Definition: Metric measuring immediate customer satisfaction with a specific interaction, product, or service through point-in-time numerical scale surveys.
— Source: NERVICO, Product Development Consultancy
What Is CSAT
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) is a metric that measures the degree of customer satisfaction with a specific experience, interaction, or product. Unlike NPS, which evaluates overall loyalty, CSAT captures satisfaction at a specific moment, making it an ideal tool for evaluating processes such as onboarding, a support interaction, or a newly launched feature.
How It Works
Measurement is performed through a direct question such as “How would you rate your satisfaction with this service?” with a scale of 1 to 5 or 1 to 10. CSAT is calculated as the percentage of positive responses (typically 4-5 on a 5-point scale) over total responses. For example, if 80 out of 100 respondents answer 4 or 5, the CSAT is 80%. Surveys are sent immediately after the interaction being evaluated to capture the user’s fresh perception.
Key Use Cases
- Evaluating support quality after each interaction with the customer service team
- Measuring satisfaction with new features during the first weeks after launch
- Tracking the onboarding experience to identify friction points in the process
- Comparing satisfaction across different communication channels or service teams
Advantages and Considerations
CSAT provides immediate and actionable feedback on specific experiences, enabling rapid identification of improvement areas. Its simplicity generates high response rates compared to more extensive surveys. As a limitation, it only captures moment-in-time satisfaction and does not predict future customer behavior. Combining it with loyalty metrics like NPS and effort metrics like CES is recommended for a complete view of customer experience.