At your business, can you easily explain the relationship between customers needs and expectations and customer satisfaction? What about the benefits of customer satisfaction? If not, first check out Why customer satisfaction is important: A guide for businesses blog. If you can define the relationship, yet still want to know how to achieve customer satisfaction, we’ve a few tips!
Prioritise customer feedback
42% of companies don’t collect customer feedback (1). Don’t be one of them.
Your customers will clue you into satisfaction drivers and the strong and weak points of your product. Customers’ opinions offer more than a glimpse into brand perception.
Your company can learn so much by listening to the Voice of the Customer. Their opinions, failed or met expectations, and how they talk about their experience with your business can provide valuable insights.
But to listen, you have to first ask for feedback, right?
Capture feedback at regular intervals
So, managing feedback goes beyond monitoring techniques for customers’ complaints. Consider setting up multi-channel touchpoints. You can use them to check in with your customers regarding different customer satisfaction factors along the customer journey.
If you’re a hotel, you could ask guests pre-arrival what they’ll need from you. Similarly, if you’re an automotive dealership, you could have surveys on tablets in the showroom to get prospective buyer feedback on a specific car model. Most importantly, know that the possibilities are endless and constantly evolving with technology.
Consider multiple channels
The ways you capture this feedback will depend on your business model and customer demographics. However, as no two businesses are the same, we highly recommend you tailor the way you collect feedback. It should reflect how your customers like to communicate. For example, collect feedback via: SMS, web app, email, WiFi start page, tablets, QR code, and paper forms.
Invest in customer satisfaction measurement tools
Never assume your customers are satisfied. Know it. Prove it.
So, we recommend you utilise 2-3 of the following customer satisfaction measurement tools to have a comprehensive overview of your customers’ satisfaction.
Pick a customer satisfaction KPI
Review some of the most common customer satisfaction KPI (Key Performance Indicator). It’s important you select one to use across your entire organisation. This way you can measure performance over time and set industry-appropriate benchmarks to push your business forward.
Popular customer satisfaction metrics:
- Customer satisfaction index (CSI)
- Net promoter score calculation (NPS)
- Customer effort score (CES)
- Customer satisfaction score (CSAT)
Check out our article How to measure customer satisfaction: Methods and tips. You’ll get more insights on different customer satisfaction KPI. And, see how companies measure customer satisfaction.
Monitor social media
Many companies also use social media in measuring customer satisfaction. They oversee the number of positive, neutral and negative interactions.
Therefore, when brands are proactive in taking care of social media reviews or complaints, they demonstrate leadership. Moreover, they are then often viewed in a more positive light than their competitors.
Utilise surveys
This is one of the top customer satisfaction methods as companies can control what type of questions they ask. Of course, they can include customer satisfaction and loyalty questions for the customer satisfaction metrics mentioned above. But, more importantly, they can also ask questions related specifically to their business.
4 additional benefits of customer satisfaction surveys:
- Test out a new campaign or product idea
- Discover customer trends
- Understand different customer segments
- Learn how you compare to your competitors
So, don’t think of surveys as a one-off, static few questions you send to all your customers. Instead, realise their potential as customer satisfaction measurement tools.
Additionally, if you have the right software, you can create a variety of surveys with different question types. That is to say, these different question types will allow your customers inform your company how best to evolve.
Internalise commitment to customer satisfaction
So, to successfully implement a customer satisfaction strategy, you need to go beyond top management or a single team. You need to involve the entire company. A compelling way to explain the relationship between customers needs and expectations and customer satisfaction, is via these stats.
Statistics on the benefits of customer satisfaction
- Over two-thirds of companies boasting growing revenue prioritise customer satisfaction, compared to just 49% of companies with stagnant or declining revenue (2).
(These companies focus on customer satisfaction and loyalty because:)
- A 5% increase in customer retention can produce 25% more profit (3)
- Retaining a current customer is 6-7 times less expensive than acquiring a new one (4)
First, explain how the achievement of the customer service offer contributes to enhancing customer loyalty. But in order to even know what your customers’ expectations are, you need to listen to the voice of the customer by getting their feedback. They will tell you what are the customer satisfaction factors you should be paying attention to.
Then, after capturing feedback, illustrate that your company must examine it! Use a software for two things. First, the software should help in measuring customer satisfaction and your customer satisfaction KPI. Secondly, you should use it to perform a consumer analysis on customer satisfaction survey results. You’ll be able to understand customer sentiment, group positive, neutral and negative attitudes towards different aspects of the customer journey or experience. This will help your company to understand specific areas to develop.
Lastly, set internal customer satisfaction index benchmarks based on industry standards to monitor and achieve a competitive advantage.
In short—How to achieve customer satisfaction? Investing in customer satisfaction will benefit your customer knowledge, your customer retention, and ultimately, your company’s revenue.
Sources:
- Hubspot study: 42% of companies don’t listen to their customers
- Neil Patel. Blog: The Benefits and Importance of Customer Satisfaction
- Bain & Company Research report: Prescription for cutting costs
- SuperOffice: 7 Unique Ways to Increase Customer Retention
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