Brands with high levels of customer satisfaction invariably perform better in the long run. Did you know that 89 percent of customers are more likely to buy from you again after a positive customer service experience?
Traditionally, companies measure customer satisfaction with surveys. After all, what better way to find out what your audience thinks than to go to them directly?
Unfortunately, customer satisfaction surveys are problematic. Consumers don’t like filling them out and it’s easy to get biased responses. What’s more, many clients will be unwilling to give you their honest opinion, even if you promise anonymity.
The good news is that customer satisfaction marketing doesn’t require surveys. As we discuss in their article, there are other ways to learn what buyers think.
Why is customer satisfaction important?
The main benefit of customer satisfaction is that it increases retention.
Here are some data to back up this point:
- Existing customers have s 60 to 70% chance of buying from you again, while new prospects have only a 5 to 20% probability of converting
- Existing customers spend around 31% more than new customers
- About two-thirds of customers spend the majority of their money between 2.5 and 3 years into their relationship with you, not in the first six months
The benefits of customer satisfaction go beyond retention, though. Figuring out why clients are happy with you can help improve your business overall. You can use feedback to identify weaknesses in your customer satisfaction model and where you need to improve.
How to measure customer satisfaction without surveys
Here, we present some tools to measure customer satisfaction that don’t require asking them questions directly.
1. Calculate Your Customer Lifetime Value
According to customer satisfaction theory, the more satisfied customers are with your products or services, the more likely they are to spend money with you in the future. Therefore, customer lifetime value (CLV) can be a good indicator of the health of your relationships with your customers, on average. If CLV goes down over time, it suggests you’re doing something wrong. If it goes up, it suggests you’re doing something right.
To calculate CLV, you’ll need to calculate the present value of the customer’s future spending and subtract the cost of acquisition. For instance, you might calculate the total value of your relationship with them as £20,000 over a lifetime after applying a 5% discount rate. If the cost of acquisition is £2,000, then CLV is £18,000.
If your business hasn’t been around long enough to collect lifetime data, don’t worry. Just take your customers’ current average yearly spend and then multiply it by the likely length of their relationship with you. Remember, if you apply a discount factor, the present value of longer relationships declines.
2. Net Promoter Score
There are many types of customer satisfaction approaches, some of which don’t require long surveys. One of these is the Net Promoter Score (NPS).
NPS attempts to uncover customer loyalty through a single question. Here’s an example:
“Based on your experience with us, how likely are you to recommend our services to a friend or colleague?”
Users then click a number between 0 and 10, indicating how likely they are to suggest other people use your services. According to the customer satisfaction measurement model, customers who award 9-10 are “promoters” and are highly likely to refer you to other potential buyers. Those who score 7-8 are “passives”, meaning that they are content with your services, but probably won’t recommend you to others. And those who award 0-6 points are usually “detractors,” meaning that they may damage your brand’s reputation. If your NPS goes up over time, then customer satisfaction may also be improving.
3. Churn Rate
Lastly, you may want to learn how to measure customer satisfaction using churn rate. This metric tells you the rate at which people are abandoning your brand.
To calculate the church rate, you can apply the following formula:
Customer churn = the number of customers who haven’t bought from you for 12 months/average number of customers during those 12 months
Research suggests that savings from reducing churn rates are substantial. Cutting it by as little as 5% could increase profits by 25 to 125%.
Firms can reduce churn rates by:
- Improving customer service provision, providing agents who are empathetic and understand your audience’s language
- Rewarding customers for their loyalty regularly by offering benefits and bonuses
- Providing automated self-service channels for customers who want them
Summary
Companies that measure customer satisfaction can improve their business models and avoid failure. However, you don’t have to use surveys. Simply metrics can give you a compelling overview of your customers’ opinion of you. You can then tailor your response depending on their demographic.