CSAT vs NPS - which surveys will work best for you?
Every business owner wants to know how your customers feel about your company to increase customer loyalty and drive more sales. According to the statistics, companies that focus on improving customer experience can expect an 80% increase in revenue. And by sending the surveys to your customers, you will be able to stay updated on customer satisfaction. As a consequence, you will know what to do next.
Many companies use Customer Satisfaction or CSAT or Net Promoter Score or NPS surveys to achieve this goal. Each of these surveys consists of close-ended questions that aimed to help companies find out the customer satisfaction score and the reasons behind these scores.
So, are they entirely identical? Not really. Each of them touches on a different factor of customer satisfaction and works on a different level.
Our article will dive deeper into the CSAT vs NPS review. It will describe which one your business needs now and tell the rationale for using the combo of two. So, keep on reading.
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
What is CSAT?
Customer Satisfaction Score is a metric that helps you identify the customer satisfaction rate with a company, its products, or a particular interaction during their buyer's journey.
Its main aim is to measure the level of happiness after each customer touchpoint. For example, they could purchase, make a transaction, get a subscription, etc. Moreover, we should indicate that this touchpoint must be meaningful.
Usually, CSAT surveys offer customers to rank the service they received using a specific scale, like a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is 'totally unsatisfied,' and 5 is 'totally satisfied.' As a result, you get such response scores as:
- High Score: this score means that you provide an excellent customer service experience and exceed customer expectations with your services or products.
- Neutral Score: this score means that your customers are indifferent to your company. They may face some issues with your product or service. Neutral customer feedback means you need to improve your services or products and try how your customers use new strategies.
- Low Score: this score means that your customers are totally unsatisfied with your services, and you need improvements ASAP (if you want your business to survive the competition).
By offering open-ended customer survey questions in your CSAT surveys, you can find all the necessary information and the reasons for such a score. You can also determine what drives your satisfaction score up or down. Then you might tackle these problems by analyzing the quantitative data. When speaking of CSAT surveys, it is necessary to mention the Customer Effort Score or CES as it is a type of CSAT. It measures how easily your customers use your products or services to resolve their issues, from 'very easy' to 'very difficult.' These surveys are also sent as a follow-up after each customer interaction with a company.
Why is CSAT important?
Why should you add a CSAT survey to your marketing strategy? The reasons are pretty obvious. First, customers give helpful insights into whether products and services worked well. Second, if it serves them well, you know you are on the right track. Otherwise, you should reconsider your strategic vision entirely.
Besides, such customer experience surveys can help you understand how your customers see your business. You also might figure out what they think of some specific customer service interactions. Thanks to the flexibility of the questions in the customer satisfaction survey, you can collect the data throughout the whole customer lifecycle and then compare the results. This way, you will be able to identify whether that is your service or product that doesn't satisfy their needs or they forget about your brand after a while.
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
What is NPS?
Net Promoter Score or NPS is a metric that helps you identify whether your customers will recommend or promote your company, service, or product to their friends or family. NPS customer survey asks customers to indicate their referral intention on a scale of 0 to 10. According to the customers' survey responses, there would be three main categories:
- Promoters: (score 9-10) those are customers that are your loyal brand advocates. They are pleased with your company and services and want to tell everyone about the outstanding customer experience they got.
- Passives: (score 7-8) those are customers who are indifferent to your brand, and they may be looking somewhere else for a similar product or service in the future. Note that 50% of customers will switch to your competitor after just a single bad experience. So, to catch their attention, you have to work harder and improve your services; otherwise, they will choose your competitor over you.
You have to include questions like 'How can we improve your customer experience?' in your NPS survey for such customers. The answer will help you understand how you can win this type of customer.
- Detractors: (0-6) customers are totally unhappy with your products or services and may even share some negative feedback about your company with others. You can find out the reasons behind this by analyzing their responses to your open-ended questions and overall NPS score. That will help you address their issues and possibly win them, too.
Just subtract the number of your Detractors from your Promoters, and you will see your current business NPS customer satisfaction score.
Why is NPS important?
Did you know that 77% of customers think that outstanding customer service is the main factor in earning brand loyalty? NPS is an excellent tool to measure the indicator of customer loyalty. Repeat customers, as well as word-of-mouth marketing, are a great way to increase your sales. Besides, it is much cheaper to retain your existing customers than to find new ones. Just imagine, that even a 5% increase in customer retention can result in a 25% increase in revenue.
By understanding more about loyal customer-increasing tools, you can drastically reduce customer acquisition and churn. And the happier and more satisfied your customers are, the higher chances are that they will come back for more. Besides, the chances that such customers would self-market your products or services and recommend you to everyone they know are higher, too.
NPS surveys can also help you predict your possibilities for growth. In addition, the low metric shows you what and why you need to change your business operations. In contrast, a high score will show you that you should keep going.
Net Promoter Score vs Customer Satisfaction Score: the Main Differences
As you already understood, CSAT and NPS scores are both connected with measuring different aspects of customer experience. Here are some of their main differences:
- CSAT measures customers' short-term satisfaction after a particular interaction with your brand, while NPS measures the overall score of customer satisfaction and loyalty.
- Moreover, you can use them at different stages of the buyer's journey. CSAT is measured just after specific interactions (like closing a ticket, finishing a trial period, making a purchase, etc.) On the contrary, you should calculate the NPS score at the end of your buyer's journey. And what is more, it should be used with some neutral touchpoints so that customers do not link their responses with their interactions. NPS survey would be an excellent choice after some significant changes with your company, like merging with another company, rebranding, or some PR crisis.
- The CSAT score helps you get insights and analyze your customer interactions and their experiences at a micro level, while the NPS score tells you about the insights on the macro level.
- If you get negative responses from your customers, you need to take action in response instantly. However, the NPS detractor metric suggests real-time measures to prevent the negative perception of your brand.
Ensure that open-ended questions are incorporated in any survey you select to see the whole picture and get quantitative data to analyze.
NPS and Survey for Zendesk: All-in-one Solution App
No matter what type of score you are willing to find out, there is an app for Zendesk users that suits all your needs. NPS and Survey for Zendesk is a key to quickly and easily gathering customer feedback. It offers you four zendesk survey types:
- Five-star rating
- 0 - 10 rating
- Text feedback
- Yes and No buttons
By choosing the right nps type and customizing it with the question you're interested in, you will get a clear picture of your customers' satisfaction. There is an opportunity to change the language and select the triggers that will activate the survey at the appropriate time.
For example, your company requires CSAT metrics. In this case, one of the best options is a csat survey type with Yes and No buttons where you should provide the question, e.g. "Are you satisfied with this answer?". Then, manage the language you need and set up a trigger to send this satisfaction survey with comment updates.
The same works with the Net Promoter Score, but it's better to give preference, for example, to a 0 - 10 rating. The question could be: "How would you rate your experience in our company?" and adjust the Zendesk survey to be sent at the end of the interaction after solving the ticket.
Moreover, the application shows you detailed statistics about the customer responses. So, use this data to analyze your support teamwork and determine the weaknesses and points of instant improvement and long-term development.
As you see, the NPS and Survey app gives all the tools to satisfy any request for creating a personalized Zendesk surveys. So, take your chance to start implementing surveys into your customer interactions as effectively as possible with the GrowthDot app.
How NPS and CSAT Can Be Used Together
So now, the question is: 'Should you combine these two surveys?' The answer is: 'sure.' A single survey won't give you a clear vision of what your customers think of you and your business. But, at the same time, the combo of both these metrics can give you a detailed overview of your customer experience and their satisfaction level and ways to increase them.
Both surveys have pros and cons, so it is a great option to use them together. NPS reflects your customers' view of your whole business and can give you the necessary insights about ways of building customer loyalty. CSAT provides you with more tactical data by describing what happens on your day-to-day level and indicates which interactions lead to which NPS scores.
By asking for your customers' feedback, you can see the impact of each interaction and the way for its improvement. However, when your CSAT score can be improved quickly, NPS ones are slower as it reflects all the customer interactions with your company.
Nevertheless, both these scores are influential for the success of your business as they help you determine the overall satisfaction level, your possibilities for growth, and the effectiveness of the changes.
CSAT vs NPS - the Easiest Way to Measure
Now you know the importance of both metrics. Therefore, it is time to find out how to effortlessly send mass email campaigns to measure a customer satisfaction score.
Today, there exist numerous tools that will make your life as a marketer a bit easier. For example, if you use the Zendesk help desk, you can take advantage of Proactive Campaigns, an easy mass outbound email sender. Using it, you will be able to add the rates, feedback, and CSAT and NPS surveys to your emails. Moreover, you will find out customers' honest thoughts about your business and take necessary actions.
Wrapping Up
So, which survey is better? NPS vs CSAT?
They both are great at measuring your overall customer satisfaction score to improve customer experiences. Also, they give you helpful insights into how your company is doing. Therefore, you will get information about what areas you need to improve. So, these metrics are complementary, and it's crucial to understand when to use which one. For this, you need to think of your ultimate goals.
The hard truth is that customers tend to share their negative experiences about the service or product they receive. By using NPS and CSAT metrics, you will be able to track those unhappy customers and solve their issues.
What is more, do not underestimate the open-ended questions and responses and analyze the qualitative data deeply. This data will help you better understand your customers' needs and which bottlenecks you currently have.
And, of course, do not forget that who knows the customers better wins.
Featured image: Brian D’Cruz Hypno Plus
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