Why Every Customer Support Call Should Include CSAT and CES

Customer support agents help customers resolve issues with the extra goal of building brand loyalty. Supervisors track metrics like number of calls taken, number of issues resolved or average wait time, but they might not have the time to listen to every call recording to see where improvements are needed.

This is where Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) and Customer Effort Score (CES) come in. CSAT will quantify how satisfied customers are with a specific support experience. The question is tailored to get the customer’s immediate response. In addition to the CSAT survey, it’s also possible to allow customers to leave additional feedback.

CES will reveal how easy it is for customers to get their issue resolved. Companies should continuously optimize the support experience so the customer experience is effortless and does not create frustration.

Why measuring CSAT is important

Typically, the customer support experience will differ from industry to industry and business to business. Each support interaction may require a separate area of expertise from the agent. If the customer is having a technical problem, the agent needs to be able to explain the solution in an easy-to-understand way.

The opposite can also happen. If it’s a simple issue, like changing the address of an order and it takes too many steps, the customer might decide to stop purchasing because of that experience. Adding a CSAT survey at the end of the support experience can help collect data on where problems are happening.

Since these surveys can be associated to a specific agent, supervisors get visibility into satisfaction trends for that agent. An agent might be great at a specific type of support, but lacking in another. With this information, the agent can be given additional training or be assigned to support issues that are a better fit.

The same data, used at a team level, can show the quality of service over a period of time. This information helps supervisors properly manage teams and see where improvements can be made.

Why measuring CES is important

While it’s important to know how satisfied customers are with the support offered, finding out how easy it is for customers to solve problems is a complementary metric. Regardless of the issue, whether simple or complex, a company should strive to make the customer service journey effortless for the customer.

Knowing how much effort it takes for customers to solve issues can bring pain points to light and show supervisors where tools and workflows can be improved. For example, is IVR missing an option to cancel a subscription? Instead of having to contact a general help phone number, the IVR could lead to a self-service solution or route the customer to a queue with agents specialized in that issue.

CES surveys should be used to find out feedback on the customer support experience overall. Depending on the channel used, a customer can have different experiences and CES results can show places to improve like improved in-app contact options or better chat functions.

From that data, supervisors might want to drill down on a specific issue type to see why it is taking so much effort to solve the problem. The end goal is to have every customer respond that it was very easy to solve their problem. The solution might not be speaking to an agent, but getting the answer from a self-serve option.

Making the customer support experience as effortless as possible can help brands gain a lot of customer loyalty. When a customer consistently has a positive support experience, they will buy more and a repeat customer is valuable.

Where to implement CSAT and CES

Supervisors should determine which survey type they want customers to complete based on what they want to know. Multiple post interaction surveys is a bad idea.  A survey should be sent to all types of support calls from simple requests to complex and detailed support issues.

It may be useful to use the CES survey for complex issues and CSAT for more general requests. Both surveys have the potential to provide valuable data that can be used to improve a brand’s customer support strategy.

Customer feedback is invaluable in finding possible frustration points in the support journey, and CSAT and CES surveys are important tools gathering feedback around every interaction. Armed with direct input from customers, companies can continuously improve the experience and retain loyal customers–who turn into promoters.