5 Best Practices to Improve Customer Satisfaction (CSat) in the Contact Center

If you work just for money, you’ll never make it, but if you love what you’re doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours. —Ray Kroc, Founder, McDonald’s

As a business, an integral part of your core mission is to make your customers happy. They are your lifeline, and so they define your success or failure.

But how can you tell if your customers are satisfied with what you have in store for them?

Yes, you’ve guessed it right! You ask them.

Asking is an excellent way to gain in-depth knowledge of how to address customer pain points. Indeed, it does appear to be a laborious process, but the key is to have an approach that resonates with your customers. Lending an open ear to what they need unlocks opportunities for boosting your overall performance across multiple channels. Simply, acing the customer satisfaction department elevates your reputation as a solution provider.

As we progress to a more sophisticated work environment, the CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) score proves useful in quantifying your overall customer experience. With your CSAT score, useful and relevant feedback becomes easier. Understanding how it is measured is key to scaling your marketing efforts to improve the quality of products and services you deliver. 

In this article, we will explore the best practices your contact center can tap into to increase CSAT score and guarantee meeting user demands with flying colors. Before anything else, let’s start with a brief explanation of what a CSAT score really is. After all, you can completely grasp the context before applying this valuable piece of knowledge in your business operations.

What is Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)?

Basically, CSAT is the abbreviation of customer satisfaction. You are probably thinking, what does CSAT stand for in a call center in the first place?

The score helps you identify the ups and downs of your customer service team’s overall performance. It serves as a basis for measuring the level of happiness that people feel in general, particularly when they interact with you across all channels.

It is generated through surveys or a ranking system. The survey is typically given to customers after purchasing from your shop or trying your services to gather their feedback and check whether their experience with your brand was either positive or negative. 

A crucial factor that defines how they rate their user experience is the kind of assistance delivered by your support representatives.

How to Measure CSAT Score?

Now that you know what CSAT is in BPO, you might be looking for the best practices in measuring customer satisfaction. 

CSAT scores can be measured using different types of survey questions, and the most common ones are point rating scales. Here’s an example: “On a scale of 1 to 10, how satisfied are you with our services?”

Aside from using CSAT score scale questions, other companies also use multiple-choice questionnaires like this:

Sometimes, they choose straightforwardness with their questions by using queries answerable by yes or no.

Some companies go as far as using Likert scale questions. These are queries that revolve around asking customers to answer questions to gauge their opinions. It provides customers a range of options from “less likely” to “more likely” all the way up to “extremely likely”.

According to some companies, Likert questions are proven effective in gaining knowledge of how customers perceive your brand through their feedback.

How to Calculate CSAT in Call Centers?

The total score you get measures all the positive feedback you received from your surveys.

Use this formula to help calculate it with more accuracy:

CSAT (%)  = ( no. of positive responses / total no. of responses ) 100

Say, out of 500 responses, you’ve got 300 positive responses. Then, your overall CSAT score is 60% out of 100%.

A low mark on your CSAT indicates there may be some mishaps with your current marketing and customer support methods and these need thorough reassessing. On the flip side, an outstanding score for customer satisfaction reflects customer-centric practices. 

Then again, what could possibly go wrong in honing your strategies? Whether you earn a high or low score, there will always be room for improvement.

What is a Good CSAT Score?

There are no definite standards for a good CSAT score. User satisfaction in call centers is measured based on the overall percentage of positive feedback. 100% is regarded as the highest mark (extremely satisfied) while 0% is the lowest (extremely unsatisfied).

Using this as a reference, your main objective is to reach a high satisfaction rate, or as close to 100% as you possibly can.

Now, assuming that a client rated you with 3 stars (fairly satisfied), the constant improvement of your customer engagement and brand promotion strategies can really help your present rating go higher or lower in real-time. As long as they receive a survey after every purchase or communication with your customer support agents, expect that there will be updates in your current standing. Whereas, if you are inconsistent in asking for your customer’s feedback, then it lowers the probability that their feedback will change until your next survey.

How to Improve Your CSAT Score

If you want to learn how to improve CSAT scores in call centers, then you might want to check these short but insightful tips. Here are five of the most effective customer satisfaction best practices to help you improve your customer experience in no time: 

1. Implement Regular Training Sessions

One of the most notable strategies to improve customer satisfaction is to keep your team knowledgeable of your work processes. If you find that your CSAT score is below 80%, then there might be an issue with your current knowledge base. You might reconsider implementing training sessions not only for your support agents but for you as well.

Identify your team’s weak points, analyze them, and devise countermeasures on how to improve their overall performance.

Essentially, you want your whole team to become geared to take on varying customer interactions.

2. Follow Your Customers

Remember, knowing your customers’ opinions about your services is not enough. You need to show them that you’re all ears when they give their constructive feedback.

In contact centers, feedback varies from one caller to another. Don’t expect to receive more positive feedback. It’s a hard pill to swallow, but it’s true: Customers are more likely to complain about something than to shower your business with compliments whenever they call your help desk.

See to it that you make the necessary changes in response to these. Using their feedback (especially the negative ones) and suggestions, implement solutions that are tailored to address the source of the issue.

If you see that it’s a little too late to give a resolution, don’t give up just yet! Do some follow-ups. Try to call them once again to let them know that you’re still working to fix their problem. This way, customers feel heard and valued and aid in repairing the damaged relationship with your end-users. The goal is not just to bounce back higher, but to value and repair any dents in the connection you have established with your market.

3. Communicate with Your Team

They say communication is key to success. We couldn’t agree more!

To know how to get a good CSAT score is to know how to resonate with one another. To do this, you should make an open environment where your support agents can communicate regarding your core objectives.

If you find your team having a difficult time correlating with your core goals and values, then perhaps implementing pep talks before their shift is a good place to start. Show them how having a high CSAT score can impact your business. Give them metrics to follow, get them familiarized with the setup. Provide a comprehensive guide on how to communicate properly with customers. Healthy and meaningful discussions with your staff are effective in further improving their performance. It guarantees that your business is on the path towards growth and success.

4. Reduce Response Time Rerouting Strategies

CSAT is not just an acronym, but it is a term that defines your brand’s image.

There you have it! Five CSAT best practices to help you keep your head in the game and ensure that you are one step ahead of your competitors. Customer satisfaction must be the core goal of all businesses. Failing to satisfy the sophisticated demands of customers can hit your business harshly. At the same time, if you have prior knowledge of how CSAT can impact your business, it will enable you to steer your business towards the right side of the road. 

Yes, there may be some bumps along the way, but with the applicable strategies to improve your overall contact center performance, you’ll fast-track your success in no time.

Do you need help devising the most refined strategies to improve customer satisfaction? New Media Services’ contact center outsourcing solutions aid in establishing stronger ties with your customers. 

By augmenting the breadth of your existing customer support workforce, you guarantee that you deliver exceptional customer service.

Enhance your CSAT scores now! Talk to our team!