What is customer satisfaction?

Hello there my name is Martin Henley, this is the what the series and in episode number 15 we are answering the question what is customer satisfaction and is customer satisfaction the answer to all the mysteries of marketing?

How are we going to define customer satisfaction?

In addressing the question what is customer satisfaction there are six things we’ll be sharing with you. We are going to give you a definition of customer satisfaction; we’re going to think about why customer satisfaction is so important; how to do customer satisfaction; what to ask in your customer satisfaction; when to do customer satisfaction and what to do with the results of your customer satisfaction.

Let’s get this started Ricky.

Did we find a definition of customer satisfaction?

In addressing the question what is customer satisfaction we’re going to need a definition and we found one at Wikipedia. What wikipedia tell us is that “customer satisfaction often abbreviated to CSAT is a term frequently used in marketing to measure how products and services meet or surpass customer experience.” I am excited about this definition of customer satisfaction because I am excited about meeting or surpassing customer expectations. For me the only issue with this definition is that it isn’t quite broad enough, it’s not just about how the products and services meet or surpass customer expectations it’s about the whole customer experience. Customer satisfaction goes to your service, it goes to your presentation, it goes to everything that the customer experiences when they are buying from you.

Why is customer satisfaction important?

Now you might be asking the question – customer satisfaction sounds great but why is this so important?

Well there are some very good reasons you should be thinking about customer satisfaction. The first very good reason is about profitability. You will know from video number 12 when we spoke about cost of customer acquisition that you pay in money, in time, in energy for every single customer you win – the longer they stay with you, the more they buy – the higher their value to your company the more profitable your business will be. This goes to retention; Michael LaBeouf in his book How to Win and Keep Customers Forever tells us that customers leave for one two three four five reasons. The first reason, one percent of your customers leave, because they died – there’s not very much you can do about that. The second reason, three percent of your customers will move away – there’s not much you can do about that. The fourth reason, a whopping 68 percent of customers, will leave you because of indifference expressed by your company or your staff to them, they don’t they don’t feel like you value them, they don’t feel like you like them. Fourteen percent leave because they are dissatisfied by the product and nine percent leave for competitive reasons – maybe they can get the the product or service you’re offering cheaper somewhere else.

The issue here is that 82% of your customers are leaving because they feel you don’t like them or they’re not happy with the cost of the products or services that you’re providing. so you could retain 82% more of your customers by showing them a little bit more respect, a little bit more friendliness, showing them that you like them and knowing if they are happy with the product or service that you’re providing. Customer satisfaction gives you the opportunity to address the reason that 82% of your customers are leaving you.

Beyond that this goes to the message that you send when you do customer satisfaction. For me, if somebody reaches out to me and says I care about your opinion then I instantly think more of those people – I have more respect for those people.

Customer satisfaction will provide you with referrals. In surpassing your customers expectations your customers will be so happy with the products, the services and the overall service that you provide that they can’t shut up about you, you want them talking to their friends about your products and services and motivating their friends to buy from you.

The last reason you want to invest in customer satisfaction is because it will give you a happy work-life. Do you really want to be on the phone addressing complaints from unhappy customers? You really don’t. Do you really want to be picking up the phone from people who’ve heard about how great your products and your services are? you absolutely do. So if you want a happy team, if you want a happy work environment, if you want a happy work life then customer satisfaction is a great thing to be investing in.

How do you do customer satisfaction?

Which brings us then to point number three which is the question how do you do customer satisfaction?

The answer will depend entirely on how many customers you have. If you only have four or five customers then maybe you can get them out on the golf course and ask them these questions; if you have 30 customers then maybe you could get on a mission and take them out for lunch and ask these questions; if you have a hundred customers then maybe you can get them on the phone and ask these questions; if you have hundreds or thousands or millions of customers then you might need to resort to some sort of customer satisfaction survey.

What should you be asking in your customer satisfaction?

Which brings us then to point number four which is the question what should you be asking in your customer satisfaction? My recommendation is that you ask absolutely everything you can think of, here are some pointers.

In your customer satisfaction you should be asking your customers about their business – where they are based; how many people they employ; what products and services they provide; who their customers are; how are they performing and the long-term objectives for their business. Then you want to know about them and their role specifically – what is their role in the business; what other responsibilities do they undertake; what are their personal objectives; what are their long-term plans for their role. Then you want to know why they chose to buy from you – how they find you – did they find you on a website, or on YouTube etc, were they recommended to you? Then you want to know why or how, specifically, they were motivated to pick up the phone and place an order with you; you want to know about the products and services that they have bought from you – what you do here, what’s important here, is that you list all of the products or services that you offer because if you’ve been in business for more than 20 minutes you will already have heard a customer say “I didn’t know that you did that.” That for me is a crime of marketing – your customers should know exactly what it is that you do, all of the things that you do.

Then you need to know about the level of service they have received from you, and break this down – how helpful do they find you; how friendly do they find you; how do they rate your knowledge in terms of business knowledge and technical knowledge; how do they rate your reliability; your confidentiality; your presentation; the speed and quality of the service; the costs; the results – the outcomes of what you deliver for them and how you report on all of that.

Beyond that you want to start thinking about the outcomes of what you provide – what is the best aspect of what you provide; what is the worst aspect of what you provide and how could you be improving the products, services and the customer service that you provide to your customers.

Customer satisfaction then goes to their future need – what else could they be buying from you? What you need to do at this point is list all of your products and services again so they get to see for a second time all of the things that you do and all of the ways that you could be helping them. Would they recommend you – this is great content for your website; who would they recommend you to – this is leads, this question could be generating opportunities for new customers in your business.

Importantly the last question should be is there anything else that they would like to say – and what happens here is this  becomes great testimonial content because this is their opportunity to say good things about you and typically they will 🙂

So when it comes to the question what should you be asking in your customer satisfaction the answer is everything you could possibly imagine everything you could possibly want to know so beyond meeting or surpassing customer expectations we want to know about everything we want to use customer satisfaction as an opportunity to learn much much more about our customers so they will be happier with the products and services that we provide to them

When should you do customer satisfaction?

Point number five is the question when to do your customer satisfaction? Clearly and obviously you should be doing your customer satisfaction as part of the marketing analysis that we are doing right now as part of our situational analysis; it’s really important for your marketing to know how your customers feel about you.

Beyond your situational analysis you want to do customer satisfaction regularly. If you have lots of transactions and customer interactions happening in your business it’s a good idea to do customer satisfaction every quarter or biannually; I would say every year at least.

Then you want to take every opportunity to do some customer satisfaction, every email that your customers receive from you should have a link that says how are we doing or how did we do on this transaction. The world’s most successful companies like Amazon and the big logistics companies do this every time they engage with a customer; they take the opportunity to ask how they are doing. This has the knock-on effect of your staff knowing that every interaction they have with a customer is being judged by the customer and that will drive your performance. So the answer to the question when to do customer satisfaction is as often as possible and as regularly as possible.

What to do with the results of your customer satisfaction?

Which finally brings us then to point number six which is the question what to do with the results of your customer satisfaction? I told you at the top of this video that customer satisfaction is the answer to the mysteries of marketing and it absolutely is. When your customers give you all of this information it will inform almost everything that you do in your marketing. It will inform your targeting – what kinds of businesses do we want to sell to; what kind of roles do we want to sell to – or individuals in a business to consumer context; it will inform your messaging – you know now why people buy from you; it will inform the channels that you use – you know now where your customers find you; it will inform your pricing; it will inform your offers – good customer satisfaction will answer the mysteries of your marketing if you do it well and inform all of your marketing activity going forward.

Did we define customer satisfaction effectively?

If you are still with us well done you now know exactly what customer satisfaction is; you know why customer satisfaction is so important; you know how to do customer satisfaction; you know what to ask in your customer satisfaction; you know when to do customer satisfaction and you know what to do with the results of your customer satisfaction. If you’ve made it this far you now know that customer satisfaction is probably the most important thing that you can do in your marketing today. It is customer satisfaction that will give you the answers to the mysteries of your marketing. Episode number 16 is competitor analysis so please be sure to check out video number 16 what is competitor analysis?

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We are done here Ricky.