A customer turns to be a loyal customer only when they are happy about the product or service they received from a company. And in today's’ market where the competition in every field is at its peak having loyal customers matter. The effort and cost required to gain the confidence of a new customer are nearly ten times higher than keeping an old one. Thus, companies must make sure that even after the sales is made, there is enough effort put in by the employees of the firm to see that the satisfaction of the customers goes on.

The CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) is used by businesses to understand and measure their customer relationship status with their customers. This is a performance indicator whose main work is to measure what is the level of support that is experienced by a customer satisfies their expectation. Whenever a customer is requested to stay on call after a phone conversation with a customer service representative and offers a rating on a scale of one to ten, on the quality of interaction the response is recorded for Customer Satisfaction Score calculation.

From a CRM software that tracks the entire customer journey to a virtual PBX system that handles calls, why — why, even a ticketing system can contribute to improving your CSAT score.

Seven steps that will help to boost the CSAT score of a company by improving contact centre performance

Giving hope to the customers

Whenever a person contacts a customer support centre through emails or calls, they do so with the hope to get their issues resolved and questions answered. The person hopes that something positive will happen. Quality customer support starts by telling the customer that his or her question will be answered and that they are happy to receive the call or mail. This is followed by asking few questions to the customers like their name, id number, phone number, etc. However, there are few companies whose customer supports starts by asking these questions like name, zip code, account number, etc. to their caller customer. This often irritates the customer even more and their hope to get the questions answered or problem resolved diminishes. The customers contact the customer support generally when they face any problem and therefore want the representatives to listen to them with patience. They feel like the company cares about their feeling.

Listen to the customers actively

Companies must train their customer care representatives to listen actively to their customers. This, however, does not mean simply paying attention to every word of a customer. Listening to the customers is important, but the representatives must also establish a bond with them. A representative must understand what a customer is feeling like whether he or she is angry, happy, concerned or frustrated talking on the call. When the representative can hear the feelings of a customer, it makes the individual feel comfortable. Before asking further questions, the representatives must summarize the call of a particular customer. This makes a huge difference as it cements the relationship. Lastly one can ask whether a customer has any other questions to ask this makes them feel valuable and proves that the representative is in no hurry.

Invite the customers to contact again

At the end of a conversation, the associates must invite the customers to return with any query. This makes customers feel that there is someone to support and help whenever they are in need. This effort is appreciated by them and makes them feel comfortable.

Having knowledge about the company and its services and products

Customers tend to trust those representatives who are knowledgeable and answer accurately to their questions. Having higher employee turnover created a negative impact on client satisfaction irrespective of training the associates well. Nowadays lots of information is available over the internet especially on the company sites still if a customer is calling, then the problem must be even more complicated in most cases. A company must be wise enough to hold on to their knowledgeable associates and not let them join their competitor.

Avoid using the word ‘no.’

The customer representatives must share company policies with their clients in a positive way and avoid using a no as it affects loyalty. When one does have to use the word ‘no’ it must not be done on the spot rather one must say he is checking with the supervisor or is researching about the issue or any other similar thing. They must try their level best to solve the issue. Then even if they call back the customer with a negative response, their efforts will be appreciated.

Refer to customers with their name

Customers appreciate when they are recognized as a person and not as a number. Thus, customers representatives must not use the customer ID to refer to a customer rather use their name in both written and verbal conversations.

Employing sensible CSAT

Over surveying the customers are not required; rather taking complete feedback is necessary from any customer. The contact centre will be able to prepare an accurate CSAT assessment if the survey questions contain 10 to 15 genuine queries. The companies must take in advice from their customers and learn to improve.

Final word

Collecting answers to the CSAT assessment questions without proper reason is a waste of time. Thus, completing a survey is important for accurate measuring of CSAT. In order to have a large number of loyal and happy customers, a company must know the right way to use and gain Customer Satisfaction Score.