Why is customer satisfaction so important and how can you improve yours?

No matter what your business is selling, understanding what your customers think, how happy they are and how they find your product or service is an important metric for growing your business. All of this can be summed up as how satisfied your customers are. 

This is made up of a combination of your customers’ expectations, how well you met them and your ongoing interactions. As you can see, it’s a metric that is made up of many chances to impress your customers. Keeping track of it is easily done through a tool like our customer feedback software so that you can see your results across departments, team members and time.

It’s important to measure customer satisfaction. You can’t just presume that people are happy because they’re shopping with you, and you shouldn’t let complacency in after you’ve made a sale. Running a sustainable, resilient business is largely about repeat customers and referrals. The happier your customers are, the more likely they are to stay with you and recommend your business to others.

Why is customer satisfaction important?

Customer satisfaction is an important factor in any business's success. Whatever you’re making or selling, happy customers are the ones providing revenue to your business. They are key to the prosperity of your business, so they (not just their one off purchase) should be a priority.

Your customers could be sticking with you because there’s no one else offering something similar to your product or service. That generally doesn’t last forever though. A disrupter, cheaper offering or business that prioritizes customer satisfaction can enter your market and entice your customers away. If you don’t focus on looking after your customers, you could quickly lose them all. You want to be more than the default option for people. 

If you make high customer satisfaction one of your key metrics, you’re likely to build loyalty. Retaining customers is generally cheaper than acquiring new ones, due to the high costs of gaining their awareness, moving them through to intention and actually getting them to convert into customers. Loyal customers are less likely to abandon your business for a competitor, providing your business with a competitive edge. This will help protect your business from future shocks, making it more resilient over time.

Also, the happier your customers are, the more likely they are to recommend you to their family and friends. This helps to grow your customer base over time, without necessarily having the additional costs of acquiring new customers. Positive reviews and recommendations from people we know and trust are some of the most effective forms of advertising. Turning your customers into cheerleaders for your business is not just about cutting costs; it’s a powerful business growth tool.

It’ll also prevent unhappy people from spreading negative word of mouth. This can stop people who could potentially become customers from doing so. Negative reviews can be damaging to your reputation and you might never know who is sharing them. So making sure all your customers are happy will ensure long-term business success.

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How to improve customer satisfaction

Because 76% of consumers view customer service as the true test of how much a company values them, it’s imperative that you provide great customer service. So how do you improve your customers’ satisfaction in this space?

The first step is understanding what your customers think by listening to them. This can be through feedback forms, customer feedback software, surveys or listening to comments on social media. Here’s the tricky part: don’t get defensive or disregard any feedback at this stage. Listen and collect as much data as possible to analyze and see where you can improve your business.

Once you’ve analyzed your data you have a measure of customer satisfaction to compare yourself to. You also have customer insights that you can use to improve. You can learn the areas where customers aren’t completely satisfied and put this feedback into action to improve their experience. You might uncover the challenges they face, areas of poor support or unexpected uses for your products. Finding out this information for yourself is important as 65% of customers are likely to speak negatively about their customer service experience. You can’t avoid negative feedback entirely, so you might as well learn from it.

But customers generally have high expectations when it comes to customer service. Rather than just fixing what’s broken, you also need to proactively exceed expectations. What other needs might they have or other problems could you solve for them? Get creative and think big about how you can impress your customers and create improved customer satisfaction.

Once you’ve started taking action on your customers’ feedback, it’s time to check back in and see if their experience has improved. Regular customer satisfaction surveys will allow you to see the difference your changes are making. You can test out changes on a smaller segment to assess the costs and impacts before you begin rolling it out to all your customers. Measure and monitor progress over time to ensure you’re continuing to improve your customers’ satisfaction.

Conclusion

Customer satisfaction is one of the key variables that you can investigate to ensure your business grows over time. There are several stages to understanding how satisfied your customers are, what you can do to improve this over time and testing to see what is working.

Ensuring that you have happy customers is not just about ticking a box, it’s about creating a customer service focused organization that is committed to making a difference in the lives of your customers. Whatever product or service you’re providing, you can make a positive difference in the lives of others through your business.