Companies and organisations all over the world use surveys to measure customer satisfaction. They use it as a tool to quantify the degree to which a customer is happy with a product, service, or experience. It tells the concerned company how well its product or service fared in the consumer market. Customer satisfaction surveys can benefit a company or an organisation in more ways than it may anticipate.
Measuring customer satisfaction helps companies in:
- Knowing their customers better
- Improving customer service
- Identifying loyal and recurring customers
- Increasing their revenues
- Evaluating and improving themselves with all the feedback and suggestions given by users
Measuring Customer Satisfaction
There are many methods to measure customer satisfaction. Some of them are:1. Customer Satisfaction Score
Customer Satisfaction Score measures the satisfaction of a customer for the goods and services they availed from a company.2. Customer Effort Score
Customer Effort Score is a type of customer satisfaction metric that measures the ease of an experience with a company. It examines the ease with which the customers were able to have their issue resolved successfully or complete an action. Customer Effort Score also evaluates how likely they are to continue using and paying for it. So companies ask customers how much effort they has to put in to use the product or service, on a five-point scale of very difficult to very easy.3. Net Promoter Score
Net Promoter Score is a loyalty metric. Companies or organisations use it to capture the referral rate of their customers. In simple words, it checks the probability of their customers to recommend their brand to a friend, relative or colleague, on a scale of 0-10.4. Customer Pulse Surveys
Customer pulse surveys are like small and quick customer satisfaction surveys. So companies develop it with an aim to measure customer satisfaction frequently, without giving their customers survey fatigue.Customer Pulse Surveys
Traditional full length surveys analyze and provide deep and varied understanding but require more effort in creation and management. Creating and analyzing them for specific data points is quite a long and daunting task. Also, handing customers lengthy surveys every now and then makes them prone to survey fatigue. Traditional full-scale customer satisfaction surveys hardly get a 10% response rate from audiences. On the other hand 50% customers reveal that they will respond to a quick and short survey. Owing to the shortfall of response in full scale surveys, Pulse surveys were developed. Pulse surveys are single-question or short-form surveys that help companies learn about employee or customer sentiment quickly and easily. Because they’re simple and quick, they can be administered more often to analyse customer sentiment, hence the name ‘pulse’. Customer pulse surveys capture snapshots of customer opinions. These surveys help measure specific issues over time. They earn higher response rates than longer, more involved surveys. Unlike full scale surveys, customer pulse surveys are more cost effective and time efficient. They are also quick and can be conducted frequently. Hence customers can provide valuable feedback on a regular basis.Merits Of Pulse Surveys
- Targeted questions to measure impact - Customer Pulse Survey can be customized to meet the needs of the concerned organisation. These surveys allow organizations to ask the respondents about a particular issue they’re having right at the moment, instead of issues they had 3 quarters ago. If there were any discrepancies by the company, it can be measured instantly by customer pulse surveys.
- Immediate action can be taken - After capturing the respondent’s reaction, the concerned organisation can take immediate action or investigate further.
- Cost and time efficient - Customer Pulse Survey takes less time and money to conduct and manage. Likewise, it is time efficient for respondents as well. Many of these respondents may have been less likely to fill out a full scale survey.
- Measure consumer sentiment - Pulse surveys offer the opportunity to learn how consumer’s sentiment changes over time. If companies ask the same question over time, weekly or monthly, and compare results then they can gauge consumer sentiment.
- Predict consumer trends - Following the practice mentioned above will help them in staying ahead of their competitors. Companies can also plan according to these trends to keep their customers happy and satisfied.
- It reminds the respondents that they matter - Regular dialogue helps your respondents feel that they are important. These exercises help companies build close affinity with their customers. Closely knit customers are loyal and tend to buy more from their respective companies. Consequently, they help to increase revenue as well.
Tips and Precautions
- Customer pulse surveys should be short. So it should not have more than 6 to 10 questions.
- These surveys were formulated to reduce survey fatigue. Companies commit classic mistake of administering pulse surveys very frequently. Instead of reducing survey fatigue, this act increases it and the tool backfires.
- Customer pulse surveys should include benchmark questions like ‘On a scale of 1 to 10, how happy are you with our service?’ A question like this gives a quick access to client sentiment and shifts in perception.
- Include open-ended questions or questions that ask for suggestions for improvement. This shows that their views matter and their feedback are taken into account.
- Get ready to act on the results.
Posted in Analytics, Customer Feedback, Customer Satisfaction, Surveys
Tagged advantages of online surveys, customer feedback online, customer feedback online survey, customer pulse survey, customer retention, customer satisfaction survey, customer sentiments, measuring customer satisfaction
