Customer satisfaction surveys are tools that measure how products or services supplied by a company meet or surpass a customer’s expectation.
Customer satisfaction surveys are important because they provide key management and business owners with a metric that they can use to manage and improve their businesses.
Reason 1: It’s a leading indicator of customer repurchase intentions and loyalty
Customer satisfaction is the best indicator of how likely a customer will make a purchase in the future. Asking customers to rate their satisfaction on a scale of 1-10 is a good way to see if they will become repeat customers or even advocates.
Any customers that give you a rating of 8 and above, can be considered satisfied, and you can safely expect them to come back and make repeat purchases. Customers who give you a rating of 9 or 10 are your potential customer advocates who you can leverage to become evangelists for your company.
Scores of 6 and below are warning signs that a customer is unhappy and at risk of leaving. These customers need to be put on a customer watch list and followed up so you can determine why their satisfaction is low.
Reason 2: Customer surveys area a point of differentiation
In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for customers; customer satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator. Businesses who succeed in these competitive environments are the ones that make customer satisfaction a key element of their business strategy. A well-constructed survey will help a company determine what sets them apart from the competition.
Reason 3: Surveys can reduce customer turnover
Customer satisfaction is the metric you can use to reduce customer turnover. By measuring and tracking customer satisfaction you can put new processes in place to increase the overall quality of your customer service.
It often costs 500% more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain a current customer.
Reason 4: It increases customer lifetime value
An unhappy customer could tell 20 to 100 friends and colleagues about a negative experience with your company. It takes only a few unhappy customers to go viral which could result in a loss in brand equity and of your business.
Customers cost a lot of money to acquire. You and your marketing team spend thousands of dollars getting the attention of prospects, nurturing them into leads and closing them into sales.
Why spend little or no money on customer retention?