What is customer satisfaction score (CSAT) and how do you measure it?

How is CSAT measured?

Measuring CSAT is a simple two-step process that any organization can implement to gain actionable insights:

1. Send the survey.
Start by sending a survey with clear, straightforward questions. These questions should focus on key aspects of the customer experience and get right to the point. For example: “On a scale of 1-10, how satisfied are you with our service?”

This direct approach ensures that customers can respond quickly and honestly, increasing the likelihood of useful feedback.

2. Score the survey. 
Once responses are collected, calculate your CSAT score. Some questions are easy to score, such as the 1-10 scale. For instance, if 80 out of 100 respondents rate your service as 8 or higher, your CSAT score would be 80%.

Other questions might require manual scoring. For example: “How satisfied were you with your recent interaction with us?” For non-numerical answers like this, it’s up to the specific organization to decide which answers count as “satisfied” and which do not. A company may decide that, on a scale of 1-10, anything above a “6” rating counts as a satisfied score.

How to calculate CSAT.

The formula for calculating CSAT is:

(Number of satisfied customers (rated 4 or 5) ÷ Total survey responses) × 100 = CSAT (%)

This calculation gives you the percentage of customers who are satisfied with your business. The score can range from 0% (no satisfied customers) to 100% (every customer is satisfied).

What is a good CSAT score?

CSAT scores don’t have one unified measurement—they vary widely based on the type of question asked. A general rule of thumb is to try to get your percentage of satisfied customers as close as possible to 100%.

Also, it’s important to regularly send out surveys—ideally quarterly—to track how your CSAT score evolves over time. Market conditions, customer preferences, and internal changes can all impact CSAT results.

For example, a customer service team’s CSAT score can shift in real time with every interaction, reflecting the immediate quality of support. In contrast, a yearly survey assessing satisfaction with a specific product will provide a static snapshot until the next one is sent.

CSAT scores can also vary significantly by industry. The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) tracks customer satisfaction metrics across various sectors, providing a benchmark for organizations to compare performance. Here are recent CSAT benchmarks to consider:

When should you measure CSAT?

A business should measure CSAT on a regular interval, whether that’s quarterly, monthly, or after every customer interaction. The specific time frame should reflect the organization’s goals for obtaining customer feedback. It’s best to request feedback directly after an interaction or transaction while it’s still fresh in the customer’s mind.

While quarterly surveys are a standard approach to tracking customer satisfaction, there are specific moments when measuring CSAT can offer valuable insights. Here are key times to assess customer satisfaction:

• Customer lifecycle progress. After milestones like a purchase, onboarding, or completing a training session, CSAT surveys can confirm whether customers feel positively about their experience.

• Before a subscription renewal. Gauge satisfaction early enough to address any issues before customers evaluate whether to renew their commitment to your company.

• After any major interaction with customer support. Following a meaningful interaction, such as troubleshooting an issue or receiving guidance, measuring CSAT helps assess how well customer service met expectations.

• During a period of inactivity. If a customer’s engagement has declined or stopped, sending a CSAT survey can help uncover potential dissatisfaction or roadblocks to re-engagement.

Next, let’s explore the pros and cons of measuring CSAT to see how it fits into your overall strategy.

Pros of measuring CSAT scores.

Measuring customer satisfaction helps businesses identify problem areas, find ways to improve, and reduce customer churn with real-time feedback.

Quantify customer sentiment.

Understanding customer sentiment isn’t always straightforward. It can be challenging to determine how customers truly feel about a product, service, or even the organization as a whole. While CSAT scores don’t offer the nuanced perspective of customer sentiment analysis, they provide a reliable snapshot of satisfaction with specific touchpoints or services.

At its core, CSAT delivers insights into what’s working well and where improvements are needed. Although it won’t capture the full emotional spectrum of customer experiences, CSAT scores are a simple, effective tool for measuring satisfaction.

Access real-time feedback.

CSAT scores offer the next best thing to real-time feedback outside of direct customer interactions. They allow businesses to gather honest insights from customers about the features they enjoy, their challenges, and even the improvements or additions they’d like to see.

This immediate feedback loop lets companies quickly address negative experiences, enhance product or service value, and improve overall satisfaction. Taking action right away builds stronger relationships and helps prevent customers from leaving.

Identify problem areas.

CSAT helps identify specific areas of concern, enabling targeted improvements in products or services. Whether it’s a certain feature, a service process, or customer support these insights show you where improvements are needed. Understanding which aspects of their offering are falling short allows you to focus efforts on those areas, leading to more efficient problem-solving and better use of resources.

Cons of measuring CSAT scores.

While CSAT scores are valuable, they have limitations. For instance, response bias can skew results, opinions are subjective, and CSAT often highlights symptoms of issues without identifying their root causes.

Response bias can skew ratings.

Response bias can sometimes distort CSAT scores. This occurs when certain customers provide extreme ratings—either very high or very low—while others choose not to respond at all. Cultural differences in how people rate satisfaction can also influence results, making it harder to get a truly accurate picture.

These biases can lead to misleading conclusions about overall customer satisfaction. Businesses should keep this in mind when analyzing CSAT data and consider supplementing it with additional metrics or insights to get a clearer view.

Satisfaction is subjective.

The definition of satisfaction is influenced by an individual’s expectations and experiences. For instance, a restaurant customer might consider “satisfactory” food as simply acceptable, but far from memorable or exceptional. On the other hand, a hotel guest might describe a clean, quiet room as “satisfactory,” even when it meets the standards of a five-star experience.

This subjectivity makes it difficult to fully capture what a CSAT score represents for different customers. While it provides a general sense of satisfaction, CSAT often lacks the context needed to understand the unique factors shaping each customer’s opinion.

CSAT is a symptom—not a diagnosis.

While CSAT scores provide a quick snapshot of customer satisfaction, they’re just one piece of the puzzle. CSAT indicates whether something is working or not, but it doesn’t explain why. It’s a valuable starting point, but relying on it alone won’t offer the in-depth understanding needed to address underlying issues. To get a fuller picture, it’s important to pair CSAT with other customer experience metrics, such as Net Promoter Score (NPS) and customer effort score (CES).

How else can companies measure customer satisfaction?

Beyond CSAT, companies can leverage other KPIs to gain a more complete understanding of customer satisfaction. For example, Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures how likely customers are to recommend your business to others. Most NPS surveys ask the question: “How likely are you, on a scale of 0 to 10, to recommend our brand/product/service?” Responses are then scored on an index ranging from -100 to 100. 

While both CSAT and NPS are measurements of customer sentiment, they are very different in practice. The first major difference between the two is that NPS has a very defined process and measurement trademarked by specific organizations, while CSAT is a more general concept. This is apparent in the guidelines (or lack thereof) for each. For instance, NPS is a registered trademark — there is a standard customer survey question to ask when measuring it. CSAT, on the other hand, is fluid.

The second major difference is in what the two values measure. NPS typically measures customer loyalty to a brand. In contrast, CSAT scores are strictly a measurement of customer happiness. This means that while CSAT scores can help predict customer churn, they can’t predict customer retention the way NPS scores usually can.

Another helpful KPI is the customer effort score (CES). CES measures how easy it is for customers to solve problems, like getting support or using your product. If something feels too hard or takes too long, a low CES score tells a company it needs to make improvements for a smoother customer experience.

How should companies measure CSAT in a contact center?

Contact centers frequently interact with customers, making CSAT surveys essential for assessing service quality. These surveys are typically delivered immediately after a call ends, either by phone, email, or even SMS for a faster, low-friction option.

Another way is to ask customers to rate their satisfaction after a case or ticket is closed. Unlike the first use case where the survey is sent as soon as the call is over, the CSAT survey gets sent out after the customer’s issue is resolved. In this instance, the customer rates their satisfaction with how their inquiry was handled from the first to the last contact.

CSAT is a particularly good fit for contact centers due to its versatility. Contact center managers can tailor the CSAT survey question in various ways to pinpoint areas they suspect may cause frustration for callers. For example, questions can be general, like “How satisfied are you with the help you received?” or more specific, such as “How satisfied are you with your wait time during your call today?”

Companies should consider these CSAT best practices:

• Keep CSAT measurement and analysis consistent. Ask the same survey question at the same point in the customer journey every time. Consistency ensures you’re accurately tracking trends in satisfaction over time.

• Use targeted survey questions. Design questions that address specific elements of the customer experience, like wait times or agent behavior, and use clear, unambiguous language to get reliable results.

• Collect other customer satisfaction KPIs for comparison. Combine CSAT data with metrics like NPS and CES to get a more complete view of customer satisfaction and loyalty.

• Compare CSAT data with customer sentiment data. Leverage sentiment analysis tools to identify emotional cues and deeper trends in customer feedback.

• Improve responsiveness to customer dissatisfaction. Set up keyword-based sensors, such as Talkdesk CX Sensors™, to trigger alerts when customers use negative language. This allows agents to address problems in real time and improve the customer experience.

It’s also important to share the insights gained from CSAT measurement beyond the contact center. Company-wide reports ensure that stakeholders, sales teams, and decision-makers understand the customer feedback and can use it to drive improvements across the organization. AI tools can help streamline this process and provide actionable insights for the entire business.

Maximize CSAT scores with Talkdesk Feedback.

Maximizing CSAT scores is crucial to business growth, and Talkdesk Feedback can help businesses achieve it. It’s an intuitive platform for gathering and analyzing customer feedback, helping to pinpoint areas of improvement and celebrate successes.

With Talkdesk Feedback, companies can engage with customers better, understand their needs, and tailor services to meet their expectations. This tool makes it easy to turn every customer interaction into a learning opportunity and deliver exceptional customer experiences consistently.

Don’t just meet customer expectations—exceed them. Learn more about Talkdesk Feedback today and take the first step towards boosting CSAT scores and driving business growth.