{"id":25279,"date":"2021-02-02T13:07:39","date_gmt":"2021-02-02T13:07:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/?p=25279"},"modified":"2023-02-08T14:17:57","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T14:17:57","slug":"beyond-csat-metrics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/beyond-csat-metrics\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond CSAT: How customer satisfaction metrics are changing"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week on Inside Intercom, we\u2019re focusing on customer satisfaction: how it\u2019s evolving, why that matters, and what you need to do about it.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re in the business of supporting customers, one measurement probably looms large over everything else: the customer satisfaction, or CSAT, score.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

CSAT has been the primary metric for gauging customer happiness for some time now, and is often used as the one all-encompassing number that translates whether your support team is performing or not into a cold, hard digit.<\/span><\/p>\n

But while understanding if you\u2019re meeting the needs of your customers is, of course, essential, it\u2019s becoming increasingly clear that CSAT \u2013 though still important \u2013 is <\/span>only giving you half the picture<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is particularly true as the role of support reps evolves. As frameworks like the <\/span>Conversational Support Funnel<\/span><\/a> enable you to optimize your resources by using bots and automation to <\/span>provide proactive customer support<\/span><\/a> and resolve the simpler queries, the humans on your team are left with the trickier (<\/span>but more rewarding<\/span><\/a>) task of solving complex technical and emotional problems.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As a result, CSAT scores can be disproportionately affected: for example, the increased complexity of these problems means they can take longer to work on, rendering metrics we <\/span>used<\/span><\/i> to rely on \u2013\u00a0like \u201ctime to resolve\u201d \u2013 less indicative of customer satisfaction. Instead, this shift in the role of the support rep highlights the need to <\/span>refocus your KPIs<\/span><\/a> to reflect the customer\u2019s <\/span>feelings <\/span><\/i>about the interaction, as well other factors like your own internal quality standards.<\/span><\/p>\n

So how do you start to rethink your customer satisfaction metrics? Well, even at a moment of evolution, you need to strike a <\/span>balance between customer satisfaction and operational efficiency<\/span><\/a>. Looking forward, support leaders see <\/span>automation as one of their biggest opportunities<\/span><\/a> for this: our research shows that companies are 4x more likely to see improvements in customer satisfaction with automation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to start looking beyond CSAT to see the bigger picture: one that accurately conveys <\/span>the value that your support team brings<\/span><\/a> to the business.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read the posts:<\/span><\/h2>\n