CSAT analysis template

How is your organization performing in the eyes of your customers? Are you meeting customer expectations or falling short of them?

Knowing how satisfied your customers are can help guide your business's future and inform you what services are working well and which could improve. The more satisfied your customers are, the more your business can thrive. Happy customers are more loyal and more likely to recommend your company to family and friends, boosting your sales and promoting positive brand perception. 

But if you aren't actively measuring customer satisfaction and analyzing the results, you risk being ill-informed about your own performance. You may be falling short of expectations you didn't even know your customers have for your brand. 

One of the ways to measure customer satisfaction is through Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) analysis. CSAT is a metric that measures how happy customers are with your products or services, usually calculated through a survey using a rating system of 1–5, with 1 being "very dissatisfied" and 5 being "very satisfied." 

But what do those responses mean? And what's the best way to turn survey results into actionable improvements? Let's examine the importance of measuring CSAT, how to do it, and how to put that data to work for your business. 

Measuring your CSAT lets you understand how customers perceive your products, services, and brand. If you don't know how your customers feel about your service, you can't improve it. By identifying which areas of your organization are performing well and which ones need to improve, you can make data-driven decisions about improving the customer experience.

Customer satisfaction has a direct impact on your brand. The happier you can make your customers, the more likely they are to become brand advocates and promote your business for you. Unhappy customers can negatively impact your brand through poor word-of-mouth and online reviews. 

CSAT scores can help you spot negative experiences and encourage you to seek improvements through conducting follow-up customer research to understand what your customers want and need. Through research, you can identify pain points, drive improvement, and learn about customer expectations and how to meet them. 

How do you analyze customer satisfaction scores?

Analyzing your customer satisfaction scores is a systematic process. While it varies across industries and organizations, it generally involves designing a survey, using the survey to collect customer feedback, and then analyzing that data. 

Many customer service surveys measure satisfaction with a simple question on a scale of 1–5, where 1 is “very dissatisfied” and 5 is “very satisfied.” You can customize the survey to target feedback on particular services, products, or experiences the customer may have had with your organization. 

You could send a customer service survey after they've had a call with your support team to measure the customer's satisfaction with the service they received from that department. Or you could send surveys to customers who purchased a specific product to see if it met their expectations. 

The data you collect from the survey can then be analyzed, giving you a benchmark score for your organization. You'll see patterns in customer feedback, which helps you pinpoint areas where you might need improvement within the organization to increase the scores over time. 

To calculate your CSAT score, you'll need to take the number of satisfied customers and divide it by the total number of responses, then multiply that by 100. If you use a scale of 1–5, most organizations will consider a satisfactory score a 4 or 5. 

So, for example, let's say you received 50 responses, and 35 of them gave your organization a 4 or 5. The formula would look like this: 

(35 / 50) x 100 = 70

In this example, your CSAT would be 70. 

What's considered to be a good CSAT?

There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to measuring a good CSAT score. You'll want to determine your organization's benchmark and then compare it against two critical metrics: 

• Industry benchmarks. Conduct some research and find out what the average CSAT score is for your industry. You can find this information online. If it's unavailable, look for published CSAT information for similar organizations. The software industry, for example, has a benchmark score of around 78. 

• Internal benchmarks. Tracking your organization's scores over time will help you track your progress. You can see how you’re performing in the eyes of the customer by comparing your current score to previous scores. 

If you need a rule of thumb, you can aim for a score above 50. That means the majority of your customers are happy with your performance. The higher you can get that number, the better. 

CSAT versus NPS: which is better?

Many organizations measure their CSAT as well as something called a Net Promoter Score (NPS). The NPS measures how likely your customers are to recommend your products or services to others. Both metrics assess how satisfied your customers are and how favorably they view your brand. But they have very different focuses and give you distinct customer insights. 

The CSAT measures customer satisfaction with a specific product, service, or brand after a recent interaction. It provides an immediate evaluation of a specific transaction, such as after making a purchase or closing a ticket. It allows you to get feedback on a granular level. 

For example, you can identify whether a customer loves your products but needs help with your customer service support. Simply put, CSAT is a transactional tool that allows businesses to analyze interactions or experiences at the micro level.

On the other hand, an NPS is a holistic measurement that only looks at the likelihood that someone would recommend your product, service, or brand to others. It's usually a single question with a 10-point Likert scale measuring the customer's overall experience of your offerings. 

For example, you might ask your customers, “How likely are you to recommend our product to others?” This type of question is usually accompanied by a scale of 0–10, where 0 represents “very unlikely” and 10 represents “very likely.” It’s a more relational tool than CSAT and provides businesses with macro-level insights. 

Which one you use will depend on the type and amount of feedback you want to get, but both metrics have an important place in customer satisfaction analysis. 

What are the limitations of CSAT?

Poor holistic experience insights

The CSAT is designed to be granular. You can measure data on a specific interaction, product, or service. But that granularity is also what limits the CSAT. It might not capture how your customer feels about your organization holistically. For example, they may have interacted poorly with a salesperson but still love your brand and want to buy from you.

Little explanation of the scoring

CSAT scores don't always explain why a customer gave you the score they did. You can get context by asking open-ended questions in your survey, but respondents are less likely to provide that feedback, and the data is much more challenging to measure.

Responses can be limiting

The responses themselves also limit the CSAT. You won't get 100% participation in a customer feedback survey. You'll have to rely on the answers you get from customers, which may sway towards the positive or the very negative.

To get the most out of a CSAT score, you'll want to compare it against other metrics like an NPS, internal benchmarks, or industry benchmarks.  

Good data collection for your CSAT starts with designing a good survey. These tips will help you create a survey that gets you more responses from your customers: 

Know what you want to learn

Define your objectives and determine the insights you want to gain from the survey. This will help you keep your questions focused and deliver better data. 

Keep questions short and relevant

Write concise survey questions that are easy to understand and directly related to customer satisfaction. 

Time your surveys carefully

Send surveys at appropriate touchpoints in the customer journey. This may take some trial and error and will depend on what information you are trying to get. 

Incentivize customers for feedback

To encourage customer participation, provide incentives for filling out the survey, such as discounts or exclusive offers. They’re spending their time giving you this data, so at the very least, send them a thank you! 

Many organizations are comfortable designing surveys and asking their customers to give feedback. They might struggle with the analysis part of the process, though. Doing this part of the CSAT process correctly is vital for actionable results. One way to make this process easier is using a CSAT analysis template. 

A CSAT analysis template allows organizations to collect valuable customer feedback in a structured and efficient manner. Templates provide a framework that guides organizations through the analysis process so they can maximize the insights they gain from the results. 

Dovetail offers a comprehensive CSAT template that creates a central platform to gather and analyze customer feedback. The template simplifies the CSAT analysis process, creating a collaborative environment where everyone can contribute to the data collection and analysis in a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to identify patterns in the data. Those patterns can help you determine the actionable steps you need to take to improve your CSAT, increase customer loyalty, and enhance your organization. 

Using an analysis template can make it easy for any organization to analyze customer feedback without becoming a data analysis expert. 

How to use a CSAT analysis template

First, set up your project within the template. Identify your goals and objectives, and determine the metrics you'll measure to gauge customer satisfaction. You'll need to customize the template to align it with your industry and project goals. Take time to change sections, categories, and fields as needed. 

If you already have customer feedback data, import it into the template. If you’re still in the process of gathering this data, import it as it becomes available. This will allow your team to tag and organize it within the template quickly and efficiently. 

Once you have some data in the template, you can use visualization tools and filters to dive into the information. Look for patterns and trends to understand how customers perceive your organization. Based on those insights, you can make recommendations for improving customer satisfaction. Share your suggestions with stakeholders, who can help implement initiatives based on your insights. 

CSAT analysis isn't a one-time thing. It will be an ongoing process. You'll want to continuously monitor the data and see how your CSAT scores change over time. Consider conducting follow-up surveys to see how your initiatives impact customer perceptions.

Analyzing your CSAT data is just the first step in the process. The real value of the CSAT lies in the actions you take based on those insights. Here are a few strategies you might want to implement based on your CSAT score: 

Do more training

Invest in training programs that improve your employee's skills, helping them deliver a better customer service experience. 

Communicate business goals

Communicate what your goals are as an organization to all employees. This can help them align their service with those goals, delivering a better experience. 

Automate more of your business

Automation streamlines your business, removes the risk of human error, and makes you more efficient. Find ways to use tech like AI to make your organization better at serving customers. 

Improve your response times

Promptly responding to customers demonstrates your commitment to customer satisfaction.

Make your service more personal

Personalize your interactions with customers, whether simply learning their names or tailoring your marketing to suit their preferences and habits. Customers love a personalized experience and are more likely to rate your brand higher. 

Monitor your metrics

Continuously monitor your CSAT scores by regularly getting customer feedback and identifying any emerging trends that require action. 

Measuring customer satisfaction from CSAT analysis can help your organization better understand customer expectations and how to meet them. 

A CSAT analysis template, like this free one from Dovetail, can help you streamline the analysis process and gain valuable insights faster. You can enhance the customer experience, build brand loyalty, and boost your business. 

Remember, CSAT analysis should be an ongoing process. Your template should be a living document your team collaboratively updates, analyzes, and monitors.