Can’t Get No Satisfaction
I got a C in Physics, but I believe the 5th law of Thermodynamics is that it’s cheaper to keep customers than get new ones. Customer Satisfaction is what every contact center aspires to cultivate and manage, but getting an accurate assessment can be challenging.
Greg Levin writes, “A comprehensive transaction-based customer satisfaction (C-Sat) measurement process is essential for any organization hoping to keep its finger on the pulse of customer sentiment.” Common sense tells us that unhappy customers are not going to stay around long, and that unhappy customers are much more likely to talk about bad experiences than good ones. We need to get a gauge of customer satisfaction- generally defined as a state where a product, service, or organization meets customer expectations.
Are we meeting our customers’ expectations? What should we measure? Here are a few of the possible dimensions:
- Quality of service
- Speed of service
- Pricing
- Complaints or problems
- Trust in your employees
- The closeness of the relationship with contacts in your firm
- Types of other services needed
- Your positioning in clients’ minds
Returncustomer.com suggests that the best way to gather data is to survey your customers. Getting people to spend extra time on a survey can be tricky. You don’t want to bother folks, so keep the survey short, definitely under 8 questions. And know that any response is better than none. A survey is an effective tool, but don’t forget the personal touch. When customers have complaints, a personal contact goes a long way towards soothing their pain. Their pain is almost always based in frustration, so it’s worthwhile to consider some small giveaway or freebie to make the customer remember they are your one true love and to make them forget they were mad. Keeping customers is always cheaper than signing new ones.
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