Measuring Customer Satisfaction

Measuring customer satisfaction and taking appropriate action in response to the "voice of the customer" is critical to enhancing customer retention, providing responsive service and support, and improving customer loyalty. Our staff is expert in identifying how to measure customer satisfaction among b2b or b2c relationships, and can provide full-service design and administration for all types of customer satisfaction surveys.

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How to Measure Customer Satisfaction Using Customer Satisfaction Surveys

The first step in effective customer satisfaction management is to thoroughly understand the relationship between the customer and the vendor / supplier. This process should include an analysis of the similarities and differences between the channels in which goods and services are provided, and identifying the key attributes that define the business dynamic within each channel.

As part of measuring customer satisfaction, it is also important to review data from recent client satisfaction surveys with particular emphasis on open-ended comments, as customer comments can elicit highly useful information in the development of new questions or topics. At the same time, conversations with key personnel should drill down on each aspect of the customer relationship from both a sales and support perspective, and define how to measure customer satisfaction. All of this information can then be reviewed in evaluating the best approach for customer satisfaction management using attributes narrowly defined for a given vendor and its business processes.

Correlating attribute ratings with overall customer satisfaction is often referred to as measuring "derived importance" or identifying the "key drivers" of overall customer satisfaction. As this description suggests, a common statistical technique used for customer satisfaction measurement is called "correlation analysis." However, more advanced statistical techniques, such as "factor analysis" and "multiple regression analysis," can also be used to help further understand the relationships between various attributes and overall client satisfaction. Typically, the attributes that are most strongly related to overall client satisfaction or customer loyalty are considered top priority when changes / enhancements are planned. The impact of these changes / enhancements can then be examined when comparing and measuring customer satisfaction in subsequent survey administrations.

How to Measure Customer Loyalty as Part of Customer Satisfaction Surveys

Another type of measurement that may be of interest for a research program relates to customer loyalty. Typically, customer loyalty surveys are conducted as part of a program measuring customer satisfaction rather than as a standalone questionnaire. For example, as part of a broader feedback questionnaire, customers could simply be asked how likely they are to continue using a vendor and/or to recommend the vendor to others.

Although customer loyalty is often strongly related to customer satisfaction, this is not always the case. It is possible that some highly satisfied customers could still express disloyalty (or those less than highly satisfied could still remain loyal), and it is important to understand how often and why this may occur.

In some cases, especially when tracking results over multiple survey "waves," we recommend constructing a "Satisfaction and Loyalty Index." This would be a "weighted" combination of the specific attribute ratings, where the amount of "weight" assigned to each attribute in the index depends on how strongly the attribute correlates with both overall client satisfaction and customer loyalty.

Analysis of the attribute ratings can help to pinpoint particular areas of strength or weakness, and can provide the insights needed to help decision-makers prioritize attributes and gauge how much need / room there is for improvement. For example, customer feedback might indicate that responsiveness of customer service personnel is very strongly "correlated" with overall satisfaction. That is, customers satisfied (dissatisfied) with the responsiveness of service personnel may be much more likely (less likely) to be satisfied overall.

Amplitude Research has 20+ years of experience in measuring customer satisfaction for all types of customer feedback surveys and is expert in statistical data analysis. Our statistical services team conducts the data analysis needed to maximize the insights gained from the research, and can deliver a management-friendly PowerPoint report of key findings.