The CSAT Puzzle
When we were young, connect the dots was a simple and fun workbook exercise toward revealing the big picture. Often the message or visual was clear before all the dots connected, thanks to lines, shapes, and clues to guide us.
As a business metaphor, connect the dots refers to ciphering a plethora of data to gain insight into the whole picture. The catch is, those once helpful hints are likely both misleading and outdated. As metrics evolve so do measurables, so following each cohesive step in numbered order is as preposterous as believing all customer experiences are alike and all outcomes are predictable.
Client Satisfaction (CSAT) is a critical metric that must be measured at every organization. It captures how clients feel about your business. There are several traditional ways of capturing this data, however, no single method alone connects the full picture on how your customer feels or identify predictors for retention or churn.
In our blog post, You Have Arrived: Mapping the Customer Lifecycle, we learned about customer-centric companies both redefining and understanding the customer through every stage by using strategic tools to map the customer’s journey. A business must do more than guide a customer from point to point; knowing when to gently hold an elbow and steer in a new direction takes emotional investment.
This is an investment more businesses are exploring. Client Experience departments are on the rise as businesses realize the importance of being 100% focused on client success and satisfaction. Providing employees in the CX role with the tools to succeed helps them to proactively raise client issues, then address and resolve them in real-time.
Ultimately it should be every businesses’ endgame to ensure the best client experience possible.
Thinking Outside the Dots: Zaelab’s Disruptive Model for a Modern Era
Zaelab has developed a Client Satisfaction Scoring Methodology that captures true client satisfaction rates holistically with a more comprehensive analysis of retention and churn rates. The model calls upon four data points:
- Historical Data
- Net Promoter Score (NPS)
- Customer Experience (CX) Interviews
- Internal Perspective
Each of these four categories is evaluated separately, then amalgamated and weighted to create a true CSAT score.
The end picture is a revolutionized and synergistic view of CSAT scores with a total evaluation of client satisfaction. This can enable your organization to better predict churn and close the gap between perception and reality.
Evaluating – and Connecting – the Data
Historical Data: Before creating a data category for gauging client satisfaction, it is important to conduct an analysis of your business’s specific client trends.
Net Promoter Score (NPS): This is a management tool that can gauge the loyalty of a firm’s client relationships.
Customer Experience (CX) Interviews: If you don’t have a CX professional to conduct client interviews, it is important to have a neutral individual who is removed from client projects and who is able to distance themselves from perception versus reality disconnects and act as the voice of the customer.
Internal Perspective: Weighted the lowest since it is based mostly on the bias, this is a chance for the team to share internal insight into client behaviors by sharing projects, activities, and escalations.
And that rounds out the total client happiness evaluation.
The Whole Picture
A business model cannot survive without its customers; that’s why client satisfaction is arguably the most important metric an organization can measure. The practices for capturing CSAT scores must evolve in order to create a more real evaluation of where satisfaction levels actually fall.
Looking at the customer experience regularly can be time-intensive. Customer Experience Management Platforms are a new technology that helps track every customer interaction and then analyze data to close the gap between what customers expect and what experience is being delivered.
Want to learn more about Zaelab’s revolutionized CSAT scoring process? Get the whitepaper on how the model can be applied to your business.
If your organization is looking to improve its customer experience connect with Zaelab, a global digital advisory, to learn how to understand, act, and improve client satisfaction.
