SMART Goals to Maximize Customer Satisfaction

The way we set and measure goals are vital for the company’s success. However, business goals do not stop with meeting the customer's demands for your product. To become a brand that is trustworthy and has high recall value, it is important to understand the significance of customer satisfaction. Setting measurable and attainable goals for customer satisfaction is immensely crucial.?

For that, we need to get familiar with SMART goal setting and what it means. But first, let’s see why is customer satisfaction so crucial.?

Why is customer satisfaction relevant to achieving a company's success?

Customer satisfaction is the crux of a successful business. Setting clear #goals that allow you to track your customer's experience is the key to improving the customer’s journey with your brand. There are relevant metrics to track customer satisfaction such as the NPS, C-SAT, CES, retention rate, etc.

The level of customer satisfaction from such performance indicators measures how satisfied a customer is with a brand. You gain customer loyalty by creating a customer experience that resonates with the buyer. There is an increase in customer lifetime value and repeat purchases. Additionally, satisfied customers share their positive experiences, which helps the brand gain new customers. Today with a single click, customers can share a delightful experience with millions of people, and hence it is essential to measure positive customer feedback.

Understanding SMART Goals?

Goals serve as a benchmark for growth and must lead to customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction goals that are measurable create attainable expectations and results for the entire team. It makes the customer service team effective, enabling better customer retention and satisfaction. How can we accomplish this? By understanding S.M.A.R.T. goals that every team needs. It stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

S: Specific: The goal must focus on one particular problem area.

M: Measurable: There must be a clear method to measure your success via metrics.

A: Attainable: For a goal to be successful, it has to be attainable.

R: Relevant: The goal must apply to your company's mission and vision.

T: Time-bound: The goal has to have set timelines.

Attaining Customer Satisfaction through SMART goals??

Customer satisfaction can be measured broadly at two touch points: buying/purchase experience and customer service experience.

Focus on customer-centric metrics

True customer-centric organizations look for ways to focus internally on a set of measures to provide customers value for a lifetime. They identify and measure Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that define customer values. There are several ways to do this. Some useful customer service metrics that help monitor progress and change are;

• C-SAT Score (Customer Satisfaction Score): A valuable metric to measure customer happiness.
• NPS (Net Promoter Score): A market research metric that uses feedback surveys to measure customer happiness and the likelihood of customers recommending our brand to family and friends.
• CES (Customer Effort Score): An indication of how much effort is required by customers to reach the company.

Companies must keep the conversation with the consumer as an ongoing process to monitor brands' social presence. Regular surveys on the above metrics help to understand what customers feel about the brand. It targets areas of improvement to achieve higher customer satisfaction and ensures turning the customer into a brand ambassador.?

Quantify customer loyalty

In the world of marketing, customer loyalty refers to a transactional yet emotional relationship between you and your customers. This relationship is manifested by their willingness to continue engaging with you and buying from you over your competitors. Loyalty is the by-product of a customer’s positive experience with you and works to create trust.

Repeat purchases say a lot about customer satisfaction. If a customer purchases an item repeatedly, they are likely happy with the product. The result is a higher customer lifetime value and a higher likelihood that they will recommend the brand to their friends and colleagues.

Repeat frequency, customer lifetime value, and the average cost per order are all metrics that indicate customer satisfaction. For instance, if a particular product is sold in large numbers to repeat customers rather than new ones, it indicates a higher level of long-term customer satisfaction. Vis-a-vis a product that is popular only with first-time customers. We have seen that product #strategy and #business decisions can be influenced by these insights.

Focus on FCR (first contact resolution)

Have you ever contacted customer service support and been told that your issue is yet to be resolved? You are then forced to call back for a query resolution. This is an example of a company failing to meet the expectations of a first contact resolution. So, what is FCR? First Contact Resolution (FCR) is the ability of a company to resolve a customer query or complaint during their first interaction with the customer. It is an important support metric to track as it is the key driver of customer satisfaction. High FCR rates are usually linked with high levels of customer satisfaction. Whereas low FCR indicates that more-follow up calls have occurred for customer issues by service desk agents. It thus implies the efficiency and ability of the agents to resolve a customer's query without a need to follow up a second time.?

FCR is an important metric as you not only gain valuable customer insights but also remove unwanted customer frustrations. There is also a direct correlation between improvements in FCR to gains in operations costs, sales, churn, and hence overall operations optimization.

Improve customer service turnaround time?

When customers have problems, they need solutions as soon as possible. Average Response Time (ART) varies depending on the customer support channel, but faster responses are the norm. Whether via email, phone, social media, or live chat, provide your customers with the answers they need to resolve their problems as quickly as possible. Metrics can be applied to the team, such as.

?Team-level metrics:

• ?Average time to first response
• The average number of interactions per response
• Average handling time
• Overall resolution rate

?Agent Level metrics:

• ?Resolved cases per agent in a day
• Customer satisfaction levels per agent
• Number of customer interactions per agent

?No customer wants to talk or chat for a long time to get a resolution. A skilled customer service staff provides the fastest solution possible. However, while improving the resolution time, one must not compromise on #quality.

Set achievable targets for customer support staff

The key to a happy customer is happy customer service staff. For customer support agents, we must set achievable targets and provide consistent training, knowledge resources, and tools. Remember that customer-centric goals that are realistic will take your customer support team to the next level. This will ensure that every team member knows his expectations and customer service objectives. Don't forget to measure and revisit these objectives from time to time. Visions can only become a reality if we work together as a team.?

Promote customer self-service?

We need to create a habit-shifting customer behavior towards self-service from assisted service and to provide synergy. Permanently changing customer behavior in how they interact with brands isn’t new, like in the travel and banking sectors. With the #technology #innovation it moved from in-branch to telephone, to internet, and now mobile apps, with no encouragement. Customers naturally migrate to self-service portals if it is more convenient, faster, and easier for them. They will feel in control, less processed, and more valued. So, engage customers with a well-thought-out self-service digital channel and encourage them to embrace self-serve methods that make customers smile.

Create an omnichannel customer experience

When a company adopts an omnichannel strategy, it means that all customer touchpoints provide a seamless and consistent #customerexperience across multiple channels. This means that when a brand uses multiple communication channels such as emails, mobile apps, websites, social media, and more to engage customers, omnichannel marketing will let the customer hop from one channel to another and enjoy a holistic experience. For example, you can integrate desktop and mobile experiences and various social media platforms into a single omnichannel marketing strategy. A consistent omnichannel strategy captures and manages all customer interactions centrally, so the team is aware of correct resolutions.

Make customer service personalized & proactive rather than reactive?

Proactive customer service is all about making the first move to help customers with their needs and wants before they reach out. While reactive customer support is when the #customer has to reach out for support. In simple words, proactive customer support means anticipating customer problems in advance and resolving them. It also means providing supplemental support to enhance the customer experience time and again. Personalized customer service shifts the focus to the customer and is a game changer. It ensures that customer support meets clients' every expectation in advance and makes them feel special. Proactive and personalized support leads to loyal customers who become brand ambassadors in the long run.

Final Thoughts

We live in a customer-centric world where meeting customers' requirements are paramount to a company's success. Happy customers are the most significant brand differentiators these days. You can't do it without having proper ‘SMART Customer Satisfaction Goals’. The results will speak for themselves with an increase in customer loyalty and business revenue growth. However, setting up a long-term customer satisfaction strategy involves considering dynamic changes in customer expectations and is an ongoing process.

Hope this is helpful & would love to hear your views!