Customer Satisfaction Defined: A Complete Guide

Customer satisfaction is a measure of how well your organization meets customer expectations – and a crucial component of business success. Without it, your customers churn, revenue drops, profit margins shrink – and in the worst case, doomsday scenario, your business could collapse. Really. It’s that important.

But how do you accurately capture your customers’ level of satisfaction? And more importantly, how do you improve it? These are critical topics, especially since 65% of customers expect companies to adapt to their changing needs and preferences. Let’s dive in.

• What is customer satisfaction?
• Why is customer satisfaction important?
• 6 benefits of customer satisfaction
• 5 factors influencing customer satisfaction
• How to measure customer satisfaction
• How to improve customer satisfaction: tips & best practices
• Examples of successful customer satisfaction
• Learn how Salesforce enhances customer satisfaction

As mentioned, customer satisfaction is a measure of how well a company's products or services meet or exceed customer expectations. It may reflect the entire customer service experience, including the support your customer service team provides. It may also include customers’ perception of how you respond to service disruptions or product issues – so your customer service incident management is also key.

You can gain data about customer satisfaction through surveys, customer reviews, and direct customer interactions. Many companies use survey responses to calculate CSAT score, a common customer satisfaction metric. But other, more indirect methods like social media mentions or repeat purchases also yield relevant data about how customers feel about your brand. Net Promoter Score (NPS), which measures how likely customers are to tell their friends and colleagues about your business, can also be a useful metric.

Our research finds that 80% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services. And 88% say good customer service makes them more likely to purchase again. With such clear potential pay-off, why wouldn’t you want to improve customer satisfaction?

Customer satisfaction directly influences loyalty to your company and your brand’s reputation. Here are six benefits of cultivating strong customer satisfaction:

Satisfied customers are more likely to become repeat buyers, which is crucial for long-term business stability. Loyal customers often exhibit brand allegiance, making them less susceptible to competitors’ marketing tactics.

Satisfied customers may share their positive experiences with others, which can drive new customer acquisition. Word-of-mouth marketing is a powerful tool, often perceived as more trustworthy than traditional advertising. Positive reviews and recommendations can significantly enhance a company's reputation and attract potential customers.

High customer satisfaction helps your CAC (customer acquisitions costs) in two ways. First, it’s less costly to retain an existing customer than to recruit a new one. Second, those loyal customers are doing some of your marketing for you through word of mouth, as mentioned, so you get free marketing!

Customer satisfaction often translates to higher revenue. Satisfied customers tend to make more frequent purchases and may be willing to pay a premium for products or services they trust. This increased spending power can directly impact a company’s bottom line, contributing to overall profitability.

High levels of customer satisfaction can lower churn rates, the percentage of customers who stop doing business with a company.

Companies that prioritize and excel in customer satisfaction are more likely to stand out from their competitors. In a saturated market, this competitive edge can be a critical factor in driving business growth and establishing a strong market presence.

To improve customer satisfaction, you need to focus on what makes your customers happy. These five factors are consistent ways to please your customers, no matter your industry.

The quality of the product or service you sell will be the primary determinant of customer satisfaction. Products with outstanding performance, durability, and reliability are more likely to garner positive customer feedback than those without. Our research finds that 55% of consumers say they’ve switched brands due to product quality.

Customer service plays a pivotal role in shaping customer satisfaction. Fast, friendly, knowledgeable, and effective customer support enhances the overall customer experience. Conversely, poor service can quickly lead to dissatisfaction and negative reviews.

Customers assess whether the price of a product or service is justified by its perceived value. Competitive pricing and clear value propositions can positively influence satisfaction levels. Customers need to feel that they are receiving a fair deal relative to the quality they are getting. Our research shows that 72% of consumers say they’ve switched brands for better deals.

Products and services should be easy to access and use as these factors significantly impact customer satisfaction. Simplified processes, user-friendly interfaces, and convenient purchasing options contribute to a more positive experience.

A company’s brand reputation also affects customer satisfaction. Brands that are perceived as trustworthy, ethical, and reliable generally enjoy higher levels of customer satisfaction. Maintaining a positive reputation requires consistent delivery of quality products and good customer service.

You may be wondering how to measure customer satisfaction, and there are multiple ways. Here are some popular options:

Customer satisfaction surveys are a common method for measuring satisfaction. These can be conducted on various channels using online forms, via email, on the phone or in-person. Surveys often include questions about different aspects of the customer experience, such as product quality, service, and overall satisfaction. It’s helpful to include room for open-ended responses, where customers may share more detailed feedback.

CSAT is calculated by asking customers to rate their satisfaction on a scale, typically from 1 to 5 or 1 to 10. For example, after a support call, a customer might be asked, "How satisfied were you with your experience today?" CSAT is a versatile metric that can be used for specific interactions, like a phone call about an ecommerce return. Or for overall customer experience, like how easy it is to purchase, use, and get support for a new product.

Customer Effort Score (CES) measures how easy it is for customers to use your product or service. A software company might ask customers how easy it was to accomplish a task on a scale of "very easy" to "very difficult." This feedback can help you identify areas where your product or service can be improved.

Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures customer loyalty by asking a simple question: "On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our company to a friend or colleague?" Responses are categorized into promoters (9-10), passives (7-8), and detractors (0-6). NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters.

Online reviews and ratings provide valuable insights into customer satisfaction. Platforms such as Google, Yelp, or G2, and social media channels offer customers a space to share their experiences. Analyzing these reviews can help businesses identify strengths and areas for improvement.

In-depth conversations with customers can provide rich, qualitative data. A B2B software company might conduct quarterly interviews with key clients to understand their evolving needs and satisfaction levels. These interviews can also be a rich source of information about why customers choose you over your competitors. They also help you uncover warning signs that customers are losing satisfaction and are at risk of defecting.

Focus groups involve a small group of customers discussing their experiences and opinions in a guided setting. This method provides in-depth qualitative insights and can reveal nuanced perspectives that may not be captured through surveys or reviews.

Observing customers as they interact with a product can reveal satisfaction issues related to user experience. For example, a website redesign team might conduct usability tests to identify and address pain points in the new design.

While not a direct measure of satisfaction, tracking how many customers stop using your product or service over time can indicate satisfaction trends. A high churn rate often signals underlying satisfaction issues that need to be addressed.

Ensure that your service reps are well-trained in communication, problem-solving, and customer care. Empower your team to make decisions that can resolve issues swiftly and effectively. Be sure that the full team – both your service reps and your autonomous AI agents – has clear guidelines on what it can and cannot do.

Address customer issues and complaints as quickly as possible. An effective resolution not only mitigates dissatisfaction but also demonstrates a commitment to customer care. If fast resolution is challenging for your support team, you’re not alone. Our research finds that 69% of agents say balancing speed and quality is difficult. The good news is that technology can definitely help.

Personalization can greatly enhance the customer experience. Use customer data and AI for customer service to tailor interactions, recommendations, and communications to individual preferences. Personalized experiences make customers feel valued and appreciated.

Set up a clear system to make sure you're capturing, unifying, and reviewing all customer feedback. (Technology like Service Cloud’s feedback management tools can help.) Then act on that feedback. Showing customers their opinions matter can significantly enhance their experience.

See ideas for product or service improvements? Seriously consider implementing them. Establish a clear way for the customer support team to pass on direct feedback from customers to the relevant team, whether sales, training, product development, or marketing. Use feedback to improve your customer service operations, and ultimately to deliver better support.

Keep your support team up-to-date on the latest developments in your business and your products with regular training. Also help them build their customer service skills. Encourage employees to use Trailhead, Salesforce’s free online learning platform. Encourage peer-to-peer learning as well. Your service reps and Salesforce admins can join the Serviceblazer Community on Slack to connect with other dedicated service professionals. When service reps don’t know the answer to a customer’s question, they can use AI-powered tools like Agentforce to help them access knowledge and data across your organization.

Ensure the quality of the service you provide is consistent across channels. Use technology to ensure that information a customer shares on one channel, like a chatbot, is passed along to the service rep. That way, the customer doesn’t face the irritation of having to explain everything all over.

Let’s take a look at three hypothetical service interaction examples resulting in positive customer satisfaction.

• A retail customer orders a new shirt, but receives the wrong size. She checks her order confirmation to be sure she ordered the correct size (she did). She then jumps onto the retailer’s customer support page and joins the prompt inviting her to connect with an autonomous AI agent (in this case, Salesforce’s Agentforce). The customer explains her problem. Agentforce immediately understands the issue, and is able to send out the correct size with expedited shipping, as well as issue a free return label to the customer as well. The new shirt arrives a couple of days later. While it was annoying to get the wrong size in the first place, the customer feels satisfied that the problem was solved so quickly, and will buy from the retailer again.
• An internet customer is experiencing a slow connection and calls customer support to troubleshoot. The service rep runs through the usual steps to restore a faster connection, but they don’t work. So the rep jumps into a quick service swarm in Slack, where she can collaborate with colleagues in DevOps and Engineering about the problem. It turns out, more calls from customers experiencing similar issues have been flooding in. All the calls get added to a single incident in the company’s CRM, as experts across the company work on fixing the root cause of the problem. DevOps and Engineering push status updates to the company’s website and mobile app, and keep the service swarm up to date on status. This all happens rather quickly, and the service rep is able to keep the customer informed about what’s happening behind the scenes. The customer leaves the call, but is able to see updates on the company’s website, and gets a text notification when the problem is resolved. It’s never fun to have a slow internet, but at least the provider kept the customer informed!
• A manufacturing company uses monitoring devices, data analytics, and AI models to predict when assets will need maintenance. The manufacturing company also uses telemetry data such as equipment status and performance in real time to detect any unusual issues, notify the customer, and address them promptly. Thanks to this proactive approach, customers don’t have to wait until an asset fails to call for service. Instead, the manufacturing company is able to notify the customer that service is needed, schedule an appointment, and send a field tech out to resolve the problem. Now that’s proactive customer service! Customers say their vendor’s support practices help them stay on track with maintenance, extending the life of their assets.

In concert with a well-trained team of service reps, technology can help you create a smooth, seamless customer experience. Especially as your business scales and the volume of service interactions grows. Here are nine technology solutions that can help you boost customer satisfaction.

Robust CRM systems and customer service software like Service Cloud allow you to manage all your customer interactions and customer data on a single platform. See a customer’s history, preferences, and purchase history all in one place, allowing your team of service reps and autonomous agents to deliver more personalized, efficient service.

Autonomous AI agents work as independent members of your service team to address customer issues. Thanks to advanced artificial intelligence like natural language processing (NLP), autonomous agents like Salesforce’s Agentforce can understand the intent behind a customer’s question, and respond in a conversational manner. Agentforce can come up with a plan to address the problem, and then take action to execute that plan. It deflects cases from ever reaching a service rep. Or, when the inquiry is out of scope, these AI agents can hand the interaction off to a service rep to take forward.

These AI-powered agents act as personal assistants to your service reps. For example, before jumping into a call a rep might ask Agentforce to summarize the customer’s most recent interaction, whether that was with an autonomous AI agent or a different service rep. Agentforce can also offer suggestions for best next steps and actions, right in the flow of the rep’s work console. Agentforce can even generate first drafts of case wrap-up summaries and knowledge articles, saving your service reps time so they can focus on the customer.

Customer service analytics tools like Salesforce’s Service Intelligence help businesses gain insights into customer behavior and satisfaction levels. With Service Intelligence, you get a complete view of metrics like CSAT, average time to close, total escalated cases, and more – all in one place. AI-powered predictions – like the propensity of a customer to ask to escalate to a manager – pop up right in the flow of work. These AI-powered insights help service reps make decisions during the interaction that ultimately improve customer satisfaction.

Omnichannel support enables customers to interact with your company through their preferred channels, whether email, phone, or chat. Consistent, seamless experiences across channels can significantly boost customer satisfaction.

Our research finds that 61% of customers would rather use self-service for simple issues, our research finds. Adding self-service options like autonomous AI agents, a help center, authenticated portal, or customer community helps you meet customer preferences.

Advanced feedback management tools allow for real-time collection and analysis of customer opinions. With Service Cloud these tools are built right into the CRM. AI-powered surveys and sentiment analysis help you turn written customer feedback into actionable data. You can embed dynamic, branded surveys on every channel. Salesforce’s Customer Experience Intelligence takes feedback analysis one step further: it helps you analyze customer sentiment across service interactions and feedback surveys. It shows you which topics, products, service issues, or team members drive customer satisfaction higher or lower.

Field techs are often the face of your business to the customer. So making sure the experience is smooth and positive has a direct impact on customer satisfaction. Good field service management solutions help you more efficiently manage dispatch and scheduling. Salesforce’s field service management drives efficiency for your team in the field with tools like AI-powered pre-work briefs and AI-generated work summaries. Techs can even help customers remotely with Visual Remote Assistant.

Connect teams across the business with Slack. When a customer service issue arises that requires the collaboration of multiple teams – like engineering, development operations (DevOps), security, legal, finance, or customer support – you can gather the relevant expert in a service swarm. Everyone works together to solve the problem as fast as possible, and then afterward, the team documents the process in a knowledge article. Agentforce can speed up the process by drafting the knowledge article for you, which a service rep can then review and edit.

If you offer a product or service that can experience disruption, be sure you have a customer service incident management software solution in place. Technology like Service Cloud's incident management can help you stay one step ahead of major disruptions by monitoring systems to identify problems before they have a widespread impact. When there is an incident, incident management can help you proactively notify customers, and keep them up-to-date as the situation evolves.

Customer satisfaction is a critical element of business success, influencing loyalty, revenue, and competitive advantage. The good news is that your company has a lot of control. The proactive steps you take to improve customer satisfaction can make a big impact. Why not get started today by learning more about how technology can help?