There are dozens of factors that contribute to the success (or failure) of a business, and customer satisfaction is one of them.
Tracking this indicator is essential to making your customers more loyal and eventually turning them into brand ambassadors .
The fact is, customer satisfaction is a broad concept, and really knowing its meaning and what it's for can be a bit confusing at first.
The importance of customer satisfaction is a fundamental part, as it complements indicators of loyalty, effort and satisfaction, and together, they form the customer experience , which will be the main competitive advantage of companies from now on.
What is customer satisfaction?
Customer satisfaction goes beyond a simple concept. It's a crucial indicator that, when properly monitored, fosters loyalty and transforms customers into brand advocates. Understanding its significance is crucial to business success.
Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller define satisfaction as the " feeling of pleasure or disappointment resulting from comparing the product's expected performance with expectations ." It is the customer's perception when comparing the purchased product or service with their expectations.
In other words, satisfaction is perceived by the consumer when they acquire a certain product or service and can compare it with their expectations (or with products and services that promise the same sensation).
If the feeling doesn't satisfy him, he will be dissatisfied, consequently creating a bad experience when he remembers your brand.
In various sectors of society, we still face some serious problems related to this issue of satisfaction, simply because we do not have a direct channel of communication with the public.
This is quite alarming, even with the advancement of technology and management processes, customer satisfaction , since it began to be recognized as a competitive differentiator, has not been taken seriously by most companies and organizations.
Remember this:
One unhappy customer can start a fire that spreads much faster than your marketing or customer service department can put it out.
And for you, what matters at the end of the day?
If you answered “keep my clients happy” or “deliver results,” you’re on the right track.
The truth is that recent years have shown that the world has evolved very rapidly. We've moved from the product era to the process era, and we're now entering the information age.
And finally moving towards a historical moment in which all that will matter will be human relationships , in any field, including business.
Therefore, customer satisfaction is, or should be, one of the main concerns of any company. After all, a satisfied customer is a brand's best advertisement.
Furthermore, it multiplies your communication efforts, recommending your product or service to friends and acquaintances. But where does all this come from?
A little history about customer satisfaction
First of all, we must understand one thing: how did this term originate? Why customer satisfaction become a real demand for companies, and why did they begin to be measured by it?
The initial study on customer evaluation and satisfaction with companies dates back to the 1960s, which coincides with the period in which consumer behavior began to be explored in depth.
This was primarily driven by the dramatic increase in consumer goods and services. As they became more widely distributed, quality began to decline, and more consumers reported problems, creating a climate of general dissatisfaction at the time.
Customer Satisfaction Index measurement , as we know it today, had its origins a little before the 1980s.
In the 2000s we had a change!
With the turn of the millennium and the digital revolution, new ways of collecting, analyzing, and applying data emerged. This expanded the possibilities and methods for measuring customer satisfaction and other important metrics.
It was in this decade, in 2007, that the National Consumer Satisfaction Index , developed by ESPM .
The index is based on the American Customer Satisfaction Index in the United States and also aims to contribute as an indicator for the Brazilian economy.
Another index that emerged in the 2000s, and which is now widely used by different types of companies, is the famous NPS (Net Promoter Score) , developed by Fred Reichheld and presented for the first time in 2003.
From there, several research metrics emerged that are being used worldwide and that help thousands of companies around the world.
Thus, the turn of the millennium represented such significant changes in customer satisfaction that it finally became the center of all relationships . And those who don't understand its importance may soon find themselves out of the business game.
The trend of customer satisfaction and experience in the coming years:
- 89% of customers say customer experience is important to their purchasing decision. (Zendesk, 2022)
- 83% of customers trust recommendations from people they know: colleagues, family, friends, etc., and 66% trust other consumer opinions posted online. (Nielsen, 2015)
- 70% of customers will leave a company after a single negative experience. (American Express, 2018)
- Brazilian companies lose approximately R$1.6 trillion annually due to customer dissatisfaction. (Study by the National Confederation of Commerce of Goods, Services and Tourism, 2021)
- 65% of Brazilians say they have stopped buying from a company because of poor service. (American Express Survey, 2023)
The numbers don't lie. I imagine by now, it's clear that these figures are alarming. If you don't have any mechanism to gather customer feedback to help you figure out how to improve your business, you're wasting time and money.
Be sure to listen and evolve your business frequently, stay competitive and attentive to customer needs.
Ensuring the success and satisfaction of your company's customers is no easy task, but it is a factor that can guarantee the success of your brand in this competitive market.
How do I know my customer's satisfaction?
#1 Be alert to capture everything
Your development and marketing teams did a great job. You have an innovative product that people need, at a fair price. Or at least, that's what you think.
If this is not your customer's perception, your opinions or the quality of your product are useless.
Tip 1: Conduct research to better understand your customers and, consequently, your business before actually launching it on the market.
After the marketing department has taken charge of attracting customers and bringing your product to them, positioning and promoting it, you now need to know if the public is satisfied with the product delivered.
Tip 2: Seek external and internal information to obtain relevant market data.
To achieve this, always have accessible and varied feedback channels, such as a contact phone number, email, social media, and customer service. It's also important to have a qualified after-sales team, whose main objective is to verify the effect of the transaction—that is, whether customer satisfaction was achieved.
#2 Let's get to work!
There's a marketing adage that says a customer who goes to a diner, buys a pastel, and leaves without any problems will only remember the pastel. A customer who goes to a diner, buys a pastel that isn't satisfactory, but receives a solution from the salesperson, will remember the store. Sometimes, a negative experience can be a great opportunity to imprint a positive perception in the consumer's mind.
Tip 3: Work with tools that give you this information in real time to resolve customer issues as quickly as possible.
So, as we saw in the first step, your customer's perception of your product may not be the same as yours or your marketing team's. Now that we've established a series of communication channels to listen to our customers, prepare to learn some painful truths.
Tip 4: The importance of negative feedback.
No one likes to hear that their work is worse than they thought, but this negative feedback is even more important than praise . Based on criticism, your company can rethink its course of action and identify unseen flaws in the process, whether in product quality, customer service , or even more subjective details like simple customer satisfaction. After all, what can't be measured, can't be improved .
Tip 5: Keep in mind that you need to act on the information gathered
After receiving and analyzing the survey data, the real work begins. This step is crucial to close the loop with customers, so they understand what led to their dissatisfaction and the company can identify the cause so it doesn't happen to other customers.
Tip 6: Sometimes companies are spending a lot of money on some marketing strategy and their customer isn't even involved.
Every day, thousands of customers dissatisfied with defective products or frustrated expectations contact company customer service, only to be greeted by disinterested and untrained representatives. Countless Facebook pages and websites like Reclame Aqui amass stories of people with simple problems that are ignored by companies. Therefore, always be accessible to your customers, providing solutions and realistic deadlines.
Tip 7: Having a single, exclusive channel with the customer prevents you from tarnishing your reputation online with problems that can be resolved.
As a result, that customer who worked so hard to win over slips through your fingers and goes shopping at a competitor, stopping along the way to tell their friends what a terrible experience they had.
Due to a simple lack of reaction, your company ended up wasting a free consultation and also turned someone who could promote your company into someone who will take every opportunity to “burn” your brand.
It takes 12 positive experiences to make up for 1 unresolved negative experience – Glance
#3 If you don't know, ask
We've already seen how important the first two steps are. Now for the bad news: Did you know that over 90% of dissatisfied customers don't speak up ?
After a negative experience, they silently decide they will never buy a certain product or set foot in a certain store again, and the business owner will never know why.
This is when feedback could serve as a basis for company improvements, and even to win back the customer .
To overcome this problem, companies must adopt a proactive approach and conduct customer satisfaction surveys . If your company doesn't already have this culture, it's time to change that!
Currently, the most widely used model for measuring customer satisfaction is the Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) , as it asks customers to rate their experiences and share open-ended comments about specific interactions.
Used widely by customer service teams, there are three major metrics for measuring customer experience : CSAT , NPS , and CES .
All three aim to elicit customer opinions in carefully designed surveys that aim to measure levels of customer satisfaction , loyalty , and .
Conclusion
As we've seen in this article, companies' lack of knowledge and understanding of their customers can significantly impact their ultimate satisfaction. Your brand's relationship with its products and services must be fully aligned with your customer's mindset.
In addition to this error, we can also say that a satisfaction survey will not provide any actionable data for your company. Not to mention that, depending on the timing of the application or lack of accuracy in the data, it can result in losses and high costs for your company.
What you need to know is that the basis of a successful satisfaction survey is based on a strategic approach that seeks to analyze a hypothesis or specific piece of data. This leads to a more coherent diagnosis, which can be used to inform decisions.
If you're ready to truly start putting customers first, look for a comprehensive tool with survey and satisfaction features that give you all the tools you need to fully measure your customer experience .
Furthermore, it is essential to have a specialized and committed team to achieve these results, focusing on a customer-centric culture .
