You’re having trouble measuring customer satisfaction. How can you find out what’s going wrong?

The first step is to deploy robust CSAT measurement tools including tools for sentiment analysis across the key stages of the path to purchase. This ensures consistency in collection of satisfaction levels. Over time, this data will contribute in setting objective benchmarks and a panoramic view of customer satisfaction on attributes vital to the customers. With this comprehensive insight at your disposal, you will be better placed to make targeted improvements in areas where satisfaction may be lacking. Regular analysis of CSAT data enables you to make timely interventions to improve processes, ensuring agility and responsiveness in meeting customer needs.

What are the key touchpoints that make a difference in the customer journey - where does it really hurt and make the biggest impact? do as if you are the customer and make a test run (as authentically as possible). If you are not geting enough insight talk to your customers - choose a representative sample of your customers and customers that are critical (without being negative as default) to gather as much insight as possible. learn from it.

To identify issues, delve into customer feedback verbatims as a priority versus just considering the score. These are authentic accounts of experiences and sentiments shared through surveys, reviews, and interactions. Analyse verbatims using tools to spot recurring themes and sentiments, categorising feedback into topics like product quality and customer service. Contextualise verbatims within the customer journey to address root causes effectively. Integrate verbatim analysis with quantitative metrics like NPS for a comprehensive view. Implement a closed-loop feedback system to respond to verbatims actively. Continuous monitoring and iteration are vital for staying responsive to evolving customer needs.

From my experience in the consumer goods industry, it's crucial to remember that while metrics like NPS, CSAT, and CES are valuable, they don't provide a holistic view of customer satisfaction. They often overlook the emotional aspects of the customer experience, which can be a significant driver of customer loyalty and retention. Therefore, it's essential to complement these metrics with qualitative feedback methods such as customer interviews or focus groups for a more comprehensive understanding.

While some of these scores may work for a general idea, they don't get to the heart of the issue and may, themselves, be the problem. Utilizing a more extensive feedback strategy with more in depth questions and benchmarks for each question will have a greater impact. Also, ensuring you have historical data to measure trends or differences that can be attributed to specific touch points and/or timelines such as a capital improvement, turnover with staff, maintenance issue, etc will help not just measure, but understand the data.

The type of questions you ask your customers can significantly impact the quality of feedback you receive. It's crucial to balance open-ended and closed-ended questions to get quantitative and qualitative insights. Also, timing is critical. For instance, asking for feedback immediately after a service experience can yield more accurate responses. Lastly, remember that feedback is about identifying what's wrong and what's working well to reinforce those positive aspects.

Listening to customers is a crucial step in customer retention. However, it's equally important to ensure that the feedback collected is acted upon. In my experience, customers appreciate when their suggestions are implemented, as it shows that the company genuinely values their input. Furthermore, resolving complaints and identifying opportunities for improvement and innovation based on customer feedback is not just about resolving complaints. This proactive approach can significantly enhance the consumer experience and foster loyalty.

In my experience, implementing changes based on customer feedback is crucial for customer retention. It's about making changes and effectively communicating these changes to customers to show that their feedback is valued. In the consumer goods industry, this could mean improving product features, enhancing after-sales service, or even revising warranty policies. The key is to create a feedback loop that promotes continuous improvement and customer engagement.

This is the most important step. If you are using the right type of surveys that ask in-depth questions, and get into specifics rather than generic "how are you feeling on a scale of 1-5", implementing them at the right touch points, and regularly reviewing and analyzing the data for trends and outliers, then you should be able to clearly identify common problem areas and work as a team to make necessary changes. Whether it's a large project or simply training team members when improvement is needed, the #1 thing is communication with your residents. Notify them about changes you are implementing, whether now or in the future, so that they know you've heard them and are working towards a solution - it will make all the difference.

Listen to employees. Without employees, you have no customer experience. Do they have the tools, resources, and training to do their jobs and to serve their customers the way they deserve to be served? Are the policies outdated or processes broken? Do they know what it means to deliver a great experience Were they trained on what that means?

In my experience, customer retention is not a one-time effort but a continuous process. It's about creating a customer experience that exceeds expectations at every touchpoint. Regularly reviewing metrics is essential, but it's equally important to understand the story behind the numbers. Listening to customers and implementing changes based on their feedback is critical, but it's also vital to proactively anticipate their needs and preferences. This proactive approach can often differentiate between a satisfied customer and a loyal advocate for your brand.