4 Proven Methods To Handle Customer Satisfaction

Why customer satisfaction is so important? Imagine Mick Jagger calling you and saying some legendary words. This time, he’s serious.

By that, he means the quality of your product and customer service. He’s angry, sad, disappointed. All these emotions are mixed.

The result is inevitable. You don’t know how to satisfy Mick Jagger, so your most famous and honorable customer decides to break the partnership with your company and join the competition.

So, I hope now you can see the importance of customer satisfaction for your business. With this article, you’ll get a guide to make your customers happy.

I’m here to define customer satisfaction, show you the proven methods to measure it, improve it, and more.

Here we go, so Mick Jagger can finally get some satisfaction!

Table of contents:

1. What is customer satisfaction
2. How to measure customer satisfaction
3. 4 methods to improve customer satisfaction
4. Channels: the efficient customer satisfaction tool
5. They can get some satisfaction

What is customer satisfaction

The definition of customer satisfaction is not only your personal view of whether your customers like your product or service. It’s the professional measurement of this attitude.

So, at the core, it isn’t far away from the general understanding of the word “satisfaction”.

When you expect something positive and get it, you’re happy. On the other hand, when you receive something opposite to your expectations, you’re disappointed.

Yeah, Nicolas, the definition is quite easy to deduct so far. The more advanced part comes right after that.

Customer satisfaction works as one of the main KPIs – by measuring it, you realize whether you achieve your business objectives.

So, you’re dealing with numbers, ups and downs, weekly, monthly, and yearly reports, just to keep abreast of everything.

And sometimes all these statistics force you to be flexible, as your success is dependent on your customers. You gain the knowledge of what your target is willing to pay for.

What to start from?

The basis of learning customer satisfaction is to keep an exemplary relationship with them.

Make an outbound call once in a while, ask about the feedback, listen carefully, note the observations, put everything you learn in reports after such calls, etc.

OK, but it’s just the beginning.

There are more specific expert methods to measure customer satisfaction. Let’s get to them.

How to measure customer satisfaction

Just a quick reminder, if you fight for your customer satisfaction, the award is priceless.

 

The championship belt is composed of the loyalty of your customers and a good reputation in your industry. There’s a lot to fight for!

OK, to the point – let’s name a proven method to measure customer satisfaction successfully.

How can you collect all the necessary data? Do a customer survey.

There are several ways to do this. For the start, I suggest you use Google Forms.

Now, it’s up to you to create the questions so you can receive the desired results. I’ll give you a few examples of them, splitting them into two categories.

Closed questions

We can divide them into some categories – first: the quality of your products or services. These questions can be used interchangeably, or you can choose a few and make them more related to your specific product.

• How satisfied are you with our products?
• How would you rate the quality of our products?
• Recently, we introduced some new features. Do they meet your needs?
• Is our product worth the money?

You may also go one step further and allow your customer to become a fortune teller. Ask him some questions about the potential future.

• Would you purchase any product from our offer once again?
• Would you recommend our product to anyone else?

And of course, don’t forget to work on the quality of your customer service. It’s great to learn the actual impression you’ve made.

• How would you rate our customer service in general?
• How would you rate the way we approach customers?
• How would you rate our agents’ level of knowledge?
• Have you found an answer to all your questions?

And so on, and so forth.

Now, it’s up to you to decide about the types of answers. The most popular way is the linear scale – I recommend the one with 5 possible answers.

Here comes the example:

So, your customer has 5 options to choose from. Let him pick the one that relates to his feelings the best. The options are:

1. I’m not satisfied at all.
2. I’m a bit disappointed.
3. I have no opinion/I have mixed feelings.
4. I’m satisfied with the products.
5. I’m extremely satisfied with the products, they’re like the best I’ve ever had.

So, he picks the number that fits his impression the best.

You can go with the sentence, too. In this case, your customer agrees with the statement or not.

1. I strongly disagree with the statement.
2. I disagree with the statement.
3. I am neutral.
4. I agree with the statement.
5. I strongly agree with the statement.

The choice is up to you.

You can also put this question in the form of a single-choice survey. In this case, it’s better to start with a positive outcome.

Analogically, with the sentence:

So, the customer may feel like in “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”. He has one option to choose from, but there’s one difference. In this case, all answers are correct.

 

You only want to meet his opinion on particular matters. But, this kind of answer may be considered a bit shallow. Why don’t you dig a little deeper?

Open-ended questions

If you want to get some more specific answers, then it’s always good to add some open-ended questions to your survey.

It’s a bit harder to use some tools and transform such answers into charts, statistics, and so on. This is more a human task – an analyst may still detect the most frequently used words, their synonyms, similar phrases, etc.

As a result, you have a more extensive view of things that work well in your company and the ones that need improvement.

Now – how the open-ended questions should be formed? There’s no general rule – you know your needs the best.

However, here are some examples that may inspire you.

• How would you describe our product in 3 words?
• What are the reasons that you choose our brand?
• What do you like the most about our product?
• If you could improve our product, what would you change specifically?
• When someone asks you about our product, what would you say?

This list never ends. You can ask the same questions not only about your product in general but also about its particular features and benefits. The quality of your customer service also works perfectly as the subject of this kind of interview.

Summary

After you get the satisfying number of answers (you should be satisfied too, not only your customers), you can use some sheet in Excel to collect them. Then, you have a strong basis to draw some conclusions.

As I said, it’s different with open-ended questions, but you can also name the most frequent answer. It requires some work but at the same time, you receive a full image of customer satisfaction.

I don’t want to jinx anything, but let’s assume that the answers aren’t too encouraging. In the next paragraph, you’ll get to know how to change it.

4 methods to improve customer satisfaction

OK, let’s go with some proven methods to make your customers happier.

Let your customers express their feelings

Do it however you like – of course, the aforementioned survey is a measurable way, but customers may appreciate even a friendly chit-chat with your service.

In other words, asking for customer feedback may do wonders for your business.

By that, I mean finding out the general impression. Sometimes such conversations may be pleasant, sometimes customers may come up with some objections, everything can happen.

The important thing is to make them speak directly to you. Customers don’t feel well when they need to keep all their complaints bottled up.

This bottle is going to explode sooner or later – they are likely to share their views with other customers. You can be roasted behind your back.

In this case, opening the bottle is far from a celebration. It tastes bitter as your business becomes notorious.

So, asking for feedback and being able to help straight away can only boost customer satisfaction and nip every problem in the bud.

Feel free to follow these steps while talking with your customer.

Listen carefully to customer feedback.

Note all the issues raised by your customers one by one.

Consider each of them concerning your possibilities and business strategy.

Respond directly to your customers with potential ways to solve their problems.

The result is predictable – a customer would feel much appreciated that all his objections were considered by you and you were keen on helping him immediately.

Here you have customer satisfaction – it’s your turn to open the bottle now!

Follow social media

Feel free to go one step further. Let’s assume that your customer won’t tell you the whole truth when you ask him directly.

And it’s fine – it’s a friendly talk, definitely NOT a cross-examination. You shouldn’t be too offensive with your questions, pulling teeth is the dentist’s job, not yours.

But, there’s an alternative option to get to know your customer’s opinion. These are well-known social media.

Start to follow reactions to your posts. Some people may find the comment section as the most comfortable place to share their thoughts.

There are some less obvious spaces where you can find the necessary information. Make your social media manager your eyes and ears.

I mean, he should know your industry from the inside. Let him follow general news, changes, innovations, everything.

Customers are active in those places too. The general comment section works like a gold mine to follow positive and negative opinions.

Then, it’s up to you to collect the information and transform it into the quality of your product. If you do that, the growth of customer satisfaction is certain.

Be omniscient

In other words, be well-prepared for responding to all possible doubts your customers may have.

It’s the attitude you should show on every channel of communication – phone, social media, etc. You can’t help it – customers want to get a straight answer to every single question they have.

Besides, have you ever become frustrated by, let’s say, scrolling the website, finding the FAQ section, and not finding the solution to your problem?

Or have you called some company and met the customer service agent that had no idea what you’ve been asking about? It’s the standard example of a bad customer experience.

Now you know how a customer feels like. Consider it while developing customer service in your company – your co-workers should know the answer to every problem.

Make your customer service look like Britannica in comparison to a spelling book. Stand out from the crowd.

And of course, introduce it in every channel – phone, social media, live chat, and so on. You won’t regret it.

Add a surprise factor

You already know some tips to make your customer service professional. But, there’s still something more you can do.

I mean, the extra thing to make it absolutely unique. Surprise your customer with some rabbit from the hat.

 

Offer some valuable gift just for calling your customer service, or make some kind of competition with attractive prizes – the sky is the limit.

There’s no general rule which extra solutions work perfectly, and which may not live up to your expectations. The important thing is to be brave enough to implement your ideas freely.

However, I can give you a hint – get a well-working customer satisfaction tool. In the next paragraph, I’ll show you a great example of it.

Channels: the efficient customer satisfaction tool

Channels is a data-driven phone system that is a perfect solution for you to reach desired customer satisfaction.

It has multiple features that form a complete puzzle.

A data-driven system opens the door for call center employees. It’s because they can see all important customer details before a call.

Channels display the name, contact information, purchase history, etc. So, forget about a long “interrogation” that can only distract your caller.

The conversation goes straight to the point. Your customer gets everything he wants without hanging on the phone for too long.

Web Call is another unique feature. Your customer doesn’t even need a phone as he can click on the button on your website and then call starts immediately – all happens through the Web browser.

If your customer doesn’t feel like talking out loud, Channels has something for him too. I mean a two-way SMS helpline.

Activate it and let your customers write messages to you. As you already know from this article, your agents should be prepared for this way of communication.

Channels is also a Mobile App. Use it to call your customers or answer their questions from any place.

Feel free to launch IVR, too. Record the welcome message and personalize your service.

With that, you’re able to serve even more customers during the workday. They will hear the greeting, click the right button on their keypad, and call sales, support, or any other department.

Simple and quick, isn’t it?

Oh, and one more thing. Choose the type of phone number for your business – pick international, toll-free, 800, virtual, and more – whatever fits you best.
Join Channels!

They can get some satisfaction

Yeah, the title of this summarizing paragraph is an alternative way of mentioned Rolling Stones lyrics.

If Mick Jagger finally has some satisfaction and stays with you, treat it as a victory.

But, remember that your group of customers is much broader. In this article, I’ve provided you with important information to satisfy them all.

You’ve learned the definition of customer satisfaction, so you know what you’re dealing with.

I’ve also given you some tips to measure customer satisfaction validly. Surveys, closed questions, open-ended questions, choose the way that appeals to you.

Now you also have elements of a plan to get the results you want. In other words, you have 4 main activities necessary to improve customer satisfaction in your business.

And finally, I’ve gifted you with Channels as a tool, or let me call it a weapon, to help you become successful in this area. Try it!

If you have any more questions, I’m open to answering them. After all, customer satisfaction and reader satisfaction are at the same level!