A recent study from the United States, conducted by Autotask, shows that 85% of service providers consider customer satisfaction a priority indicator in their organizations. What is interesting, however, is that only 10% of them measure customer satisfaction levels, and only 9.5% describe themselves as being “excellent at gathering data about their customers.”
Why should you measure customer satisfaction?
Over time, measuring customer satisfaction has proven to be a good indicator for building customer loyalty. For a long time, marketers believed that as long as they met or even exceeded customer expectations, customers would be satisfied. And a satisfied customer will continue to do business with you.
Expectancy Confirmation Theory by Richard L. Oliver defines customer satisfaction as the difference between customer expectations and their perception of whether those expectations were met or not.
In fact, things are not quite that simple. In an article published in 1995 in Harvard Business Review, Thomas Jones and Earl Sasser Jr. introduced the so-called “satisfied customer defect.” This theory shook the foundations of everything that was known—or believed—about customer satisfaction. An example they provided to support their new theory showed data related to a bank’s customers:
6% of those who were “extremely satisfied” closed their accounts within a year, while only 5.8% of those who were “dissatisfied” closed their accounts with that bank.
Thomas Jones and Earl Sasser Jr. showed that the level of customer satisfaction cannot and should not be used as the sole indicator of loyalty. Thus, you should consider several indicators, interpreting them in relation to one another, to understand your customers’ level of loyalty.
What does this mean?
As we understand it, companies want to measure customer satisfaction but don’t know how to do it. So, if you find yourself in such a situation, we will provide some handy suggestions you can use in-house to measure your customer satisfaction.
Furthermore, we will also tell you how to track their evolution over time. And if you need support, we are happy to help.
Customer expectations versus customer perception
After each transaction (or periodically, so as not to become too intrusive), ask your customers:
1. Does our service meet your expectations?
2. How likely are you to recommend our services to a friend? (a question also used to measure the Net Promoter Score)
3. How do our services compare to the “ideal” services you expect?
4. Overall, how satisfied are you with your collaboration with our company?
5. How important are the guarantees we offer in your decision to work with us?
6. Do you intend to renew your contract with us when it expires?
Such an indicator can be quite simple to measure. In your mini-questionnaire, ask customers to rate the extent to which they agree or disagree with the proposed statements on a scale of 1 to 10 (Likert scale).
Track the evolution of customer satisfaction using performance indicators
Using the 6 figures obtained above, you can track the evolution of your customer satisfaction.
Vă recommend defining performance indicators correlated with these numbers, in line with your company’s objectives. This way, you will have your own internal system for measuring customer satisfaction and loyalty.
