CSAT Surveys: Effectively Measuring Customer Satisfaction in Your Call Center

Customer satisfaction surveys, or CSAT surveys, are commonly used in call centers to meaningfully measure how customers feel about the service received post-call center interaction. There are many ways to collect this customer feedback. Selecting the right method can allow your team to increase response rates, helping you better understand the effectiveness of your call center team and improve the service level.

A quick refresher

The most straightforward way to measure CSAT is to ask the customer to rate their satisfaction with your service and/or product. A single question survey sent after a customer service interaction can ask the customer this:

How would you rate your satisfaction with our customer service team on a scale from 1 to 5?
1 is very unsatisfied, and 5 is very satisfied

CSAT scores can be gathered via email, text message, or even immediately after a phone interaction.

How are CSAT surveys sent?

CSAT surveys should be sent immediately after your customer interacts with a customer service agent as gathering timely feedback on the efficacy of your call center will help you collect the most accurate response and enable an effective feedback loop.

CSAT email surveys

If your customer has email address on file, sending a link to your online survey in the body of an email at the resolution of a case is a simple solution. However, remember you must grab your customer’s attention as they open their inbox, get them to read the email, and click through to complete your survey. There are many points to potentially lose the customer through this journey, so be sure to optimize your copy, email and survey design.

CSAT SMS surveys

Email inboxes are bombarded with online surveys. SMS is a direct, immediate alternative that allows you to target customers on the go. We’ve found sending surveys via SMS is the most effective method, resulting in a response rate of 25-30%. Automated surveys via SMS allow you to reach those customers that may not have an email address on file and are especially relevant for on-demand focused B2C businesses.

Getting set up to send SMS messages to your customers doesn’t require an investment in technology or training. There are solutions that will allow you to send the one-question CSAT survey directly in the body of your text message, requesting your customer to send their rating back via text message. These solutions can help automate sending surveys via SMS, and track open and click rates.

Interactive voice response CSAT phone surveys

Interactive voice response (IVR) is a technology that allows you to automate gathering information from your customer via voice and tones inputted via a phone’s keypad. In a call center, this is an obvious way to communicate a CSAT survey, post-call. Your call center agent can alert your customer, requesting they stay on the line for a brief survey. Since this can be done without the need to start a second interaction, it can be efficient. However, the response rate for IVR phone surveys is typically only 1-2%, so you are likely missing out on hearing feedback from the majority of your customers.

For more guidance on this topic, here are 12 best practices for creating effective call center IVR surveys.

Gathering CSAT scores in the most efficient and effective way will allow you to get an accurate pulse of your customer’s happiness — a worthy investment for the modern call center. This data provides results that help drive change and improvement across your team and your organization. If you would like to take a closer look at CSAT, we encourage you to check out this article on using CSAT to improve your call center.