Marketing
To truly understand how happy your customers are, and ensure your business is serving them well, there are 3 primary metrics to measure. But before we get into that, let's first understand the benefits of these 3 customer satisfaction metrics.
Customer satisfaction scores serve as an indicator of how happy your customers are with their overall experience, which can help drive loyalty and increase profits and increase LTV.
When you measure overall customer satisfaction, you can identify specific areas where customers are having an issue with your product or service. These 3 metrics help you identify failure points and make the necessary changes that will improve customer experiences and keep them coming back for more.
If high scores represent customers that love their shopping experience, the opposite is also true. Unsatisfactory scores can indicate that your marketing is tailored to the wrong audience, or that your product isn't meeting the needs of your customers.
So let's dive into the metrics.
NPS, CSAT, and CX are three powerful measures that (if measured effectively) can help businesses understand how satisfied their customers are and identify areas for improvement. By focusing on the three main components of customer experience and delivering a positive and engaging experience across all touchpoints, eCommerce stores can build brand loyalty, increase revenue, and gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Net Promotor Score (NPS) is a customer loyalty and satisfaction metric that measures how likely customers are to recommend a brand to those around them. NPS surveys ask customers to rate their level of satisfaction with the brand on a scale from 0-10, with 10 being the highest rating.
Since people share far more about negative experiences than positive ones, NPS allows you to understand how a buyer would represent your brand to their peers.
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) is another metric that measures how satisfied customers are with a specific product or service. Think of CSAT like a happiness score. How happy is your customer with the product or service that they've just purchased?
This is where CSAT and NPS differ. CSAT scores a specific category of the business - think, "How satisfied were you with the product that you purchased?" vs. NPS which scores, "How happy are you with the brand as a whole?"
CX (customer experience) on the other hand, is a more holistic approach to customer satisfaction. CX is the combination of NPS, CSAT, and all other customer touchpoints such as user experience, customer service interactions, delivery speed, and product quality.
CX allows businesses to not only measure how satisfied customers are with their products or services but also how well they're delivering on their promises and how well they're meeting customer expectations.
Measuring these three metrics is essential for brands to understand where their strengths and weaknesses lie so that they can make changes and continuously improve their customer experience. NPS, CSAT, and CX all provide valuable insights into how customers perceive your business and are integral in helping businesses take their customer
Customer satisfaction is one of the most important metrics for any business. We all know this, but often it is hard to quantify and make improvements that create a positive impact on customers.
However, it's how we generate loyalty in a world where advertising is working every single day to erode our relationships with customers by offering them a shiny new object.
Customer Satisfaction reflects how well a company is meeting the needs and expectations of its customers, and it can have a significant impact on customer loyalty, retention, and advocacy. But measuring customer satisfaction is not always easy, and there are many different methods and formulas that businesses can use to gauge how satisfied their customers are.
If you think about it, L.L. Bean is a marquis for customer satisfaction. Their lifetime warranty and customer service are outstanding. They price their products around half of their biggest competitors and still offer excellent quality. It may seem antiquated, but they deliver a printed catalog despite the digital age we live in, and they still have a call center that allows customers to call and talk to product experts who are passionate about the same things that they are, and as a result, their customer-base is multi-generational.
How do you achieve this type of loyalty? Let's dive in.
Customer satisfaction scores indicate if a customer is happy with one core aspect of their experience with your brand. For instance, if they purchased a product that they love, but had a very bad shopping experience, then they're likely to try and purchase that product from someone else in the future.
Conversely, if they love the shopping experience, but have noticed that product quality is slipping, they're likely to stop buying the product altogether.
This is why CSAT is a vital metric to measure when understanding how satisfied customers are with a specific product or service. CSAT surveys typically ask customers to rate their satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 5 or 1 to 10, with 1 being very dissatisfied and 5 or 10 being very satisfied. CSAT scores can be used to measure customer satisfaction at different points in the customer journey, such as just after a purchase, after a customer interaction, or after using a particular feature of a product.
This is why companies like Taylormade Golf have made the switch to conversational commerce software by Humankind. Like the L.L. Bean example listed earlier, Taylormade is able to connect its shoppers directly with a product expert (known as a remote concierge) that can walk them through each step of the buying process and deliver an excellent customer experience. Customers walk away with the product that best fits their needs and a 1:1 human connection that feels like texting with a friend.
Using Humankind, brands like Taylormade, REN skincare, and Saucony have been able to increase CSAT to 4.94 while also increasing 20X CVR and 18X AOV. This is the power of focusing on customer satisfaction.
To calculate CSAT, you need to divide the number of satisfied customers (those who rated their satisfaction as 4 or 5, (OR) 9 or 10) by the total number of respondents, and then multiply by 100 to get a percentage.
For example, if 80 out of 100 customers are satisfied, the CSAT score would be 80%.
According to MonkeyLearn, the average CSAT for customer support varies depending on the industry, the type of support provided, and the specific customer segment being served…
However, a good benchmark for customer support CSAT is around 85%, meaning that at least 85% of customers should be satisfied with their support experience. If a business is consistently falling below the 80- 85% benchmark, it may need to review its support processes, train its agents more effectively, or make other changes to improve the customer experience.
If you're disappointed with your current CSAT scores, it's time to take a look at your customer experience and figure out what needs to be improved, you can do this by:
The first step to improving CSAT scores is to analyze customer feedback. This feedback can be collected by your Humankind remote concierge, by looking at online reviews and conducting surveys via SMS, and social media.
Begin by looking for patterns in the feedback to identify areas of improvement so that you can make changes. For example, if customers consistently complain about slow response times, then it is necessary to work on improving the team's response time.
Providing excellent customer service is crucial to improving CSAT scores. Ensure that customers have multiple channels to contact your brand, including phone, email, and chat. Respond promptly and courteously to customer inquiries, and make sure to resolve their issues quickly.
Personalizing the customer experience can also improve CSAT scores. Use customer data to personalize interactions, such as addressing customers by name and providing tailored recommendations. This personal touch can make customers feel valued and increase their satisfaction.
According to PwC, more than 82% of consumers wanted more human interaction in their shopping experiences. This is due to the isolation many of us have felt as a result of COVID-19, stay-at-home orders, and remote working environments.
This is where your remote concierge can create 1:1 connections with shoppers to walk them through the process of making high-consideration buying decisions and personalizing their customer experience.
Implementing customer feedback is another effective way to improve CSAT scores. Take customer feedback seriously and use it to make changes in your business. For example, if customers complain about slow delivery times, you can work on improving your shipping process to meet their expectations.
Offering incentives can also improve CSAT scores. Offer rewards, discounts, or freebies to customers who leave reviews, positive feedback or refer others to your business. These incentives can encourage customers to take action and promote your business.
Improving CSAT scores is not a one-time task; it requires continuous quarterly effort.
In fact, continuously monitoring customer feedback, identifying areas that need improvement, implementing changes, and measuring the impact on CSAT scores can become overwhelming, but if you break it down into bite-sized pieces and make small improvements you're sure to see growth over time.
Now, let's switch the focus from CSAT specifically, to how it affects the overall CX.
CX encompasses all touchpoints in the customer journey, including marketing, sales, support, and post-purchase interactions. It is a holistic view of the customer journey and takes into account not only the functional aspects of a product or service but also the emotional and psychological factors that influence customer behavior.
Put simply, CX is how someone feels about your brand when thinking about it.
This is important because people don't buy from brands/ people they don't like and trust. A great customer experience can lead to increased brand loyalty, higher customer lifetime value, more referrals, and better reviews.
Check out, How great is your CX? for details on creating a great customer experience.
Recently, we've seen the trend move from chatbots and automated responses to human conversations between shoppers and brands. This is known as conversational commerce, and it's the #1 way to connect directly with consumers, build a relationship with them, and provide an amazing customer experience - remote concierge software by Humankind empowers this connection.
Quite often, as brands, we focus most of our attention on creating great products and then expect them to go viral and sell out, but the truth of the matter is that it takes a lot more than just creating good products to build a profitable eCommerce store.
The relationship you have with your buyers drives more than just sales; it helps strengthen customer loyalty. To do this, you need to have a strong customer relationship management (CRM) strategy in place.
Not every customer is going to have the same great buying experience - we all have our off days, but by investing in CRM software that allows you to create a great CX, you'll create the personal touch shoppers crave.
A customer experience CX strategy is a plan that outlines how a business will deliver a positive, engaging, and memorable customer experience across all touchpoints in the customer journey. A CX strategy should take into account the questions, needs, and expectations of different customer segments, as well as the specific goals and objectives of the business. It should also include metrics and KPIs for measuring success.
This CX strategy is then implemented throughout the sales and support functions of your business through focussed training that allows your strategy to be executed.
At Humankind we've made it our mission to ensure that customers have great buying experiences. After studying over 1,000,000 customer interactions, we've seen the benefit of 1:1 human connection on a brand's CX strategy and have been able to meaningfully improve results across each aspect of the buyer's journey.
The three main components of customer experience are:
To deliver a great customer experience, businesses need to focus on all three of these components and ensure that they are aligned with each other.
Customer experience is important for several reasons:
Your CX strategy is in place to ensure that customers have consistent and positive experiences through every interaction with your brand. This comes by identifying why they came to your store, what they're feeling, and how you can solve a problem for them.
For example, people who get on a waiting list to buy limited edition Goyard bags or go to a release day at Supreme are very different than buyers who are in an airport after an airline has lost their luggage - this seems straightforward but we often forget to focus first on how the customer is feeling and why.
When you know why your customer is shopping with you, you can design an experience that supports their needs.
In summary, customer satisfaction is critical for any business, and NPS, CSAT, and CX are three important tools that eCommerce stores can use to measure and improve customer satisfaction. By focusing on the three main components of customer experience and delivering a positive and engaging experience across all touchpoints, businesses can build brand loyalty, increase revenue, and gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
If you'd like to create a better shopping experience for your buyers, book your demo of Humankind today. We'd love to show you how we've helped brands create a better CX while also driving growth.
