In the sales industry, the topic of customer satisfaction research is discussed at every meeting. However, in order not to feel in the dark, it is worth using professional techniques - the CSI indicator, and in fact its measurement, is one of them.
According to American Express data, the average woman will tell ten people about a negative experience in a store. Man - twenty-one! No wonder everyone in the sales industry is so chasing after good customer service. The most seasoned marketers use CSI to measure their customer satisfaction.
What is the CSI Index?
Are you satisfied with your purchase? - such a question is not enough to find out the whole truth. The CSI, i.e. Customer Satisfaction Index, measures satisfaction on many levels, such as:
- the importance of individual aspects during the purchase,
- meeting customer expectations,
- fulfillment of requirements,
- professionalism of employees,
- satisfaction with the services.
Are you wondering how to increase the satisfaction of your customers?
Let me help you!
If you are interested in knowing the Net Promoter Score (synthetic indicator of health) in your company, then you also need to know the CSI indicator first. NPS is also measured by customer satisfaction. In addition to the CSI index, the Churn analysis and the TRI * M model are also used to measure the satisfaction of your target group. Each of them allows to collect slightly different conclusions, so they can be treated as complementary tools. However, the CSI indicator was considered the most important.
Stages of the Customer Satisfaction Index survey
CSI is measured in quantitative research. First, however, the correct initial assumptions are needed. You need to correctly define what actually proves customer satisfaction. Sometimes assumptions are made quickly or carelessly. After that, the most carefully conducted opinion polls will only yield irrelevant or imprecise results.
Fortunately, there are quite a few ready-made questions that you can use in your research. Construct your own questionnaire on their basis. You don't have to guess what factors are the most important for your clients. You can just ask them about it! After collecting the results, it is enough to summarize them and draw conclusions. Most often they are presented graphically. You will see what matters to your customers at a glance.
CSI in practice
Customer satisfaction can be measured precisely on a 0-10 scale, where 0 is completely dissatisfied and 10 is high satisfaction. Such a large range of the scale gives more reliable results than if there were only a few answers (very - medium - not at all). There is a general model that can tell you how satisfied your customers are based on your performance. It is not universal - you have to adjust it to the situation in which the company is located. However, it works well in most cases. The list proposed by R. Wolniak, B. Skotnicka-Zasadzień, in the work "Selected methods of customer satisfaction survey and supplier evaluation in organizations", is as follows:
- 0‒40% Very bad - customer extremely dissatisfied
- 40‒60% Bad - Customer dissatisfied
- 60‒75% Medium - There are some issues with customer satisfaction
- 75‒90% Good - There are few issues with customer satisfaction
- 90‒100% Very good - customer satisfied to a high degree
In turn, the rating from 1 to 5 is the so-called Likert scale. Means less precise measurement, but can be more understandable to your customers. This scale is used in school and in numerous market studies, where the middle score is "hard to say" and the extreme values are either satisfaction or dissatisfaction. The 10-point scale is more subtle shades of emotions. If your customers don't like filling out questionnaires, it can be more difficult to persuade them to give their opinion with such a wide range of choices.
Which clients to research?
If you want to know the CSI, you don't need to ask for the opinion of all your customers. You don't even need to reach most of them! All thanks to the research sample that will be representative of the whole. For that to happen, you must of course choose the right one. They may be random people - such selection is also one of the methods of sampling. Read first what the differences between the different methods of selecting a research sample are, and what you need to be careful about.
Sometimes the sample apparently consists of a "cross-section" of customers. In fact, it is not a representative group and you will get results that are not entirely reliable. The sample size depends on the scale of your business. It may be several or several thousand people. If you run a niche business (e.g. a specialized online store), even collecting results from ten people can bring you important conclusions.
Most often, the CSI will be tested as an average value from all the areas studied. However, it is also worth asking about individual features of the product or service. This makes it easier to plan for improvements. Problems that are less important to your customers can be resolved last. The most burning - right away. Thanks to this, you will quickly increase customer satisfaction.
When is it worth knowing the CSI?
The CSI is measured in the same way for B2B as it is for individual customers. Although a company is an entire organization with hundreds or thousands of people, the decisions are made by only a few of them. Thanks to this tool, you can ask contractors for satisfaction. This will help prevent problems from escalating and keep customers with you. The CSI indicator will come in handy for you as part of the marketing audit - you will know what level your company is starting from and what can be improved. You are working on customer lifetime value? Then you also need to constantly increase the satisfaction of your customers. If your CSI is high, use the result in your PR campaign. "Most of our customers rate customer service at 10" or "Our customers are more satisfied than the competition" - these will not be empty slogans, but facts supported by research.
If you need help improving CSI in your company, take advantage of our bespoke business solutions, such as B2B marketing or aimed at retail customers. Checkhow we can help you grow your business.