How to measure customer satisfaction

Businesses can score their customer satisfaction using a CSAT calculator or formula. If using the formula method, use one of two formulas (composite or detailed) to calculate CSAT.

The basic process is as follows:

1. Send a survey using the right customer satisfaction survey questions. Businesses can typically collect these customer insights via a form, an email, or survey software.
2. Collect your responses and find the final CSAT value using a CSAT calculator, averaging your scores with a composite score formula or noting “satisfied” customer percentages with a detailed customer satisfaction score formula.

Using a CSAT calculator is the fastest, easiest way to find your composite or detailed scores.

Customer Satisfaction Surveys

You can measure customer satisfaction scores after any interaction. But for organisations that want to refine their approach, these are some events that may warrant a customer survey:

• When a customer makes a purchase
• After a customer service interaction or a sale
• Upon completion of the onboarding process
• After using a help centre resource

Businesses can also use customer satisfaction surveys to get feedback from consumers during the customer journey (sales process). Many companies do this after a sale, but you can complete a customer satisfaction survey after each stage in the customer journey.

• Discovery: When a customer first learns about your brand
• Evaluation: When a customer becomes interested in your brand and considers making a purchase.
• Purchase: When a customer buys your product or service
• Experience: When a customer engages with their purchase
• Retention: When a customer makes a repeat purchase

For the most accurate customer analytics, it’s always best to survey customers when an experience is fresh in their minds. Consider automating CSAT surveys by setting up triggers that go off when an interaction like agent support, a purchase, or onboarding occurs.

What is a good CSAT score?

Many industries consider a CSAT score between 75 and 85 per cent as good and a score above 90 per cent as exemplary, revealing exceptionally high customer trust and satisfaction. Of course, this number is subjective, so expectations may vary slightly between industries and individual businesses.

Regardless of your percentage, if your CSAT score increases over time, your team is doing something right. Continue to measure your business’s success by setting benchmarks and regularly tracking your progress.

Pros and cons of CSAT scores

Though satisfaction is a powerful metric that helps you understand your customers’ needs and wants, relying on CSAT scores has pros and cons. Let’s explore them further.

CSAT pros

• Brevity: Many surveys have one question, and users can submit their responses in two clicks.
• Higher response rate: Thanks to how brief these surveys are, as well as the human desire to share experiences, CSAT surveys often receive more submissions.
• Valuable feedback: CSAT surveys simplify finding trends, allowing businesses to catch problems early before customers churn or tell others about a negative experience.

Calculating CSAT scores helps all companies deliver good customer service by giving business leaders insight into any issues that may require attention.

CSAT cons

• Cultural bias: Consumers may vary their responses from extreme ratings (a score of one or five) to a more neutral rating (a score around 3) based on their worldview. For example, people from individualist cultures might rate more harshly, prioritising their self-interests, while people from collectivist cultures who aim to minimise conflict might rate less harshly.
• Non-response: It can be difficult to convince customers to fill out a CSAT survey, which can lead to a couple of issues. You either won’t have enough data, or customer responses won’t accurately reflect your customers because only certain demographics—like your most loyal and eager repeat customers—are participating.
• Unclear results: Since these CSAT surveys use a scale to measure customer opinions, responses are limited to numbers with no additional context. That number’s meaning is up to interpretation.

The right training and tools, coupled with transparency, can help reduce the blowback from any of these cons.

What to do with CSAT scores

By administering CSAT surveys, business leaders can evaluate buyers’ satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) with the company’s products, services and customer support. Here are a few useful ways to utilise CSAT score data:

• Conceptualise ideas to improve support interactions and protocols.
• Train agents on communication, professionalism and best practice.
• Improve your offerings and message to improve public perception.
• Identify opportunities for cross-selling and upselling.
• Encourage repeat purchases.

Above all, it’s important to use customer service metrics like CSAT scores to continuously improve CX so the metrics keep climbing higher.

How to improve your CSAT score

To achieve a better score, try out one of the following tactics to create change and impress customers.

• Leverage AI: With AI, you can speed up customer service to shorten wait times with better self-service options. You can also empower customers to resolve problems without a human agent while creating engaging customer interactions. And customers expect you to do this—the Zendesk CX Trends Report 2025 found that 81 percent of customers see AI as a part of modern customer service.
• Invest in agent training and tools: Before your agents can create memorable and positive customer experiences, you must prepare them with training, onboarding, and frictionless customer service software.
• Be transparent about wait times: Even with the help of time-saving tools like Zendesk AI, support agents need time to answer questions, consult with their team and, in some cases, gather more contextual information. Be clear about wait times and use tools like AI agents to step in immediately and reduce frustration. This can also help deal with angry customers and turn around their experiences.
• Offer self-service opportunities: Improve customer experiences by offering more knowledge base resources, which make it easy and convenient for customers to problem-solve any issues or answer any queries on their own. And since help centres are available around the clock, customers can get the information they need at any time.

Unless your CSAT score sits at 100 per cent, there’s room for improvement—try these tips to watch your CSAT levels rise higher.

Frequently asked questions

How are CSAT scores different from NPS and CES?

CSAT, CES, and NPS are the most commonly used customer satisfaction metrics because they’re straightforward and offer actionable insights. There are a few differences between them:

• Customer Satisfaction (CSAT): Measures a customer’s satisfaction with your company, service, or product.
• Customer Effort Score (CES): Measures how easy it is for a customer to use your product or get answers.
• Net Promoter Score (NPS): Measures a customer’s willingness to recommend your product or service.

While each KPI has its advantages, they're most useful to businesses that compare data to contextualise responses, providing a well-rounded view of customers’ feelings about – and interactions with – the company.

What are the best channels for collecting CSAT feedback?

The best channels for collecting CSAT feedback include in-app surveys, email surveys, SMS surveys, live chat surveys, and social media monitoring. Creating customer surveys is a key facet of collecting CSAT feedback—the more channels you monitor for feedback, the more comprehensive your knowledge of your customer satisfaction levels will be.

How can I encourage customers to give feedback?

There are several ways to encourage customers to give feedback, including making it easier to do so with convenient options, offering incentives for giving their opinions, and showing them that their feedback is valued. You can also use social media to spotlight customer testimonials and entice new customers to provide their own feedback.

What’s the best way to analyse CSAT data effectively?

The best way to analyse and measure customer satisfaction effectively is to use various methods, including statistics from surveys, context from feedback, and AI-sourced information on how customers feel about your company and interactions with them. AI can analyse customer sentiment and give insights into metrics like satisfaction levels without needing to prompt them for feedback, giving you a hassle-free way to gauge customers’ feelings.

Let your customers tell you what they want

Create a customer-centric organisation by asking for consumer feedback often and implementing it whenever possible. This seemingly minor action can yield insights that boost satisfaction, improve CX, reduce customer churn, and even save your company money on operational costs.

Businesses should use customer service platforms like Zendesk to effortlessly calculate CSAT scores and make data-driven decisions that improve the overall customer experience.

Net Promoter, Net Promoter Score, and NPS are trademarks of NICE Satmetrix, Inc., Bain & Company, Inc., and Fred Reichheld.