personalization. They may be set by us or by third party providers we use to provide the services. If you do not allow these cookies to run, then the services may not function properly.​

These cookies may be set through the services by our advertising partners to learn about your interests and present you with relevant advertisements on other sites. These advertising partners may be able to identify you based on your device or other online activity.​

Cookie List

• Undergraduate
• High School
• Architecture
• American History
• Asian History
• Antique Literature
• American Literature
• Asian Literature
• Classic English Literature
• World Literature
• Creative Writing
• Linguistics
• Criminal Justice
• Legal Issues
• Anthropology
• Archaeology
• Political Science
• World Affairs
• African-American Studies
• East European Studies
• Latin-American Studies
• Native-American Studies
• West European Studies
• Family and Consumer Science
• Social Issues
• Women and Gender Studies
• Social Work
• Natural Sciences
• Pharmacology
• Earth science
• Agriculture
• Agricultural Studies
• Computer Science
• IT Management
• Mathematics
• Investments
• Engineering and Technology
• Engineering
• Aeronautics
• Medicine and Health
• Alternative Medicine
• Communications and Media
• Advertising
• Communication Strategies
• Public Relations
• Educational Theories
• Teacher's Career
• Chicago/Turabian
• Company Analysis
• Education Theories
• Shakespeare
• Canadian Studies
• Food Safety
• Relation of Global Warming and Extreme Weather Condition
• Movie Review
• Admission Essay
• Annotated Bibliography
• Application Essay
• Article Critique
• Article Review
• Article Writing
• Book Review
• Business Plan
• Business Proposal
• Capstone Project
• Cover Letter
• Creative Essay
• Dissertation
• Dissertation - Abstract
• Dissertation - Conclusion
• Dissertation - Discussion
• Dissertation - Hypothesis
• Dissertation - Introduction
• Dissertation - Literature
• Dissertation - Methodology
• Dissertation - Results
• GCSE Coursework
• Grant Proposal
• Marketing Plan
• Multiple Choice Quiz
• Personal Statement
• Power Point Presentation
• Power Point Presentation With Speaker Notes
• Questionnaire
• Reaction Paper

Research Paper

• Research Proposal
• SWOT analysis
• Thesis Paper
• Online Quiz
• Literature Review
• Movie Analysis
• Statistics problem
• Math Problem
• All papers examples
• How It Works
• Money Back Policy
• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• We Are Hiring

Customer Satisfaction, Essay Example

Pages: 1

Words: 292

Hire a Writer for Custom Essay

Use 10% Off Discount: "custom10" in 1 Click 👇

You are free to use it as an inspiration or a source for your own work.

Team Video Analysis

CanGo can potentially increase customer satisfaction by implementing several strategies that can be costly to initially install, but would considerably save CanGo’s expenditure in maintaining the customer service department.

Package Tracking

The company can invest in a package tracking system that allows customers to receive updates on the status of their packages and even provide updates on the physical locations of these packages as they traverse certain geographic points. This reduces the number of calls the customer service switchboard receives, reducing the cost of running customer service.

The company can invest in an in-depth, detailed and interactive website that can help consumers keep track of their packages and get customer care services. This can be achieved through the use of an interactive customer service live chat service within the website. This would be facilitated by the customer filling in details about their order before initiating the chat. The customer would wait for 2 minutes at most then get assigned to the customer care agent with all the information pertaining to their given package. The client would then be allowed to state their problems or issues with their package and this would be ironed out.

Customer Service Portals

It is vital that all clients can contact CanGo’s customer service department. This is essential for the customer to realize quality services for moneys paid. CanGo can invest in opening up official customer service portals on the different social media platforms to help customer service handle issues with packages in the most convenient manner any time of day. This will help the company interact with its customers, while gaining meaningful insight into trends in customer wants, desires and fashion.

Works Cited

Humphrey, Doris. Customer Service . Mason: South-Western Pub., 2011. Print.

Macahdo, Ricardo and Colin Diggines. Customer Service . Lansdowne: Juta, 2012. Print.

Stuck with your Essay?

Get in touch with one of our experts for instant help!

Women From Willendorf, Research Paper Example

Human Resource Training Proposal, Essay Example

Time is precious

don’t waste it!

Plagiarism-free guarantee

Privacy guarantee

Secure checkout

Money back guarantee

Related Essay Samples & Examples

Voting as a civic responsibility, essay example.

Words: 287

Utilitarianism and Its Applications, Essay Example

Words: 356

The Age-Related Changes of the Older Person, Essay Example

Pages: 2

Words: 448

The Problems ESOL Teachers Face, Essay Example

Pages: 8

Words: 2293

Should English Be the Primary Language? Essay Example

Pages: 4

Words: 999

The Term “Social Construction of Reality”, Essay Example

Words: 371

Improve your customer experiences with the latest service insights.

What Is a Customer Satisfaction Survey? Importance, Types, and Tips

A customer satisfaction survey can help you get the insights you need to improve your offerings and build long-term loyalty.

Martin DuPont

Share article.

• Link Copied

How can you find out if your customers are happy (or not) with your business? Ask them in a customer satisfaction survey.

A customer satisfaction survey helps you get candid feedback from your customers. It gives them the opportunity to share their needs, preferences, and frustrations. 

Insight about the customer experience is critical. You can’t measure customer satisfaction without it. Our research finds that 80% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services.

Your customer relationship management (CRM) system makes it easy to track, manage, and analyze this data in one centralized location. Your whole team has a complete picture of each customer in real time, so they know how to deliver on customer expectations. Let’s look at how you can get the most out of a customer satisfaction survey.

What you’ll learn:

What is a customer satisfaction survey, why customer satisfaction surveys are important, how to create a customer satisfaction survey.

• Types of questions to ask, plus examples

Top use cases for customer satisfaction surveys

How to use customer satisfaction surveys to your advantage, modernize your contact center.

The right mix of customer service channels and tools can help you become more efficient and improve customer satisfaction. Our guide reveals how high-performing service orgs make it happen.

A customer satisfaction survey is a tool businesses use to gather feedback from customers about their experience. These surveys typically ask customers to rate their satisfaction with a product, service, or recent interaction. 

It can also help you segment your audience in several ways, including demographic, psychographic, product/service usage, purchase habits, and overall satisfaction. This segmentation can help you personalize customer experience to meet the specific needs and expectations of different customer segments to improve loyalty and retention.

A customer satisfaction survey can be conducted through various digital channels , from chatbots to email. The questions can be structured (with predefined response options) or open-ended (where customers can provide detailed answers).

The goal is to get service intelligence from quantitative and qualitative data to learn more about the customer experience, see what’s working, and identify areas for improvement. A customer satisfaction survey helps businesses make informed decisions to enhance the customer experience. (Back to top)

Customer satisfaction surveys are a key part of understanding the customer experience . They help you measure customer satisfaction and let you know what’s working and what’s not so you can constantly improve. You can use these data insights to make better decisions on how to deliver better products, services, and experiences. 

They also help you better understand customer preferences so you can tailor your offerings and personalize their experiences. You can even find out how you stack up against your competitors.

Most importantly, customer satisfaction surveys show your customers that you care about them and their experience with your business. This helps to strengthen customer relationships and build loyalty, which can lead to increased revenue. (Back to top)

Your customer satisfaction surveys will vary depending on what your company wants to know. You may design one to get a sense of overall customer satisfaction, and another to dig into specific parts of the customer, product, or service experience. 

To save time, you can use generative AI like Einstein GPT to create surveys for you. For example, you might ask: “Write me a survey for customers who called about product x, but who have a low customer satisfaction score in the past year.” Be sure to have a human review the survey for accuracy. 

You can also use generative AI to help you decide which customer surveys go to which customers by segment. Generative AI can analyze customer data to identify patterns and preferences within different segments. For example, it can recommend that one survey be sent to customers with a past high CSAT and another for customers with a past low CSAT. Sending your survey to the right customers can improve the likelihood of getting more meaningful insights. 

No matter your objective, here’s how to set up for success:

• Define a clear purpose: Before you begin, decide what you want to know. For example, if you want to know about how easy customers find their self-service experience with your company to be, focus your questions on self-service ease of use only.
• Keep your survey short: Your customers may want to give you feedback, but if you make your survey too long or complicated, you may not get enough responses or quality feedback. Limit the number of questions — whether you use structured, open-ended, or a combination of both types. Let them know the time it will take for them to complete your survey.
• Mix quantitative and qualitative questions: Each question type provides unique insights. Quantitative questions provide numerical data that can be analyzed and measured in a customer satisfaction score (CSAT) . Qualitative data helps to explain the “why” behind quantitative. Ask your customers to rate their experience on a number scale. Finish with a question that prompts open-ended feedback, so they can explain what they mean in their own words.
• Personalize, and be specific: Our research finds that 61% of customers say most companies treat them as a number. This is where the power of your CRM and automation comes in with the ability to send personalized emails with customer names and previous interactions with your business at scale. A personal touch can bump up response rates by making your customers feel like they matter as people. This also helps to improve customer engagement and build stronger relationships.
• Choose a delivery method: Your delivery method should match your audience’s communication preferences, whether it’s voice , email, social media, or live chat. If you don’t know the best method, test different options to see which gets you the most responses.
• Timing is everything: Send your survey when the experience is still fresh in customers’ minds but gives them enough time to form an opinion. Getting in touch after an important conversation or milestone can help you gather more accurate and useful responses. Tools like Service Cloud let you automate and send responses when it matters most, so you can reach customers at the right time. It can also send a reminder to complete the survey, in case someone doesn’t respond.
• Act on feedback: The point of collecting data is to do something with it. When you make changes based on customer feedback, let them know through personalized emails, in-app notifications, or social media announcements. Showing customers how their feedback influenced change builds trust and makes it more likely that they’ll refer you to others — and respond to future surveys.
• Reflect on previous surveys: Not all surveys provide will provide the data you want. Look at past surveys to see which have worked well before and what could be improved for stronger results. (Back to top)

Lead a thriving service team

An excellent contact center has not only the right mix of channels and tools, but a strong, tech-savvy service team. Build your skillset for leading a productive and diverse team on Trailhead, Salesforce’s free online learning platform.

Service Leader

Learn the ways of this trail.

Types of customer service questions, plus examples

You’re ready to create your own customer satisfaction survey. You know to include different kinds of questions depending on the type of feedback you want. But what specific approach should you take?

Your questions can range from general to specific depending on the information you’re after. For example, rating scales may help you understand general satisfaction and set a CSAT benchmark. But want to know more about customers’ experiences with specific products or product features? Consider having them tell you in their own words.

Here are 8 question types and examples to help get you started:

• Overall satisfaction: Usually, this is a rating to gauge general satisfaction with your product or service.

Example: “On a scale from 1 to 5, how satisfied are you with our product or service?”

2. Specific experiences: Learn about customers’ experience with different aspects or interactions with your business by using open-ended questions.

Example: “Please describe a recent experience you had with our customer service team.”

3. Improvement suggestions: Seek actionable feedback about how to improve.

Example: “What’s one thing we could do to make your experience with our contact center better in the future?”

4. Product usage: Understand how customers typically engage with what you offer.

Example: “How do you use our product or service?”

5. Demographics: Collect background information to better segment your audience.

Example: “Where are you located?”

6. Psychographics: Explore the attitudes and behaviors of your customers.

Example: “How much does field service sustainability matter to you? “

7. Satisfaction scale: Quantify satisfaction levels based on recent service or overall experience with your company.

Example: “On a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the best and 1 being the worst, how satisfied were you with your contact center experience today?”

8. Write-in: This is an opportunity for you to ask specific questions and gain a bit more context. Customers can express their thoughts freely and provide information you may not gather using other formats.

Example: “In your own words, what has your experience been like with our products?” (Back to top)

Rather than a crisis tool to solve problems after the fact, customer satisfaction surveys should be used proactively to learn about and improve the customer experience. Use them early and often to uncover valuable information at every stage of the customer journey and improve your approach to customer service. Let’s look at a few examples.

Understanding customer feedback across touchpoints

When to use: After a customer interacts with your service team or at regular intervals to measure service quality over time.

Every interaction with your business, including contact center, in-store purchase, or field service appointment, offers an opportunity to collect insights. If someone calls about a broken dishwasher, follow up with a survey. Have them rate their dispatcher experience , field service appointment, or the product itself. For a full picture, send a survey after they schedule the repair and another after it’s completed.

This approach helps you understand how satisfied customers are with different aspects of your business, from your customer service to the field service experience and product quality. It also helps identify what’s working well and what needs improvement at different stages.

Preventing customer churn and improving retention

When to use: If a customer has expressed disappointment with a product, canceled a service, or otherwise indicated they might be ready to buy elsewhere, use a customer satisfaction survey to gather feedback and fix the problem.

Surveys can be a powerful tool in identifying at-risk customers and reasons for potential churn. By asking customers about their experiences and satisfaction, you’ll uncover those who may be ready to leave for a competitor and need some extra attention.

Ask dissatisfied customers for their feedback and what could be improved for them to stay. Then, add their responses to their customer record and follow up with personalized assistance. If you have guidelines in place for retaining customers, such as personalized offers and incentives, this is a good time to use them to regain customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Identifying where you’re getting it right

When to use: After a customer has shown high satisfaction with a recent interaction or milestone in their customer journey.

While customer satisfaction surveys can show you where your customer service approach is falling short, they also point to what you’re doing right. Surveys often reveal your brand advocates — customers who are more likely to recommend you to others, speak highly of your brand publicly on social media, and make additional purchases.

Analyze positive survey responses and feedback for signals of high satisfaction. Reinforce your service team’s positive behaviors and celebrate successes all year round. You can also use positive customer interactions and feedback — examples of things you’re doing well — as training and coaching opportunities.

Testing the market for a new solution, product, for service

When to use: Before you introduce a new solution, survey high CSAT customers who are more likely provide feedback before it is launched and advocate for it when it goes into market. 

By targeting customers that have had a positive experience with your business in the past, you’re more likely to get useful feedback from them. Consider offering an incentive, like a free sweatshirt, if they participate in your survey. You can gauge interest, validate your product concept, find out what features they like, identify areas for improvement, and more. This way, you can address any issues before you launch the product, ensuring that you deliver a solution that meets customer needs and expectations.

A satisfied customer is also more likely to become an earlier adopter and an advocate for your product once it launches. They may recommend it to others through word-of-mouth referrals or on social media platforms in real time. Watch for these reviews and acknowledge their feedback right away. Be sure to ask them if they will participate in your customer reference program, as well in case studies, customer stories, and webinars. Their advocacy helps to build trust, attracting new customers and driving business. 

Evolving with customer expectations

Feedback collected from surveys doesn’t just guide your business to improving its products and services; it can also help you provide better customer service experiences. Understanding what customers value most can help you hone your process so that you evolve with changing customer preferences. Consistent feedback about customer expectations also helps your team remain agile.

If customers frequently give your company five stars, consider follow-up surveys. Ask open-ended questions to pull in information about specific parts of the experience they enjoyed and what exactly they liked. For example, if you want their take on resolving a complaint, ask what made it stand out. Detailed feedback allows you to keep delivering great experiences. (Back to top)

With customer satisfaction surveys, you don’t have to be a mind reader. By asking, listening, acting, and communicating, you build a continuous cycle for improvement. When you implement changes based on customer feedback, share those updates with your customers right away. This can help them feel valued, leading to higher loyalty and satisfaction.

Remember: customer satisfaction surveys are only as good as the data they collect. Asking the right questions, in the right way, at the right time, will increase your response rates and provide you with the right insights to act on. Show your customers you’re committed to giving them a great experience. That’s what keeps them coming back for more. (Back to top)

Looking for efficiency? Start here

See how you can help your agents become more efficient — and your customers happier. When you have an easy-to-use platform for your data, agents have all the information they need to provide the care customers expect.

Just For You

What Is Dispatch Management? Tips for Efficiency

3 Ways to Take Your Self-Service Customer Service From ‘Meh’ to Marvelous — Quickly

Explore related content by topic

• Best Practices
• Customer Experience
• Customer Relationships
• Digital Transformation
• Generative AI
• Self-Service
• Service Cloud
• Serviceblazer
• Thought Leadership

Martin DuPont is the Sr. Director of Product Marketing for Salesforce Service Cloud, showcasing how Salesforce enables smarter, more personalized customer support. As a 15-year veteran in CRM and tech, Martin specializes in cloud solutions helping companies optimize customer service through AI and digital transformation.

Get the latest articles in your inbox.

4 Ways Your Contact Center Can Get Started With Generative AI

What Is a Serviceblazer? Here’s What Community Members Told Us

Why Is a Customer Engagement Platform So Important For Service?

Make Good Choices: 5 Ways to Evolve Your Retail AI Strategy

What Is Net Promoter Score — and Is It Worth Tracking? Let’s Talk Pros and Cons

What Does Salesforce Do?

Everything You Need to Know About AI in Customer Service

What Is Order Management — And Why Should You Care?

360 Highlights

Yes, I would like to receive the Salesforce 360 Highlights newsletter as well as marketing emails regarding Salesforce products, services, and events. I can unsubscribe at any time.

By registering, you confirm that you agree to the processing of your personal data by Salesforce as described in the Privacy Statement .

Thanks, you're subscribed!

New to Salesforce?

• What is Salesforce?
• Best CRM software
• Explore all products
• What is cloud computing
• Customer success
• Product pricing

About Salesforce

• Salesforce.org
• Sustainability

Popular Links

• Salesforce Mobile
• AppExchange
• CRM software
• Salesforce LIVE
• Salesforce for startups
• América Latina (Español)
• Brasil (Português)
• Canada (English)
• Canada (Français)
• United States (English)

Europe, Middle East, and Africa

• España (Español)
• Deutschland (Deutsch)
• France (Français)
• Italia (Italiano)
• Nederland (Nederlands)
• Sverige (Svenska)
• United Kingdom (English)
• All other countries (English)

Asia Pacific

• Australia (English)
• India (English)
• Malaysia (English)
• ประเทศไทย (ไทย)

© Copyright 2024 Salesforce, Inc. All rights reserved.  Various trademarks held by their respective owners. Salesforce, Inc. Salesforce Tower, 415 Mission Street, 3rd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105, United States

Customer Service Excellence and Customer Satisfaction Essay

Introduction.

Academic libraries are facing several external and internal pressures in their environments. For instance, the popularity of the internet is causing potential library users to shift away from libraries as their primary source of knowledge. Additionally, academic institutions are struggling with budgetary allocations because they are competing with other public services such as hospitals.

University and college administrators have to critique the use of their resources in libraries and some may have to reduce allocations if minimal efficiency exists. Furthermore, the development of online libraries has created a renewed challenge in information services because new legal and copyright rules must be instated in order to protect authors. These and many more factors have/will force academic libraries to reconfigure their customer service or service quality provisions so as to survive in such challenging environments.

Evaluation of quality of services provided by academic libraries based on theories and models

Services marketing and 7 ps.

Services are quite distinct from fast moving goods because they possess certain qualities that cannot be found elsewhere. Services typically encompass economic activities transferred from one party to another. Usually, these are time bound and may not encompass exchange of physical assets; in other words transfer of ownership will not occur.

Customers in the services sector often exchange money and time for value derived from systems, networks, facilities, labour, skills or even goods owned by the service provider. In the case of academic libraries, customers exchange money (through annual fees) for facilities, systems and labour in those institutions. These qualities make the marketing of services quite unique; that aspect can be analysed through the 7Ps i.e. Product, promotion, price, place, people, process, physical environment (Lovelock and Wirtzm, 2011).

In service offering, product refers to a service concept that has the capacity to give value to customers. This will be a combination of a core need and a supplementary need. Academic libraries offer information through books and this is their core value; other supplementary needs include rental book services and cataloguing services which are designed to add value to the core product.

The second ‘P’ is promotion. Service marketing promotion often employs educating customers about the service, how to use it and how to drive maximum benefits from it. Academic libraries often do promotions through websites, self service equipment or use of display screens. Third, service marketing employs price.

Any service provider needs to be offering services at a price that will be worthwhile to customers so that they can go beyond price considerations and purchase the service. Academic libraries ought to minimise time and travelling expenses that can inflate price. They can do this by making their services convenient.

Place is also another important consideration. This refers to the channels used by the service provider and may be a physical location, website, the phone or other outlets. Libraries now have a wider access to distribution channels through the internet and this can improve performance.

‘People’ denote the employees used to deliver those services and they need to possess the right attitudes, interpersonal and technical skills. Academic libraries cannot compromise on this element as it is what users employ to assess their effectiveness. ‘Process’ means those variables involved prior to actual offerings. These may involve training, standardisation of services as well as automation. Academic libraries ought to employ rigorous service quality management as part of ‘process’.

Lastly, ‘physical environments’ refer to the look of tangible aspects of the service such as the building, furnishings and equipment. In academic libraries, this normally involves appropriate seating arrangements, arrangements of books and design of the actual library (Gummesson & Lovelock, 2004).

The latter overview of service marketing gives a brief illustration of what this concept entails in academic libraries. However, one needs to know whether actual institutions pay attention to 7ps of marketing. Primary data that has been collected from academic libraries by a number of researchers has illustrated challenges in the ‘people’ aspect.

Some employees have attitudinal issues. Many will be so preoccupied with the task at hand that they may not bother clarifying exactly what customers want. New students who may not know how to use library systems may often get assistance about how to locate references but rarely understand verbal illustrations. Many libraries lack practical illustrations for using their systems.

Overly speaking, the manner in which employees handle complications can be improved in most academic libraries. Additionally, libraries seem to have a problem with their product aspect because there is often very little excitement about new books. Displays are often not there or may not be attractive or value driven.

Promotional aspects of this industry are quite good because many institutions utilise the internet in order to educate customers about use. Libraries tend to be academically oriented so the physical environment in marketing can also be improved as many have not considered customer wants (Goh & Vhung, 1999).

Customer service system theory

Customer service systems encompass those kinds of configuration of technology and networks that are crucial in delivering the wants and needs of customers. In other words, it is a configuration of technology, people, external service systems, internal service systems and others connected through the use of shared information.

Domino’s Pizza is an exemplary case of how customer service systems can translate into profit. Domino’s decided to automate the pizza making process such that all unnecessary processes could be eliminated. This implied that the organisation could deliver quality pizzas uniformly. Also, in order to reduce time spent in handling paperwork, the firm adopted an IT system that would assist in management of marketing costs, inventory and payroll.

These contributed to their success. However, some service providers may have greater contact with their clients than others as is the case with academic libraries. Here, their aim in the customer service system should be to boost the quality of their interactions with users.

In such scenarios, they need to have technologies and networks that allow relatively new employs to carry out their roles effectively even as they go through the learning curve. Most customer service systems are complex and keep changing as more innovation takes place.

Many institutions have realised the importance of this aspect so most are using technology to boost their systems. However, it was found that most libraries will often introduce new product stacking methods yet they will not bother to inform and educate consumers about it. Customer service systems can only be effective if they involve the consumer so universities are failing in this area (Goh & Vhung, 1999).

Service quality model

The service model proposes a number of issues that must be tackled by service providers in order to enhance customer satisfaction. First, it proposes an assessment of customer perceptions on the services under consideration and assessment of their actual expectations. Many institutions will stop at customer perceptions of what they have already offered but most of them will rarely focus on the things that customers wish for or expect from that service provider. It is crucial to measure both these aspects in order to know where a library is and where it needs to be.

Service quality also encompasses improvement of services. This should involve the use of technology in library systems and effective training of those offering the service (Usherwood, 2003). Service providers also need to look for ways of cutting costs as these will translate into effective pricing strategies in the company.

Libraries often need to charge users for services used and if they can eliminate all the backlog in their service systems then this could definitely translate into lower unit pricing. Sometimes service improvement can translate into reduced costs but in other situations it could increase them. Libraries need to be aware of this potential clash and hence work on a compromise between the two goals.

Nothing matters more in service quality than valuing one’s customers. When most users are asked about the issues that make them highly dissatisfied in libraries, most will cite poor treatment by employees. Therefore, libraries need to ensure that the customer is valued by according him due respect.

This means responding effectively and promptly to their concerns. Scorning or criticising customers for complaints will often do more harm than good. Furthermore, valuing the customer also means offering timely service. Many library users have complained about waiting times when trying to get help from librarians. Academic libraries are not doing so well when it comes to the issues of prompt service delivery.

Service quality should also involve tangibles. Here, organisations need to pay attention to ambiance in their organisations. Customers should be able to derive satisfaction from this aspect in much the same way that they do from goods. Libraries often work on ambience by improving seating arrangements and design.

The users would prefer a place that is comfortable and satisfying. However, sometimes this may not work well because libraries are meant to facilitate knowledge acquisition rather than provide comfort. Therefore extremely comfortable seats may work against them.

Numerous academic libraries have created areas where students can seat around a table and even engage in discussions. This works against the major principle in operation in libraries because it creates noise and interrupts other serious students. Such a problem is quite rampant in a number of institutions and therefore needs to be addressed in order to improve service quality (Goh & Vhung, 1999).

Didactic model

The didactic model is an old school of thought in library and information services. In this model, it is assumed that the librarian knows best. He or she can anticipate the needs of the student and should therefore provide that individual with them.

It should be noted that this model focuses on needs and not wants; needs refer to things that students cannot do without while a want refers to an inherent desire that may not be that important. Librarians adhering to this school of thought will pay attention to student needs by relating them to an overall school mission or to certain policies applicable within the library.

In other words, the librarian considers himself or herself as a professional and someone who facilitates learning. He or she will therefore deduce users’ needs through external mechanisms. Librarians often reason that students may not always understand what is best of them and this implies that librarians must educate them about this knowledge.

If for example a student has been given an assignment by his or her lecturer, a librarian following this model will tell him how to find information that he is looking for rather than show him exactly where it is. In a number of academic libraries, it has been shown that many adopt such a stance.

Theirs is to encourage a spirit of independence and this can only be learnt when one is not spoon-fed. Practically speaking, many librarians in academic institutions have stated that they consider themselves as co teachers. Theirs is to complement the relationship that exists between students and their teachers in their lecture rooms. Consequently, most do not do searches on behalf of students especially those new ones who appear to be having unrealistic expectations (Martula & Menon, 2005).

Recommendations

Academic libraries can improve customer service through a series of approaches. The deficiencies in the 7 ps found in these institutions can be corrected through clarification of expectations. Libraries can repeat back what users tell them – a technique called mirroring.

This will ensure that they handle the right problems. Alternatively, they can teach new students how to use a new method of finding books or any other thing. They should deal with one sample and then let users do the rest. During waiting times, libraries can reduce pressure by installing video monitors which educate students about new developments in the library system.

Also, employees can empathize with students when they bring forward complaints or they can direct them to superiors if they feel that they cannot answer the question at all. This would cool down the concerned user and make them understand the situation especially when they hear it from a superior.

Libraries can work on promotional aspects by displaying new books at the entrance of the library to attract customers’ attention. All these issues will go a long way in improving customer excellence hence satisfaction.

Lovelock, C. and Wirtzm J. (2011). Services Marketing: People, Technology, Strategy. NJ: Prentice Hall

Gummesson, E. & Lovelock, C. (2004). Whither services marketing? In search of a new paradigm and fresh perspectives. Service research journal, 7(1), 20-41

Goh, C. & Vhung, P. (1999). Service typologies: a state of the art survey. Journal of Operations and productions, 8(3), 403-456

Usherwood, B. (2003). Libraries as a public service. Public library journal, 7(5), 141-145

Martula, C. & Menon, V. (2005). Customer expectations; concepts and reality for academic library services. College and research libraries journal, 56(13), 33-47

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2024, February 26). Customer Service Excellence and Customer Satisfaction. https://ivypanda.com/essays/customer-service-excellence-and-customer-satisfaction/

"Customer Service Excellence and Customer Satisfaction." IvyPanda , 26 Feb. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/customer-service-excellence-and-customer-satisfaction/.

IvyPanda . (2024) 'Customer Service Excellence and Customer Satisfaction'. 26 February.

IvyPanda . 2024. "Customer Service Excellence and Customer Satisfaction." February 26, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/customer-service-excellence-and-customer-satisfaction/.

1. IvyPanda . "Customer Service Excellence and Customer Satisfaction." February 26, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/customer-service-excellence-and-customer-satisfaction/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Customer Service Excellence and Customer Satisfaction." February 26, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/customer-service-excellence-and-customer-satisfaction/.

• Librarians: Discipline Investigation Report
• Library & Information Science Research
• Mythology: An Introduction for Librarians
• Mythology of the Mongols. A Lecture for Librarians
• Employee Attitude and Job Satisfaction
• Owls in the Greek Mythology. A Lecture for Librarians
• Borges' "The Circular Ruins" and "The Library of Babel"
• Public Library Professional’s Role in Building Community
• Twitter: An Emerging Technology in Libraries
• Effective of library services
• Concept of Niche Marketing
• Mergers and Acquisitions Effect on Organizational Performance
• New affordable e-book product is in the market
• Impact of Algorithmic Trading on Tournament Behavior of Mutual Fund Managers
• Humor in the Workplace