How To Improve Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) In Contact Centers?

There is more probability for any organization to be successful if they put customer service at the heart of their business. Providing services that make the customer feel valued and respected has become a competitive advantage that an organization can have.

The fact that it is six times more expensive to get a new customer than to retain an existing one makes the role of customer service important & improves customer satisfaction. CSAT acts as a major marketing asset that an organization can have.

Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, said, “To WOW, you must differentiate yourself, which means do something a little unconventional and innovative. You must do something that’s above and beyond what’s expected.”

Some of the challenges associated with customer service are understanding the needs and expectations of customers and delivering faster resolutions. Thus aligning your business workflows so that you understand what the customers are looking for at every touchpoint is essential.

Some of the top customer service trends that a business can incorporate are:

• Building Omnichannel CX
• Developing chatbots for better customer engagement
• Empowering customers with Self-Service for faster resolutions
• Taking informed decisions post customer satisfaction scores
• Unleashing machine learning to drive customer success

What is Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)?

CSAT measures customer satisfaction score, which measures customer satisfaction related to a brand’s product or services. The CSAT score can be used to understand and determine customer needs and what they feel about a particular brand.

To reduce the gap between what customers want and what they get, it is important to find the customer satisfaction score, which measures how satisfied a customer is regarding the service they receive. CSAT score is generally expressed in percentages between 0 to 100%. An accurate CSAT score can help an organization improve its product and services and reduce customer churn.

Not only this, but CSAT can be used to measure and improve the effectiveness of different organizational processes. Thus CSAT can help an organization make informed decisions to increase and retain its customer base by enhancing customer experience and empowering customer engagement.

Benefits of Customer Satisfaction

The goal of any business is to create customers who create customers. To do that, one needs to make the existing customers happy. Happy customers will stay with the brand for as long as they feel valued. It is the loyal customers that help in the growth of the business as they act as brand advocates.

Customer satisfaction creates a higher switching barrier, i.e., the existing customers will not switch to the competitor brands. The brand will also have greater chances of success with its new products and line extensions.

Customer satisfaction can help in the:

• Increasing customer loyalty
• Increasing the amount of money spent on your product/service
• Positive word of mouth and increased brand popularity
• Increasing the frequency of purchases
• Generating business opportunities and growth

How to Improve Customer Satisfaction Score?

A call center can improve customer satisfaction in the following ways:

• Understanding Customer needs and expectations

The first step for any business to improve customer satisfaction is understanding customer needs and expectations.

• Reducing Average Handling Time (AHT)

To deliver good customer service, the call center should ensure that the customers are not put on hold for a long time and that their queries are solved faster and smarter. Using appropriate tools can help in this matter.

• First Call Resolution

Nothing can be better than the problem getting solved in the first call itself. It is not good customer service if a customer has to call more than once to resolve a particular query.

• Enhancing customer experience

The better the customer experience, the happier the customer gets. Customer experience can be enhanced by providing them with self-care and assisted care on multiple platforms.

• Providing self-service tools

Self-service enables users to solve their problems independently, enhancing their experience and engagement. Self-service enables active workflows and interactive usability.

• Monitoring and tracking all the relevant KPIs for customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction can be impacted by factors like the number of agents, the overall efficiency of those agents, and the level of operational service the business provides. All these factors can be tied to key performance indicators like AHT (Average Handle Time), FCR (First Call Resolution), call volumes, etc

All these can be achieved by incorporating Knowledge Management Software into your business workflow.

Conclusion

All of the above approaches will help improve customer service and make the customer feel valued. This, over time, would help in increasing customer loyalty.

Last but not least, maintaining a good CSAT is not a one-time process it is a continuous process that keeps on changing over the period and requires improvements accordingly.