Customer satisfaction metrics are a good way to measure the health of your business, and detect and fix problems. If you’re a small business owner, you may measure customer satisfaction on a daily basis by how you interact with customers. But if you’re looking for something more measurable and specific, or if you don’t interact directly with customers as much as you used to, you may be wondering how to measure customer satisfaction in a way that is exact, repeatable, and which makes sense for small business. There are several ways to do this, and which you choose will depend on your business and your customers.
How to Measure Customer Satisfaction for Small Business
The three most common ways to measure customer satisfaction are the Net Promoter Score℠ (NPS®), Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), and Customer Effort Score (CES). Each of these are simple, straightforward, quantitative, and repeatable, which will allow you to set benchmarks and regularly assess how you’re doing.
All of these customer satisfaction metrics can be collected via email, but there are other creative ways of accomplishing this as well. Whichever measurement you choose and however you collect responses, you’ll need to collect enough responses to draw accurate conclusions. The more responses you get, the more accurate your conclusions will be.
When you are seeking responses, emphasize that the answers are anonymous and only used internally. You might use a giveaway or a discount to incentivize responses, but remind customers that you are looking for honest assessments, and they do not have to respond positively to claim the reward.
Finally, your customer satisfaction metrics can give you a quantitative view of how your customers feel, but they won’t show why customers feel that way. Be prepared to get in-depth with your customers to solve problems, either with a follow-up survey, interview, or requests for additional responses.
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NPS: Net Promoter Score
The Net Promoter Score is generally considered to be one of the most accurate measurements of customers’ satisfaction. The Net Promoter Score first appeared in 2003 in the Harvard Business Review and was developed by Fred Reichheld, Bain & Company, Inc., and Satmetrix Systems, Inc. as a meaningful measurement of customer loyalty. It’s now used by companies large and small, and it’s been found to correlate with other important metrics beyond customer satisfaction, including customer spending, income growth, and customer retention.
Your Net Promoter Score is calculated based on customer responses to a simple question: “How likely is it that you would recommend our company (or product or service) to a friend or colleague?” These responses are measured on a 1 through 10 score. Customers responding with a six or less are considered “detractors,” sevens or eights are “neutral,” and nines or tens are “promoters.” Your total Net Promoter Score is then calculated as a percentage using the following formula.
Net Promoter Score = % of Promoters – % of Detractors
% of Promoters = # of Promoters / Total Respondents
% of Detractors = # of Detractors / Total Respondents
The Net Promoter Score is considered a good indicator of how customers feel about your brand overall, which makes it a good way to measure customer satisfaction for small business at any stage. Generally, any positive score is good, but it’s helpful to compare your score to others in your industry. Industries with a heavy emphasis on customer service, for example hotels, should have a higher score than others.
How to Measure NPS for Small Business
NPS scores are most commonly collected via email. This allows you to gather responses and calculate your score quickly. However, you could also measure customer satisfaction using NPS through a paper or mail survey, text messages, a survey on a receipt, an in-store kiosk, or meetings with clients.
Measuring customer satisfaction with NPS will give you a good idea of how customers feel about your business. Put a plan in place to not only measure customer satisfaction, but also improve it. If you receive a large number of dissatisfied responses, you’ll know you need to improve your experience, and perhaps dig deeper to find specific problems. If you receive mostly neutral responses, you’ll know you need to do something extra to make your business stand out. If you receive a number of high responses, pinpoint what customers enjoy and focus on this strength.