Introduction
Always remember Customer Satisfaction can either make or break your business. No matter how innovative your product or competitive your pricing is, if your customers are unhappy, they’re eventually not going to stick around. If your priority is not yet customer satisfaction, then it is high time for you to know and focus on it in order to save your business from perishing instantly. The logic is simple, if you do not care about your customers, do not expect them to prefer your brand. If you want to improve customers’ lifetime value, it’s essential to keep customer satisfaction high. Here is the guide for you to accomplish this. Let’s get started.
What does customer satisfaction mean?
Customer satisfaction (CSAT) is a measure of “how people feel when interacting with your brand”, whether they are pleased with your service and products or not. It can be influenced by any number of factors, some of them are as follows :
- Product Quality
- Product Pricing
- Return Policies
- Customer Expectations
- Customer convenience
- Offers, Discounts, and Surprises
- Issues handling (Efficiency and Timing)
- Effective Communication with customers
Why is customer satisfaction important?
Customer satisfaction is important because growing companies are more likely to prioritize customer success than companies that don’t have a growth mindset. Below are the 5 essential reasons why customer satisfaction is so important.
- Strong brand reputation
- Customer loyalty/Customer retention
- Customer lifetime value
- Boost in new customers acquisition
- Drives growth in the business
1.Strong brand reputation
According to 57 percent of consumers, excellent customer service is a factor in their brand loyalty. A better brand reputation results in increased profits for many reasons. Improved trust and brand advocacy all lead to more sales. A good reputation also allows you to charge a premium for your products and services to your customers who see your brand as valuable and desirable.
2. Customer loyalty/ Customer retention
Satisfied customers are loyal customers who will stick around with your company for a prolonged period of time as long as you remain loyal to them. You can retain them by providing an excellent customer experience by researching and bringing about their preferences via feedback, loyalty programs, referral posts, community forums, and many more. There are many help desk software out there that automates many tasks and makes it easier for agents to provide outlandish customer satisfaction and improves customer retention.
3. Increase in Customer lifetime value
Do you know 75 percent of customers are willing to spend more to buy from companies that give them a good customer experience? Satisfied customers are not only more likely to remain loyal, they are also more likely to spend more money with your business. When it comes to social media, a customer can easily connect and share feedback on a good or bad experience in a single click. You are more likely to gain positive referrals if you prioritize customer feedback.
4.It boosts new customer acquisition
Customer service is not just important for existing customers, it is also key to bringing in new and potential customers and supporting them when they reach out. If a prospect does not have a positive experience when they interact with your support team, they will be less likely to purchase your product. Satisfied customers tend to share their positive experiences with friends and family which is a very strong word-of-mouth marketing that helps you to gain the attention of new customers.
5.Drives growth in the business
Focusing on customer satisfaction will help you build long-lasting relationships with your customers, so they’re more likely to return to your brand. Besides, the more they spend on purchasing your products and services, the more loyal they will be and the less likely they’ll be to give other brands a try. Ultimately it drives growth in the business. With the help of suitable customer support software, you can easily manage most of the tasks.
How do you measure customer satisfaction?
Measuring customer satisfaction is one of the pillars of successful businesses. There are several ways to measure it. By tracking CSAT scores You’ll have the data that reflect whether your customers are feeling satisfied (or dissatisfied) with your brand. It lets you follow customer sentiment and improve your business based on customer feedback.
Important 7 techniques to measure customer satisfaction
- Customer Feedback Through Surveys.
- Customer Satisfaction Surveys (CSAT Score).
- Net Promoter Score (To measure promoters, detractors/passives).
- Customer Effort Score.
- Web-Analytics.
- Social Media Metrics.
- Live website chats
Benefits of Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction eventually leads to increased brand loyalty and trust. Customers trust recommendations from others and look at reviews before deciding to convert to a business. High satisfaction means a customer is more likely to recommend your business and leave a positive review.
Here are the 10 amazing benefits of excellent customer satisfaction
- Increase in revenue
- Repetitive customers
- Reduction in customer churn
- Increase in Customer Loyalty
- Reduction in marketing expense
- Boost brand reputation and loyalty
- Support pillars in times of crisis
- Decrease in negative word of mouth
- Makes businesses stand out from the crowd
- Retaining customers will be cost-effective
Customer satisfaction v/s customer loyalty
Never confuse yourself with customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. They are intimately linked, but there is a quiet difference between the two.
Customer satisfaction measures how happy the customers were with a support interaction or a purchase. When you create and maintain a customer experience that resonates with buyers, customers will retain. Ensuring high customer satisfaction in the short term is a key component of gaining that long-lasting customer loyalty.
Customer loyalty is an ongoing state wherein it has already laid a strong foundation. Loyal customers give a company their repeat business over a period. It’s not a short-term measure, but rather a long-term knowledge of the health of your customer relationship. Customer loyalty comes post customer satisfaction.
How do you achieve customer satisfaction?
Invest in your customers as it is an investment of future perspective. An investment in customer satisfaction is an asset in your company’s future. Empower your customers so that they can help themselves with customer support software or a help desk software whatever you name it. Here are the 5 best ways you may follow up to delight your customers with excellent customer satisfaction.
- Provide quicker resolutions
- Anticipate the customer’s needs
- Actively listen to your customers
- Be empathetic towards your customers
- Be proactively thoughtful, supporting, and obliging
