Cus­tomer Satisfaction

Cus­tomer sat­is­fac­tion, or C-SAT, is used as a key per­for­mance indi­ca­tor of cus­tomer per­cep­tions and a strate­gic dif­fer­en­tia­tor in a com­pet­i­tive mar­ket­place. Orga­ni­za­tions of all types want their cus­tomers to be sat­is­fied.  How­ever, want­ing sat­is­fied cus­tomers and deliv­er­ing ser­vice that exceeds cus­tomer expec­ta­tions is not the same thing.  Here are three ele­ments that have a direct impact on cus­tomer satisfaction:

• Set­ting expec­ta­tions. Expec­ta­tions are the bench­mark against which cus­tomers gauge their own sat­is­fac­tion. To use an air­line anal­ogy, a cus­tomer pur­chas­ing a first class ticket may be dis­ap­pointed with busi­ness class ser­vice. Con­versely, a cus­tomer pur­chas­ing a coach ticket may be highly sat­is­fied with busi­ness class ser­vice.  Set­ting cus­tomer expec­ta­tions about the level of ser­vice they will receive—then exceed­ing these expectations—is a key ele­ment in main­tain­ing high cus­tomer sat­is­fac­tion ratings.
• Deliv­er­ing con­sis­tent ser­vice. Cus­tomer sat­is­fac­tion is also a func­tion of the con­sis­tency of ser­vice offered across mul­ti­ple touch points in the orga­ni­za­tion. Con­sis­tency refers to the process used to han­dle queries, the lan­guage used to inter­act with the cus­tomer, and how issues are esca­lated.  Get­ting con­sis­tency requires train­ing and coach­ing for front­line agents and man­agers across the orga­ni­za­tion. The ben­e­fits of the train­ing invest­ment are sat­is­fied cus­tomers, reorders, refer­rals, and increased revenue.
• Using pos­i­tive lan­guage.  Pos­i­tive lan­guage is one of the post pow­er­ful tools for increas­ing cus­tomer sat­is­fac­tion.  Let­ting cus­tomers know what you can do rather than what you can’t; empha­siz­ing the pos­i­tive ben­e­fits rather than the neg­a­tive; focus­ing on a solu­tion; these are all tech­niques to cre­ate a pos­i­tive atmos­phere around the cus­tomer inter­ac­tion. That pos­i­tive atmos­phere trans­lated directly into higher cus­tomer sat­is­fac­tion scores.

To ben­e­fit from these and many other cus­tomer sat­is­fac­tion improve­ment tech­niques, go directly to our cus­tomer sat­is­fac­tion skills pro­grams or call us at 800−545−9003 and ask about these world-class programs.