research objectives of customer satisfaction

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A complete guide to customer satisfaction research

Last updated

10 August 2024

Reviewed by

Miroslav Damyanov

If you’re not in business to create happy customers, you won’t be in business for very long.

Customer satisfaction research is the best way to determine how happy your customers are with your product or service. It also enables you to ensure their happiness becomes long-term satisfaction. When you understand customer feedback, you can improve your products and services, increase customer loyalty, and drive long-term success.

In this article, we’ll take a detailed look at what this type of research is and how you can conduct it.

• What is customer satisfaction research?

Happy customers are repeat customers. They are likely to tell their friends and colleagues about the products and services they enjoy, potentially sending new customers your way.

Unsatisfied customers are the opposite. They won’t return, and they will possibly warn their friends, family members, and colleagues to stay away too. It stands to reason that building a successful brand means creating far more happy customers than unhappy ones.

Customer satisfaction research is the process of collecting and analyzing feedback from customers to understand how well you are meeting their expectations and needs. This vital research can help your business improve its products and services, ensuring happier and more loyal customers.

Through customer satisfaction research, you can learn which steps your company should take to create more happy customers.

• Why do customer satisfaction research?

Getting more happy customers and fewer unhappy customers is important as a general aim, but it’s quite broad. Customer satisfaction research has several concrete goals that it provides insights into. Some companies begin their journey into customer satisfaction research specifically because they have one or more of these goals in mind:

Improving product/service quality

Enhancing customer loyalty and retention

Gaining a competitive advantage

Identifying areas for improvement

Measuring the impact of business initiatives

• What are the objectives of customer satisfaction research?

To provide you with actionable insights, customer satisfaction research needs to be comprehensive. It isn’t enough to know whether a customer is happy with your brand or not; you need to understand the specifics of what makes them happy or unhappy.

Here are some objectives:

Measure overall customer satisfaction levels

Understand the drivers of satisfaction

Identify strengths and weaknesses

Track changes in satisfaction over time

Benchmark against industry standards

Gather feedback for product/service development

Understanding how your company measures up in these areas will enable you to determine whether you have a problem with customer satisfaction. It will also provide an important guide for how to address those issues and improve how customers view your brand. 

When you know the true reasons your satisfied customers keep coming back, you can incorporate that into your value proposition. This will make your marketing efforts more effective, helping you retain customers who might not have considered that positive aspect of your offering before.

This information also tells you which of your features are worth developing further, which need work to live up to your expectations of them, and which you can abandon entirely.

• Examples of customer satisfaction research topics

All the questions above can be applied to a number of customer satisfaction questions. Trying to answer them all at once will result in unfocused and possibly unhelpful research. Instead, it’s best to focus your research on one or two areas. Some common areas for customer satisfaction research are listed below:

Product/service quality

Customer support and service

Pricing and value perception

Ease of doing business

Brand reputation and loyalty

Post-purchase experience

Comparison to competitor offerings

You might not know which of these you should start with. By gathering some initial customer feedback, you can narrow down which of these topics are strengths and which are weaknesses, allowing you to drill down deeper in your next round of research.

• Levels of customer satisfaction research

We can also take a different view of granularity when doing customer satisfaction research. Customers interact with your brand on several levels. Their opinions of the brand at each of these levels may vary.

Transactional (single interaction)

This level of customer satisfaction deals with a single interaction. While a customer could generally be very happy with your brand, an individual transaction could annoy them in some way. Eliminating these sources of annoyance could be the tipping point that pushes less satisfied customers toward brand loyalty and away from dissatisfaction.

Here are some examples of transactional customer satisfaction research:

Post-purchase surveys

Service desk satisfaction surveys

Website/app feedback surveys

Point-of-sale customer satisfaction ratings

Event feedback forms

Relational (ongoing relationship)

This deals with the customer’s overall perception of your brand independent of any single interaction.

Just as it’s possible for a generally happy customer to have a negative single experience, customers can develop a negative view of your brand even if they have one or two great transactions.

By looking at customer satisfaction from a broader perspective and focusing on the customer’s view of your brand itself, you can unlock deeper insights into what makes customers leave or stay.

Examples of relational customer satisfaction research include the following:

Customer satisfaction and loyalty survey programs

Churn/retention analysis

Net promoter score (NPS) surveys

Long-term, in-depth customer interviews

Quarterly customer surveys

Brand perception studies

Holistic (overall experience)

This level of customer satisfaction research involves combining the previous two. Instead of focusing solely on single interactions or the brand’s overall perception, holistic customer satisfaction research examines the entire picture.

So, why is this helpful? In customer satisfaction, the whole is often more than the sum of its parts. By looking at how everything fits together, you can get a broader sense of which areas need adjustment.

Examples of holistic customer satisfaction research include the following:

Customer journey mapping

Customer lifecycle analysis

Omnichannel experience surveys

Ethnographic studies and observational research

Comprehensive customer feedback programs

• How to carry out customer satisfaction research

Although the specifics will depend on your business and the type of customer research you’re interested in, the seven steps below provide a solid roadmap for successfully carrying out customer satisfaction research.

Step 1: define research objectives

The first step is defining your objectives. Before you can research something, you need to know what you’re researching.

Your research objectives might include, for example, retaining customers, improving marketing and sales efforts, elevating long-term product use, and more.

Next, identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) you’ll be measuring. These can include retention rate, monthly active users, repeat purchase rate, net promoter score, customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores , churn rate, and various customer support metrics, among other things. Include these or any others that are specific to your goals. 

As you’re deciding what your objectives are and which KPIs to use, ensure that your choices align with your business objectives.

Step 2: select a research methodology

The next step is to determine which research methodology you’ll use to gather your data. Quantitative methods, such as surveys and rating scales, can provide concrete numbers that are easy to track over time. Qualitative methods, such as interviews and focus groups, can provide more in-depth information about what customers do and don’t like about your product or service.

In practice, you’ll likely want to use a mixture of these two methods. A hybrid approach will provide you with data you can use to compare your results with industry standards or past results from your own research. It will also give you more actionable insights to drive those numbers in the direction you want.

Step 3: develop customer satisfaction surveys

If surveys will be a part of your methodology, you need to decide what those surveys will entail.

Remember, focus is key. There are many questions you can ask customers, but you should limit yourself to those that directly address the current research topic. This will make the data easier to sort through and help you use your resources more effectively. 

When crafting your surveys, consider your customers. If you want to get a sufficient number of well-thought-out responses, you’ll need to make sure the surveys are easy and convenient to complete. Overly lengthy surveys or those that use challenging technologies can limit the number and quality of responses you get.

The customer satisfaction score (CSAT) is the simplest and most straightforward method for measuring customer satisfaction. It typically involves asking customers to rate their satisfaction with a specific interaction or transaction on a scale, such as 1–5.

Step 4: choose a sampling strategy

Next, decide who you’ll be conducting research on. Do you have a specific customer segment that you’d like to better understand? If your company makes heavy use of customer personas, it can be helpful to survey each of them independently to better understand how to appeal to them.

Here are some sampling methods you can consider:

Random sampling: randomly pick participants from your full customer base to ensure each customer has an equal chance of being included.

Stratified sampling: divide your customer base into distinct subgroups and sample equally from each to ensure complete representation across key segments.

Systematic sampling: choose every nth customer from a list to ensure an even spread of participants.

Convenience sampling: select participants who are easiest to reach or most readily available, which is quicker but may not be as representative.

Step 5: data collection and analysis

Now we come to the meat and potatoes of customer satisfaction research—the collection and analysis of the data. If you’re conducting surveys, this could mean online forms, phone calls, or in-person questioning. Whatever your method, collect all the data and store it in a convenient place.

Tools like Dovetail make it easy to do the following:

Collect disparate data types and create a single source of truth around customer insights

Sort through the data and glean actionable insights from what you have collected

Analyze both quantitative and qualitative results, identify trends and patterns, and determine what the next steps should be

Step 6: implement changes

Once you have analyzed the data, it’s time to put what you have learned into action.

First, identify all the areas that need improvement and prioritize them. The insights provided by customers can provide a great metric for prioritization, but be sure to also factor in the resources available to you and your business goals.

Once you have decided which areas to work on, develop an action plan to make the necessary changes. To stay organized, assign responsibility for overseeing these changes to someone who is capable and reliable. You might have several people handle larger changes, each with their own specific area of the plan.

Step 7: implement a feedback loop

Customer satisfaction research isn’t a one-and-done thing. You’ll want to revisit the research regularly to ensure that changing customer preferences and market dynamics haven’t altered how your customers view you. Quantitative measurements that can be tracked over time can be a big help.

If you’re making improvements but the rate of improvement is leveling off compared to previous results, it could indicate that a change is underway, shifting customer desires. It could also mean that you’re nearing peak customer satisfaction. The best way to know for sure is to set up more customer satisfaction research to understand your numbers.

The important thing is that you don’t let your customer satisfaction efforts become stagnant. Customer needs and preferences change all the time, and if you’re not making an effort to meet those evolving needs, a competitor will happily step in and do it for you.

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Customer Experience Research: Steps, Methods, Best Practices

Have you ever wondered what sets successful businesses apart? The answer often lies in their commitment to understanding and enhancing the customer experience. How do industry leaders consistently deliver exceptional service? The key lies in strategic customer experience research.

Customer experience research is a systematic process of gathering and analyzing data to understand and evaluate the interactions between a customer and a company throughout the entire customer journey. 

It involves studying customer perceptions, expectations, and satisfaction levels to enhance and optimize the customer experience.

In this blog post, we will explore the essential steps, methods, and best practices for conducting effective customer experience research.

What is a Customer Experience Research?

Customer experience research is a systematic and strategic process of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data related to customers’ interactions with a brand, product, or service. The objective of this research is to gain a comprehensive understanding of the overall customer journey, perceptions, preferences, and satisfaction levels. 

Through various research methods such as customer satisfaction surveys , interviews, focus groups, and observational studies, businesses seek to uncover insights that can inform improvements in products, services, and customer interactions. 

The ultimate goal is to enhance customer satisfaction, loyalty, and the overall quality of the customer experience, contributing to the business’s long-term success. 

Importance of Customer Experience (CX) Research

The significance of customer experience (CX) research cannot be overstated, as it plays a pivotal role in various aspects of a business’s success. Here is a more detailed exploration of the importance:

Customer Retention and Loyalty Building

Customer experience research dives into understanding the intricate nuances of customer needs and expectations. Businesses can tailor their products, services, and interactions to create meaningful and positive experiences by gaining insights into what truly matters to customers. 

This, in turn, increases customer loyalty, as they feel understood and valued and are more likely to continue their association with the brand. Retaining existing customers is often more cost-effective than acquiring new ones, making customer retention a key focus for sustainable business growth.

Competitive Advantage in a Crowded Market

In a fiercely competitive marketplace, where products and services may be similar, the quality of positive customer experience emerges as a powerful differentiator. 

Companies that invest in understanding their customers and consistently deliver exceptional experiences gain a distinct competitive advantage. Positive customer interactions become the brand’s trademark, setting it apart from competitors and attracting a loyal customer base.

Driving Revenue Growth through Customer Satisfaction

Satisfied customers are likely to make repeat purchases and become brand advocates. Customer experience research helps identify the touchpoints that leave a lasting positive impression, encouraging customers to choose the brand repeatedly. 

Satisfied customers are more inclined to recommend the brand to their networks, effectively becoming brand ambassadors. This word-of-mouth marketing can significantly contribute to organic growth and increased revenue streams.

Operational Efficiency and Cost Savings

CX Research provides valuable insights beyond enhancing customer satisfaction by pinpointing pain points in the customer journey. It can lead to operational improvements within the organization. 

Streamlining processes, eliminating bottlenecks, and resolving pain points can increase operational efficiency and cost savings. This dual benefit of enhancing customer experience while optimizing internal operations is a strategic advantage that can positively impact the bottom line.

Steps Customer Experience (CX) Research

Conducting practical customer experience (CX) research involves a series of well-defined steps to ensure that you gather meaningful insights that can drive improvements in your products, services, and overall customer interactions. 

Here are the key steps for conducting customer experience research:

1. Define Objectives

At the outset of any customer experience research initiative, it is imperative to outline and define the goals and objectives meticulously. These should serve as the guiding principles throughout the research process, helping to maintain focus and relevance in enhancing the overall customer experience.

2. Identify Touchpoints

To comprehensively understand the customer journey, mapping out each touchpoint where customers interact with the brand is essential. This involves a detailed exploration of various phases, from initial awareness to post-purchase engagement. 

Identifying these touchpoints provides a holistic view of the customer experience, highlighting crucial moments that significantly impact satisfaction and loyalty.

3. Select Metrics

Choosing the right metrics is important to measure customer satisfaction, loyalty, and overall experience accurately. Metrics should align with the defined objectives and touchpoints, encompassing quantitative and qualitative aspects. 

Relevant metrics may include Net Promoter Score (NPS), customer satisfaction scores, and key performance indicators (KPIs) specific to each touchpoint.

4. Collect Data

Employing a multifaceted approach, customer data is collected through various methods, such as surveys, interviews, and analytics tools. Surveys offer structured insights, interviews provide in-depth qualitative information, and analytics tools offer quantitative data on customer behavior. 

This comprehensive data collection process ensures a well-rounded understanding of customer preferences and sentiments.

5. Analyze Data

Once the data is collected, a rigorous analysis is undertaken to discern patterns, identify trends, and pinpoint areas for improvement. Advanced analytical techniques may be applied to extract actionable insights. 

This phase transforms raw data into meaningful information that can guide decision-making and strategy formulation.

6. Implement Changes

With the insights from data analysis, strategic improvements are implemented in the customer experience. 

This phase involves making necessary adjustments to processes, communication channels, or any other touchpoints identified as potential areas for enhancement. The objective is to align the customer experience more closely with the defined goals and objectives.

7. Monitor and Iterate

The customer experience journey is an evolving process that necessitates continuous monitoring. Customer feedback, both solicited and unsolicited, is consistently reviewed. 

This iterative approach allows organizations to adapt swiftly to changing customer expectations, ensuring the customer experience strategy remains dynamic and responsive. Regular reviews and refinements based on ongoing feedback contribute to the sustained improvement of the overall customer experience.

Customer Experience Research Methods

Customer experience (CX) research employs various methods to gather insights into customers’ perceptions, expectations, and interactions with a brand. The choice of methods often depends on the research’s specific goals and the business’s nature. 

Here are some common customer experience research methods:

• Structured Questionnaires: Design surveys with clear and concise questions to collect quantitative data on specific aspects of the customer experience, such as satisfaction levels, ease of use, and overall impressions.
• Scale Utilization: Implement rating scales, Likert scales, or Net Promoter Score (NPS) scales to quantify responses and measure the degree of customer satisfaction or loyalty.
• In-Depth Exploration: Conduct one-on-one or group interviews to dive deeply into customer experiences, emotions, and perceptions, allowing for a nuanced understanding of their thoughts and motivations.
• Open-Ended Questions: Open-ended questions encourage customers to express themselves freely, providing rich qualitative data beyond predefined categories.

Observation

• Ethnographic Research: Immerse researchers in the customer’s environment, whether physical or digital, to observe natural behaviors and interactions, revealing insights that may not emerge through traditional surveys or interviews.
• Task Analysis: Break down customer interactions into specific tasks to identify pain points, bottlenecks, or areas where improvements can be made.

Social Media Monitoring

• Sentiment Analysis: Employ sentiment analysis tools to gauge the overall sentiment of customer conversations on social media platforms, helping identify positive and negative trends.
• Engagement Metrics: Track engagement metrics, such as likes, shares, and comments, to understand which aspects of the customer experience resonate most with the audience.

Usability Testing

• Task-Based Testing: Design usability tests with specific tasks for participants to complete, assessing how easily they can navigate products or services.
• Iterative Testing: Conduct iterative usability testing throughout development to identify and address usability issues early on.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

• Standardized Scoring System: Use the NPS scale to categorize customers as promoters, passives, or detractors based on their likelihood to recommend the product or service.
• Follow-up Qualitative Questions: Supplement NPS surveys with open-ended questions to gather additional insights into the reasons behind customers’ scores and their suggestions for improved customer satisfaction. 

Best Practices for Customer Experience (CX) Research

Practical customer experience (CX) research requires careful planning and adherence to best practices to ensure the insights gained are meaningful and actionable. Here are some best practices for CX Research:

Customer-Centric Approach

• Understanding Customer Personas: Develop detailed customer personas to comprehend different customer segments’ diverse needs, preferences, and behaviors.
• Journey Mapping: Create comprehensive customer journey maps that outline every touchpoint, from initial awareness to post-purchase support, ensuring a holistic understanding of the customer experience.
• Empathy Building: Encourage customer service teams to adopt an empathetic mindset to see the world from the customer’s perspective and better anticipate and meet their needs.

Multi-Channel Analysis

• Integrated Data Systems: Implement integrated data systems that consolidate information from various channels, including online and offline interactions, social media, and customer support, providing a unified and comprehensive view of the customer journey.
• Omni-Channel Strategy: Develop an omni-channel strategy that ensures a seamless and consistent experience across all customer touchpoints, regardless of their chosen channel.

Regular Feedback

• Real-Time Feedback Mechanisms: Implement real-time feedback mechanisms, such as post-purchase surveys, online reviews, and social media listening, to capture immediate customer sentiments and preferences.
• Periodic Surveys: Conduct routine surveys to dive deeper into specific aspects of the customer experience, allowing for more in-depth insights into identifying evolving trends.

Employee Involvement

• Training and Awareness Programs: Provide employees with comprehensive training on the importance of customer experience and equip them with the skills to understand and respond to customer needs effectively.
• Employee Feedback Loops: Establish feedback loops where employees can share insights from customer interactions, fostering a collaborative approach to improving the overall customer experience.
• Recognition and Rewards: Recognize and reward employees who contribute positively to the customer experience, reinforcing a customer-centric culture.

Data Security

• Compliance Measures: Implement robust data security measures to ensure compliance with privacy regulations, such as GDPR or HIPAA, and build customer trust in handling sensitive information.
• Transparent Data Practices: Communicate openly with customers about data collection and usage, providing clear information on how their data is stored, protected, and utilized.

Continuous Improvement

• Agile Implementation of Findings: Adopt an agile approach to implementing research findings, allowing quick adjustments to products, services, or processes based on customer feedback.
• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Establish KPIs to measure the impact of changes implemented due to customer experience research, ensuring that improvements align with business goals.
• Benchmarking: Regularly benchmark against industry standards and competitors to identify areas for differentiation and innovation, fostering a commitment to continuous improvement beyond immediate customer feedback.

How QuestionPro CX Can Help in Customer Experience Research

QuestionPro is a survey and research platform that offers various tools for conducting customer experience (CX) research. It provides a range of features to help businesses gather feedback, analyze data, and make informed decisions based on customer insights.

Here’s a general overview of how QuestionPro CX can be used for customer experience research:

NPS & Churn Risk

• The NPS Survey Dashboard provides an advanced analytics platform for measuring Net Promoter Score (NPS) and predicting churn risk.
• Isolate, identify, and predict customer churn based on NPS data, allowing businesses to address issues and retain customers proactively.
• Leverage customer interactions to make informed decisions for improving products and services.

Sentiment Analysis

• Sentiment analysis helps classify text feedback as positive, negative, or neutral, offering more profound insights into the quality of interactions between customers and the organization.
• Move beyond numerical ratings to understand the emotional tone and sentiment behind customer feedback.
• Identify areas for improvement based on sentiment trends and patterns.

Advanced Dashboards

• Access customizable dashboards with various widget configurations, enabling you to tailor your dashboard to specific needs.
• Customize filters, chart types, labels, and month-tracking widgets to effectively visualize and analyze customer feedback.
• Gain a holistic view of customer experience data through visually appealing and insightful dashboards.

Workflow Setup

• CX Workflow allows you to assign and send surveys to customer segments within the same data file.
• Automate survey reminders to improve response rates and gather more comprehensive feedback.
• Streamline survey processes for efficient data collection and analysis.

Disposition Metrics

• Monitor emails sent continually to collect valuable data at every engagement point.
• Track changes in customer behavior over time and identify key touchpoints influencing customer satisfaction.
• Use disposition metrics to refine communication strategies and enhance customer engagement.

Closed Loop

• Capture the customer journey at various touchpoints in real time.
• Share feedback with different teams to foster collaboration and implement organizational improvements.
• Implement a closed-loop system to address customer issues promptly and enhance the overall customer experience.

Incorporating customer experience research into your business strategy is a proactive approach to building strong, lasting customer relationships. By following these steps, employing effective research methods, and embracing best practices, you can gain valuable insights that drive positive change and elevate the overall customer experience. 

Remember, a satisfied customer is not just a one-time buyer but a potential brand advocate who can contribute to the long-term success of your business.

QuestionPro CX empowers customer experience research through advanced NPS analytics, sentiment analysis, customizable dashboards, workflow automation, disposition metrics monitoring, and closed-loop feedback. 

This comprehensive toolset enables businesses to proactively identify issues, understand the sentiment, and continuously enhance customer interactions, ensuring a superior and informed customer experience.

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10 Ways to Boost Customer Satisfaction

by G. Tomas M. Hult and Forrest V. Morgeson

Summary .   

Customer satisfaction is at its lowest point in the past two decades. Companies must focus on 10 areas of the customer experience to improve satisfaction without sacrificing revenue. The authors base their findings on research at the ACSI — analyzing millions of customer data points — and research that we conducted for The Reign of the Customer : Customer-Centric Approaches to Improving Customer Satisfaction. For three decades, the ACSI has been a leading satisfaction index (cause-and-effect metric) connected to the quality of brands sold by companies with significant market share in the United States.

Despite all the effort and money poured into CX tools by companies, customer satisfaction continues to decline . In the United States, it is now at its lowest level in nearly two decades, per data from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). Consumer sentiment is also at its lowest in more than two decades. This negative dynamic in the customer-centric ecosystem in which we now live creates the challenge of figuring out what is going wrong and what companies can do to fix it.

Partner Center

Researching Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty: How to Find out What People Really Think

Journal of Consumer Marketing

ISSN : 0736-3761

Article publication date: 1 April 2006

• Customer satisfaction
• Customer loyalty
• Market research methods

Goncalves, K.P. (2006), "Researching Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty: How to Find out What People Really Think", Journal of Consumer Marketing , Vol. 23 No. 3, pp. 173-173. https://doi.org/10.1108/07363760610663349

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2006, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Paul Szwarc's Researching Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty: How to Find out What People Really Think is a hybrid between the rigor and quantitative orientation of a textbook, and the “lightness” of a trade book. It is easy to read, well‐organized, easy to follow, and contains many helpful hints for practitioners new to commercial consumer research. The case studies throughout the book are likely to be especially interesting to new researchers. Senior researchers are not likely to find great value in this book.

Part I . Introduction and Theory (four chapters; 70 pages).

Part II . Getting Started (four chapters; 72 pages).

Part III . ‘Touching’ the Customer (one chapter; 20 pages).

Part IV . Outputs (two chapters; 45 pages).

Part V . What Lies Ahead? (one chapter; ten pages).

Part I provides useful background for anyone new to consumer satisfaction research. For example, Chapter 1 reminds readers that “customers” are really a wide array of stakeholders ranging from “external customers” to employees, stockholders, and prospective and lost customers. In chapter 2 the author reviews the important differences between strategic and operational research. He also takes the time to describe several well‐known customer service awards, as well as what some familiar terms mean (e.g. ISO 9002; Six Sigma).

“Instant feedback” must be the greatest concern of all moderators. Having just spent a couple of hours running a group, the moderator is asked to produce an instant summary of the “key findings” that emerged from the session. This does not allow any time for the moderator to reflect on all that has happened. Neither does it allow him or her to determine how different this group was from others her or she (or his/her colleagues) has conducted on the subject. Meanwhile, there is a risk that the client has drawn his or her own conclusions, and is keen to see if the moderator has similar “findings” (pp. 45‐6).

Chapter 4, on quantitative research, is where I had difficulty, because the author missed key points that may lead inexperienced researchers astray. For example, in the discussion of disadvantages of face‐to‐face interviewing, there is no mention of interviewer bias! Clearly, interviewer bias is a potential concern any time there is a live interviewer – telephone, in‐person, focus group moderation, etc. – so it should be included. In fact, bias is ignored or downplayed throughout the chapter, and experienced researchers know that bias can discredit any findings.

Aside from my disagreements with some of Chapter 4's content, it is easy to read, even for those who avoid the quantitative world of statistics, reliability levels, and sample size decisions. This alone, would make the chapter worth reading for new researchers, because it might help them overcome “numbers phobia”.

Part II addresses the research design process from when the research sponsor first develops its research objectives, until the formal research instrument is pre‐tested and ready for fieldwork. Chapters 5 and 6 provide both the “client” and “researcher” organizational perspectives – illuminating for those new to the field. These chapters also provide details such as who completes various tasks, how to handle budgets, and what to do when there are conflicts over methodology.

Chapter 7 moves on to sampling – who to reach, how to reach them, issues associated with certain types of samples, how many people to include, response rates, and other practical aspects of sampling that are hard to grasp until one has had to construct a sample. The author even includes a section on longitudinal research and how the samples, questionnaires, and research processes differ for one‐off projects versus those designed to be continuous or repeated at intervals.

Chapter 8 is a good overview of the questionnaire design process, from what to ask, to the role of order bias and how to handle sensitive questions. Szwarc's comments and advice are sound, and to a large degree, reflect what I have seen in my own practice. The sub‐headings he uses and some of the content are not exactly “purist” from an academic perspective, but they are very useful when designing commercial surveys.

What to do when you learn something confidential and time‐sensitive from a respondent, which should be shared with the client, but which is difficult (or impossible) to share given standard confidentiality rules.

Addressing misperceptions on the part of clients who have listened to or observed a small portion of the fieldwork, and then feel that anything which does not agree with their “knowledge” must be wrong.

Part IV (Chapters 10 and 11) are written in the same format as earlier sections but feel more like “checklists”, because they cover data cleaning, coding, entry, analysis and reporting. This is where many researchers seem to get lost, and these two chapters could easily be used to guide the data analysis and reporting process in an objective, logical fashion.

Part V, Chapter 12 shares the author's view of major global environmental shifts from demographics (the “aging” of the population in several countries) to technological change (internet, consumer electronics) to psychographics (consumer attitudes toward work, leisure and to the process of change itself). He also addresses how these shifts are affecting the market research process and industry. As he notes, everything is changing so rapidly, it is hard to keep up, and this chapter is a good example. No matter how recently the book was written, readers will find parts of this chapter sound dated – evidence that Szwarc is right!

Overall, this book is worthwhile for anyone new to market research. Junior staffers at research firms, as well as those who work for the companies that sponsor commercial research can benefit, and they may find that this becomes a reference work. It is easier to read than their marketing research textbook, and when in doubt about anything the author says, they can always refer to their textbook for a “purer”, more academic view of the world.

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A guide to customer satisfaction research in B2B, including asking the right questions

September 29, 2023

Lots of businesses claim to be customer-centric, yet not enough companies ensure their customers are actually satisfied.

Tracking customer satisfaction, identifying any issues, and then taking action to improve these results in happy product buyers and users. They are more likely to buy again, increase their spending, remain loyal customers, and recommend you to their contacts.

These contacts could soon become customers themselves, without any acquisition costs or business development efforts on your part. However, on the flip side, most dissatisfied customers will leave – you can replace them, but that needs more time and resources. 

Keeping customers costs up to 25 times less than capturing new ones, Hubspot reports . Not only that, but Profitwell has estimated a 60% increase in customer acquisition costs over five years – and these costs are higher in B2B than B2C .

Therefore, every B2B company can benefit from a regular B2B customer satisfaction study to help retain satisfied customers. 

The research reveals customers’ needs and wants, so you know what they expect from you. Satisfaction tracking sets a benchmark for your business – standards to maintain, or aim for if your current performance is below par.

It also outlines what customers think of your brand and gives less vocal ones a platform to share their views on perceived service quality constructively. An insightful B2B customer satisfaction research study can help boost both the top line and bottom line, by showing you:

• How to keep customers, growing revenues 
• How to improve customer loyalty, reducing acquisition costs
• What customers’ unmet needs and wants are
• Where your business needs to improve customer satisfaction
• How your business is performing against competitor benchmarks

How to do B2B customer satisfaction research projects

Areas of customer satisfaction to explore

Best practices for customer satisfaction research in B2B

Here is our advice for conducting customer satisfaction research projects end-to-end with a B2B audience including:

• Research setup
• Methodology
• Design and fieldwork
• Analysis and reporting

#1 Research setup

First things first, engage key internal stakeholders at the outset and put a plan in place to keep them informed throughout the project. This is crucial if your customers interact with different departments across the business, e.g. service, product, sales, and account teams. 

Gain the support of stakeholders who oversee customer relationships as soon as possible. Don’t bypass them otherwise, they and/or their customers may react badly and question why you kept them out of the loop.

Stakeholders may:

• Need to grant access to customer contact details or check data-sharing permissions
• Require convincing that customer satisfaction research will bring benefits
• Have their own questions to ask, so they should have input in the design stage
• Need to follow up on the research results

This last point is vital. Any key stakeholders excluded from the research process could challenge the final insights and recommendations – querying if you asked the right questions or included the right mix of customers.

This is where it helps to have a market segmentation , splitting your customer base into different groups with comparable wants, attributes, and behavior. Recruiting for a customer satisfaction research project based on your segments means you can compare results later on and develop separate follow-up action plans.

If specific customer accounts, segments, international markets , etc. spend significantly more than others, factor these differences into your research setup. Make sure you not only include key groups in the research, but you factor in their relative importance.

Aim to explore strategically important relationships in-depth. Try to focus on major accounts as a priority, but sometimes stakeholders are keen to include everyone.

Work with internal stakeholders to decide upfront which customers’ feedback matters most, before recruiting respondents. Set target quotas to ensure a representative spread of your customer base – in terms of your main buyer segments, customer spending, etc.

#2 Methodology

When it comes to deciding between quantitative and qualitative research to measure customer satisfaction:

• Quant is traditionally the more common approach for customer satisfaction research, with businesses looking for robust satisfaction metrics to track over time.
• But, in B2B research, note that a customer satisfaction survey will usually have a smaller base size in comparison with a B2C one. The target market is relatively smaller and senior decision-makers willing to take part in research are much harder to find in B2B .
• Tracking customer satisfaction metrics is only useful coupled with an understanding of why you received that rating. Ideally, resources permitting, aim to get qual insights from across your customer base, on top of a quant survey. 
• Qual depth interviews with decision-makers at your major accounts help reveal the reasons behind customer satisfaction scores. It also ensures their opinions have sufficient sway on the program’s insights.
• Moreover, qual interviews are a good way to make key clients feel appreciated, with a less indirect or impersonal approach compared to online surveys.

Beyond quant survey data, other metrics you already have access to, such as website engagement statistics, may also add context to your research results. Social media research can also provide rich insights into the customer journey and experience.

It’s best to take an open-minded approach to research methods and instead prioritize getting the most useful results possible.

Whether you’re going to use a quant questionnaire or qual topic guide, there’s an important balancing act to get right. It’s very valuable to include questions on competitor perceptions but without making the research interviews too long, to avoid the risk of respondent fatigue.

Context is crucial with satisfaction scores – if 90% of your customers are satisfied with your performance, that sounds great, but not if 95% are satisfied with a competitor’s service quality. If competitors in your space receive higher satisfaction scores for similar services, you need to know the reasons why.

Your competitor intelligence will shed light on where your business requires improvement – to get more customers, make them satisfied, and take a greater market share. You’ll also get a competitor-based customer satisfaction benchmark to compare your company against.

#3 Design and fieldwork

The research design will determine how useful your results are. Depending on your objectives, the type of customer satisfaction survey questions you need will differ. 

Don’t use customer satisfaction survey templates found online – these will be too generic to deliver actionable insights that are relevant for B2B industries.

Below are some of the main customer satisfaction survey examples to consider. Something simple and tactical, such as asking customers to use five-star rating systems, is quick and easy – but very transactional. 

Arguably scores such as these only add value and provide powerful insights in combination with more strategic and insightful research. More strategic studies are very specifically tailored to your business and research objectives – e.g. by using bespoke metrics combined with exploratory questioning around the scores.

• Overall customer satisfaction score (CSAT): e.g. On a scale of 1-10, where 10 is extremely satisfied and 1 is extremely dissatisfied, how would you rate your satisfaction with [company/service]?
• Net promoter score (NPS): e.g. How likely are you to recommend [company] to a friend or colleague?
• Customer effort score (CES): e.g. How easy was it for you to register for our free trial today?
• Customer churn analysis: e.g. What was the main reason why you decided to stop using [company]?
• Five-star rating: e.g. Please rate the service you received today: ☆☆☆☆☆
• Bespoke metrics based on your industry: e.g. How many times do you use our software each week, on average?

Traditionally, the first three are popular in customer satisfaction surveys, but basing your strategy around these isn’t always the best overall approach in B2B

It’s possible to track metrics for each of these with just one or two questions – often straight after a customer touchpoint – but collecting data this way is piecemeal and difficult to draw conclusions from.

But in a 10-minute online survey, there could be scope to include most of the questions you need for each of #1-6, depending on how many other research objectives you have. A typical CSAT-based survey often includes an NPS question and might also explore reasons why customers have lapsed or churned.

However, there isn’t always enough time – or need – to cover everything. Besides, because there are different types of loyalty in B2B industries, in our experience, NPS questions are not as useful as they are in B2C.

Also, there’s little value in getting lots of scores for the sake of it. Usually, it’s more useful to base a study around one of the above approaches, e.g. a bespoke metric, then do a deep-dive into customers’ reasons for their scores.

#4 Analysis and reporting

Customer satisfaction research projects that ask respondents for too many scores often lead to a ‘data dump’ report that’s difficult to read and act on.

Whether the customer interviews were long or short, set aside data that isn’t interesting or unique. There’s no need to include the answers to every question in a report:

• For any qual results, analyze the results thoroughly – look for common themes and run brainstorming sessions to find the most relevant and interesting stories.
• For quant results, look for statistically significant stories. Always add significance testing to the tables, so that some of the most noteworthy findings stand out.

If you have enough data to filter your results, e.g. by customer spend, it leads to more powerful conclusions and more commercially-prioritized next steps after the debrief.

There is more to B2B customer satisfaction research than getting an overall score and the underlying reasons.

Customers may be happy with some aspects of your business but less so with others. Exploring satisfaction for different aspects of your client-facing operations helps you narrow down where you’re performing well versus the areas for improvement.

Then you’ll know more specifically where remedial action is needed. Common areas of satisfaction, or dissatisfaction, to explore in a project include:

• Overall: As above
• Product/Service: Ask customer satisfaction questions about your product range, quality, reliability, durability, appearance, speed, and so on, where relevant
• Buying process : E.g. How easy is it to find what you’re looking for on our website? How satisfied are you with the order customization options?
• Customer service: Ask questions about staff’s availability, knowledge, helpfulness, responsiveness, proactivity, and complaint handling.
• Account management: E.g. How satisfied are you with your account manager? Why/why not?
• Delivery: Ask questions about delivery speed, meeting deadlines, costs, recyclable packaging, and so on.
• Pricing : Explore satisfaction around your product/service pricing, discounts, invoice clarity, and value-for-money perceptions

The above list is an example – some of these may not be relevant to your business and there will likely be other areas you’d like to explore in a customer satisfaction research study.

Want to know if your research objectives need B2B customer satisfaction research?

#1 Explore areas of both satisfaction and dissatisfaction

When creating customer satisfaction surveys, it’s tempting to prioritize questions that aim to identify and explore weaknesses or areas for improvement.

But it’s important to include enough questions that let customers confirm what you’re doing well and give reasons why. That way, you capture the positive experiences that more of your customers need to have.

Similarly, when analyzing the results, don’t only focus on negative outcomes and plans to address these. Also, highlight the positive stories to learn from and keep aiming for.

#2 Use statistical techniques to explore subconscious satisfaction

Statistical trade-off techniques such as regression analysis explore beyond respondents’ given answers, identifying hidden factors that influence their perceptions.

Your customers may not realize the true reasons behind their views. Regression analysis shows the relationship between a dependent variable – e.g. overall satisfaction – and independent variables like factors, product features, and so on.

Statistical models may also identify a ‘shadow effect’ – one major factor with a significant effect on satisfaction scores regardless of your performance in any other area.

#3 React in real-time to any issues that customers raise

Some customers may use the survey as a forum to raise their queries, concerns, or issues, so be prepared to respond quickly.

Include a clear option to flag comments for customer service staff or their account manager, so you can close the loop promptly.

It helps stop any problems from escalating and also avoids the risk of data analysts treating the comments as standard open-ended responses. 

#4 Capitalize quickly on the momentum from your research

After the research, take time to thank customers for theirs. Explain how their feedback will drive change – set customer expectations by telling them what you’re doing next and ideally, when they’ll start seeing the impact.

Then the real work starts. You could collaborate with a select few key customer accounts to develop action plans, based on the results, to make sure your next steps will land well.

Start by running workshops with your customer-facing staff, so they understand the areas driving positive and negative outcomes. Don’t wait long, otherwise, priorities may change.

Looking to run some B2B customer satisfaction research?

Tracking customer satisfaction, identifying any issues, and then taking action to improve these, leads to happy customers. They’re more likely to buy again, increase their spending, remain loyal to your company, and pass on recommendations to their contacts.

B2B customer satisfaction research can show you: how to keep customers and grow revenues; how to improve customer loyalty, reducing acquisition costs; what customers’ unmet needs and wants are; where your business needs to improve customer satisfaction; and how your business is performing against competitor benchmarks.

Engage key internal stakeholders at the outset and put a plan in place to keep them informed. If specific customer accounts, segments, international markets, etc. spend significantly more than others, factor these differences into your research setup.

Ideally, resources permitting, aim to get qual insights from across your customer base, on top of a quant survey. It’s also valuable to include questions on competitor perceptions but make sure the research interviews are still concise to avoid respondent fatigue.

Don’t use a customer satisfaction survey template found online – they’re too generic for B2B – but consider including overall customer satisfaction score (CSAT); net promoter score (NPS); customer effort score (CES); customer churn analysis; five-star rating; and/or bespoke metrics.

Common areas of satisfaction, or dissatisfaction, to explore in a customer satisfaction research project include: overall; product/service; buying process; customer service; account management; delivery; and pricing.

This list is an example – some of these may not be relevant to your business and there will likely be other areas you’d like to explore in a customer satisfaction research study.

In customer satisfaction research, we also recommend that you: explore areas of both customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction; use statistical techniques to explore subconscious satisfaction; react in real-time to any issues that customers raise; and capitalize quickly on the momentum from your research.

Chris Wells

Chris Wells is a B2B marketing researcher and strategist. He was previously on the management team at B2B research specialist Circle Research, winners of the Best Research Agency at the 2016 MRS Awards. Chris has helped to deliver hundreds of research and strategy projects for B2B organizations.

Got a B2B market research project you’d like to discuss?

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• Home > Publications > Customer Satisfaction Research Surveys: How to Measure CSAT

Customer Satisfaction Research Surveys: How to Measure CSAT

It seems self evident that companies should try to satisfy their customers. Satisfied customers usually return and buy more, they tell other people about their experiences, and they may well pay a premium for the privilege of doing business with a supplier they trust. Statistics are bandied around that suggest that the cost of keeping a customer is only one tenth of winning a new one. Therefore, when we win a customer, we should hang on to them. Conducting a customer satisfaction research survey is a good way to start measuring where you stand in terms of customer loyalty.

Why Customer Satisfaction Research Is So Important

Why is it that we can think of more examples of companies failing to satisfy us rather than when we have been satisfied? There could be a number of reasons for this. When we buy a product or service, we expect it to be right. We don’t jump up and down with glee saying “isn’t it wonderful, it actually worked”. That is what we paid our money for. Add to this our world of ever exacting standards. We now have products available to us that would astound our great grandparents and yet we quickly become used to them. The bar is getting higher and higher. At the same time our lives are ever more complicated with higher stress levels. Delighting customers and achieving high customer satisfaction scores in this environment is ever more difficult. And even if your customers are completely satisfied with your product or service, significant chunks of them could leave you and start doing business with your competition.

A market trader has a continuous finger on the pulse of customer satisfaction. Direct contact with customers indicates what he is doing right or where he is going wrong. Such informal feedback is valuable in any company but hard to formalize and control in anything much larger than a corner shop. For this reason customer surveys are necessary to measure and track customer satisfaction.

Developing a Customer Satisfaction Research Program

Developing a customer satisfaction research program is not just about carrying out a customer service survey. Surveys provide the reading that shows where attention is required but in many respects, this is the easy part. Very often, major long lasting improvements need a fundamental transformation in the company, probably involving training of the staff, possibly involving cultural change. Customer satisfaction research is critical in identifying these areas for improvement. The result should be financially beneficial with less customer churn, higher market shares, premium prices, stronger brands and reputation, and happier staff. However, there is a price to pay for these improvements. Costs will be incurred in the customer satisfaction research survey. Time will be spent working out an action plan. Training may well be required to improve the customer service. The implications of customer satisfaction studies go far beyond the survey itself and will only be successful if fully supported by the echelons of senior management.

A Six-Stage Process For Customer Satisfaction Research Surveys

There are six parts to any customer satisfaction research program:

• Who should be interviewed?
• What should be measured?
• How should the interview be carried out?
• How should satisfaction be measured?
• What do the measurements mean?
• How to use a customer satisfaction research study to greatest effect?

Who Should Be Interviewed?

Some products and services are chosen and consumed by individuals with little influence from others. The choice of a brand of cigarettes is very personal and it is clear who should be interviewed to find out satisfaction with those cigarettes. But who should we interview to determine the satisfaction with breakfast cereal? Is it the person that buys the cereal (usually a parent) or the person that consumes it (often a child)? And what of a complicated buying decision in a business to business situation. Who should be interviewed in a customer satisfaction research survey for a truck manufacturer – the driver, the transport manager, the general management of the company? In other b2b markets there may well be influences on the buying decision from engineering, production, purchasing, quality assurance, plus research and development. Because each department evaluates suppliers differently, the customer satisfaction survey will need to cover the multiple views.

The adage in market research that we turn to again and again is the need to ask the right question of the right person. Finding that person in customer loyalty research may require a compromise with a focus on one person – the key decision maker; perhaps the transport manager in the example of the trucks. If money and time permit, different people could be interviewed and this may involve different interviewing methods and different questions.

The traditional first in line customer is an obvious candidate for measuring customer satisfaction. But what about other people in the channel to market? If the products are sold through intermediaries, we are even further from our customers. A good customer satisfaction program will include at least the most important of these types of channel customers, perhaps the wholesalers as well as the final consumers.

One of the greatest headaches in the planning of a b2b customer satisfaction survey is the compilation of the sample frame – the list from which the sample of respondents is selected. Building an accurate, up-to-date list of customers, with telephone numbers and contact details is nearly always a challenge. The list held by the accounts department may not have the contact details of the people making the purchasing decision. Large businesses may have regionally autonomous units and there may be some fiefdom that says it doesn’t want its customers pestered by market researchers. The sales teams’ Christmas card lists may well be the best lists of all but they are kept close to the chest of each sales person and not held on a central server. Building a good sample frame nearly always takes longer than was planned but it is the foundation of a good customer satisfaction project.

Customer satisfaction surveys are often just that – surveys of customers without consideration of the views of lost or potential customers. Lapsed customers may have stories to tell about service issues while potential customers are a good source of benchmark data on the competition. If a customer survey is to embrace non-customers, the compilation of the sample frame is even more difficult. The quality of these sample frames influences the results more than any other factor since they are usually outside the researchers’ control. The questionnaire design ( further reading: The 7 Steps of Questionnaire Design ) and interpretation are within the control of the researchers and these are subjects where they will have considerable experience.

What Should Be Measured?

In customer satisfaction research we seek the views of respondents on a variety of issues that will show how the company is performing and how it can improve. This understanding is obtained at a high level (“how satisfied are you with ABC Ltd overall?”) and at a very specific level (“how satisfied are you with the clarity of invoices?”).

High level issues are included in most customer satisfaction surveys and they could be captured by questions such as:

• What is your overall satisfaction with ABC Ltd?
• How likely or unlikely are you to buy from ABC Ltd again?
• How likely or unlikely would you be to recommend ABC Ltd to a friend or colleague?

It is at the more specific level of questioning that things become more difficult. Some issues are of obvious importance and every supplier is expected to perform to a minimum acceptable level on them. These are the hygiene factors. If a company fails on any of these issues they would quickly lose market share or go out of business. An airline must offer safety but the level of in-flight service is a variable. These variables such as in-flight service are often the issues that differentiate companies and create the satisfaction or dissatisfaction.

Working out what questions to ask at a detailed level means seeing the world from the customers’ points of view. What do they consider important? These factors or attributes will differ from company to company and there could be a long list. They could include the following:

The list is not exhaustive by any means. There is no mention above of environmental issues, sales literature, frequency of representatives’ calls or packaging. Even though the attributes are deemed specific, it is not entirely clear what is meant by “product quality” or “ease of doing business”. Cryptic labels that summarize specific issues have to be carefully chosen for otherwise it will be impossible to interpret the results.

Customer facing staff in the research-sponsoring business will be able to help at the early stage of working out which attributes to measure. They understand the issues, they know the terminology and they will welcome being consulted. Internal focus groups with the sales staff will prove highly instructive. This internally generated information may be biased, but it will raise most of the general customer issues and is readily available at little cost.

It is wise to cross check the internal views with a small number of depth interviews with customers. Half a dozen may be all that is required.

When all this work has been completed a list of attributes can be selected for rating.

How Should The Interview Be Carried Out?

There are some obvious indicators of customer satisfaction beyond survey data. Sales volumes are a great acid test but they can rise and fall for reasons other than customer satisfaction. Customer complaints say something but they may reflect the views of a vociferous few. Unsolicited letters of thanks; anecdotal feedback via the salesforce are other indicators. These are all worthwhile indicators of customer satisfaction but on their own they are not enough. They are too haphazard and provide cameos of understanding rather than the big picture. Depth interviews and focus groups could prove very useful insights into customer satisfaction and be yet another barometer of performance. However, they do not provide benchmark data. They do not allow the comparison of one issue with another or the tracking of changes over time. For this, a quantitative survey is required.

The tool kit for measuring customer satisfaction boils down to three options, each with their advantages and disadvantages. The tools are not mutually exclusive and a self-completion element could be used in a face to face interview. So too a postal questionnaire could be preceded by a telephone interview that is used to collect data and seek co-operation for the self-completion element.

When planning the fieldwork, there is likely to be a debate as to whether the interview should be carried out without disclosing the identify of the sponsor. If the questions in the survey are about a particular company or product, it is obvious that the identity has to be disclosed. When the survey is carried out by phone or face to face, co-operation is helped if an advance letter is sent out explaining the purpose of the research. Logistically this may not be possible in which case the explanation for the survey would be built into the introductory script of the interviewer.

If the survey covers a number of competing brands, disclosure of the research sponsor will bias the response. If the interview is carried out anonymously, without disclosing the sponsor, bias will result through a considerably reduced strike rate or guarded responses. The interviewer, explaining at the outset of the interview that the sponsor will be disclosed at the end of the interview, usually overcomes this.

How Should Satisfaction Be Measured?

Customers express their satisfaction in many ways. When they are satisfied, they mostly say nothing but return again and again to buy or use more. When asked how they feel about a company or its products in open-ended questioning they respond with anecdotes and may use terminology such as delighted, extremely satisfied, very dissatisfied etc. Collecting the motleys variety of adjectives together from open ended responses would be problematical in a large survey. To overcome this problem market researchers ask people to describe a company using verbal or numeric scales with words that measure attitudes.

People are used to the concept of rating things with numerical scores and these can work well in surveys. Once the respondent has been given the anchors of the scale, they can readily give a number to express their level of satisfaction. Typically, scales of 5, 7 or 10 are used where the lowest figure indicates extreme dissatisfaction and the highest shows extreme satisfaction. The stem of the scale is usually quite short since a scale of up to 100 would prove too demanding for rating the dozens of specific issues that are often on the questionnaire.

Measuring satisfaction is only half the story. It is also necessary to determine customers’ expectations or the importance they attach to the different attributes, otherwise resources could be spent raising satisfaction levels of things that do not matter. The measurement of expectations or importance is more difficult than the measurement of satisfaction. Many people do not know or cannot admit, even to themselves, what is important. Can I believe someone who says they bought a Porsche for its “engineering excellence”? Consumers do not spend their time rationalizing why they do things, their views change and they may not be able to easily communicate or admit to the complex issues in the buying argument.

The same interval scales of words or numbers are often used to measure importance – 5, 7 or 10 being very important and 1 being not at all important. However, most of the issues being researched are of some importance for otherwise they would not be considered in the study. As a result, the mean scores on importance may show little differentiation between the vital issues such as product quality, price and delivery and the nice to have factors such as knowledgeable representatives and long opening hours. Ranking can indicate the importance of a small list of up to six or seven factors but respondents struggle to place things in rank order once the first four or five are out of the way. It would not work for determining the importance of 30 attributes.

As a check against factors that are given a “stated importance” score, researchers can statistically calculate (or “derive”) the importance of the same issues. Derived importance is calculated by correlating the satisfaction levels of each attribute with the overall level of satisfaction. Where there is a high link or correlation with an attribute, it can be inferred that the attribute is driving customer satisfaction. Deriving the importance of attributes can show the greater influence of softer issues such as the friendliness of the staff or the power of the brand – things that people somehow cannot rationalize or admit to in a “stated” answer.

How Many Organizations Measure Customer Satisfaction In 2021?

In a 2021 survey of marketing, insight, CX and business strategy decision-makers at B2B brands , capturing customer satisfaction ratings is the most common method organizations are using to measure customer loyalty.

Overall, 68% of organizations surveyed captured customer satisfaction ratings, while other key metrics such as customer retention, NPS and customer lifetime value were captured less frequently (60%, 51% and 31% respectively).

What’s important to note here is that CX Leaders (companies who are strong on at least 5 of B2B International’s 6 CX excellence indicators) are far more likely to capture customer satisfaction ratings compared to their average (87% vs 70%) or low performing counterparts (87% vs 54%).

This highlights the importance of measuring customer satisfaction if a brand wants to deliver a leading customer experience.

What Do The Measurements Mean?

The scores that are achieved in customer satisfaction studies are used to create a customer satisfaction index or CSI. There is no single definition of what comprises a customer satisfaction index. Some use only the rating given to overall performance. Some use an average of the two key measurements – overall performance and the intention to re-buy (an indication of loyalty). Yet others may bring together a wider basket of issues to form a CSI.

The average or mean score of satisfaction given to each attribute provides a league table of strengths and weaknesses. As a guide, the following interpretation can be made of scores from many different satisfaction surveys:

Someone once told me that the half way point in a marathon is 22 miles. Given the fact that a marathon is 26.2 miles it seemed that their maths was awry. Their point was that it requires as much energy to run the last 4.2 miles as it does the first 22. The same principle holds in the marathon race of customer satisfaction. The half way point is not a mean score of 5 out of 10 but 8 out of 10. Improving the mean score beyond 8 takes as much energy as it does to get to 8 and incremental points of improvement are hard to achieve.

Other researchers prefer to concentrate on the “top box” responses – those scores of 4 or 5 out of 5 – the excellent or very good ratings. It is argued that these are the scores that are required to create genuine satisfaction and loyalty. In their book ‘The Service Profit Chain’, Heskett, Sasser and Schlesinger argue that a rating of 9 or 10 out of 10 is required on most of the key issues that drive the buying decision. If suppliers fail to achieve such high ratings, customers show indifference and will shop elsewhere. Capricious consumers are at risk of being wooed by competitors, readily switching suppliers in the search for higher standards. The concept of the zone of loyalty, zone of indifference and zone of defection as suggested by the three Harvard professors (JL Heskett, The Service Profit Chain; The Free Press; New York 1997) is illustrated below in diagram 1:

Diagram 1 : Customer satisfaction and the effect on customer loyalty

This raises the interesting question – what is achievable and how far can we go in the pursuit of customer satisfaction. Abraham Lincoln’s quote about fooling people could be usefully modified for customer loyalty research to read “You can satisfy all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot satisfy all the people all the time”. As marketers we know that we must segment our customer base. It is no good trying to satisfy everyone, as we do not aim our products at everyone. What matters is that we achieve high scores of satisfaction in those segments in which we play. Obtaining scores of 9 or 10 from around a half to two thirds of targeted customers on issues that are important to them should be the aim. Plotting the customer satisfaction scores against the importance score will show where the strengths and weaknesses lie, (see diagram 2) with the main objective to move all issues to the top right box.

Diagram 2 : XY graph to show where customer satisfaction needs to improve

How To Use A Customer Satisfaction Research Survey To Greatest Effect

No company can truly satisfy its customers unless top management is fully behind the program. This does not just mean that they endorse the idea of customer satisfaction research studies but that they are genuinely customer orientated.

Yodel’s Customer Satisfaction Journey

A recent example of how to use customer satisfaction scores to greatest effect comes from our own experience in working with Yodel, one of the largest delivery companies in the UK.

Company leadership began a program to “own” what customers really thought by asking real customers for feedback.

To gather feedback from as many customers as possible, they added a simple link onto delivery notifications for the millions of online shoppers using their services every week. The results were immediate with tens of thousands of responses coming through every week. The volume of responses meant data could be generated and tracked through to the region, local service centre and ultimately to the delivery driver.

With this data in hand, thoughts turned to how they could use it to drive the voice of customers into their daily operational performance and company values. After the first million reviews, Yodel asked themselves a critical question – “what does it take to get 100% CSAT?”.

With the data available, they were able to boil it down to 4 key aspects that customers were looking for. These were that parcels were delivered on time in a good condition, with a good attitude whilst being kept informed throughout.

Yodel now had a simple and clear way of explaining their mission to get to 100% CSAT, and also knew what happened to CSAT when one or more of these aspects were below customer expectations.

Why Customer Satisfaction Scores Are Only Part Of The Story

A customer satisfaction index is a snapshot at a point in time. People’s views change continuously and the performance of companies in delivering customer satisfaction is also changing. Measuring satisfaction must be a continuous process. Tracking surveys provide benchmarks of one’s own company’s performance and, if competitor suppliers are also being measured, there will be measurements of relative performance. This places considerable onus on the researcher to design a customer service survey that will accurately show real differences, one survey to another. The questionnaire needs to be consistent so there is no dispute about answers differing because of changes to questions. The sample of each survey must be large enough to provide a reliable base and the selection of the sample must mirror earlier surveys so like is being compared with like.

Benchmarking in customer satisfaction can go beyond comparisons with direct competitors. Some firms have taken this type of benchmarking a step further. Instead of just developing a benchmark on competitors, they identify the best firm in any industry at a particular activity. L.L. Bean may be benchmarked for telephone order processing or customer service. American Express may be benchmarked for billing and payment transactions.

There has been considerable research into the links between customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction – Kaplan & Norton (1996), McCarthy (1997), Heskett, Sasser & Schlesinger (1997). The argument is a very obvious one. Happy employees work harder and try harder and so create satisfied customers. A co-ordinated customer satisfaction program should consider linking with an employee attitude survey. The employee attitude survey could also be used to check out how well staff believe they are satisfying customers as there could be a dangerous gap between internal perceptions of performance and those of customers.

Developing An Action Plan That Rectifies The Weaknesses And Builds On The Strengths

The purpose of customer satisfaction research is to improve customer loyalty and yet so often surveys sit collecting dust. Worse than that, customers have generously given their time to assist in the customer satisfaction survey believing that some positive action will take place. Their expectations will have been raised. The process of collecting the data seems easier than taking action to improve satisfaction levels.

In any customer satisfaction survey there will be quick fixes – actions that can be taken today or tomorrow that will have immediate effect. These could be quite specific such as a newsletter, changes to the invoicing, or a hot-line for technical information. In the longer term, cultural changes may well be required to improve customer satisfaction, and that is more difficult.

A five-step process can be used to make these longer-term improvements.

Video: A 5-Step Process to Making Longer-Term CX Improvements

Step 1: Spot the gap

• Look at the survey data to see where there are low absolute scores and low scores relative to the competition
• Pay particular attention to those issues that are important to customers
• Assume the scores are correct unless there is irrefutable evidence to the contrary – and remember, perceptions are reality

Step 2: Challenge and redefine the segmentation

• How do satisfaction scores vary across different types of customer?
• Are segments correctly defined in the light of the customer satisfaction survey findings?
• How could a change in segmentation direct the offer more effectively and so achieve higher levels of satisfaction?

Step 3: Challenge and redefine customer value propositions, customer journeys and understanding of customer needs

• Are satisfaction scores low because the customer value proposition (CVP) is not being communicated effectively to the market?
• Are scores low because the CVP is not being effectively implemented?
• Is the CVP right for the segment? How could a change in CVP achieve a higher customer satisfaction index (CSI)?
• Is a broader focus on customer experience management required? This goes beyond just conducting feedback surveys – Instead “customer centricity” lies at the heart of the organization’s decision-making.
• This wider discipline of CX management often focuses the business on customer requirements through techniques such as customer journey research , buyer persona research and customer needs research

Step 4: Create an action plan

• Describe the problem
• Think through the issues that need to be addressed and list them out
• Identify the root cause of the problems
• Identify any barriers that could stop the improvement taking place
• Set measurable targets
• Allocated resources (usually money and people)
• Assign people and time scales to the tasks
• Measure and review progress

Step 5: Measure and review

• How has the customer satisfaction index (CSI) moved?
• Is the movement significant/real?
• Has the action recommended in the plan, taken place? Has it been enough? Has it had enough time to work?
• Revisit the steps – spot the gap, challenge the segmentation and CVP, more action

Many of the issues that affect customer satisfaction span functional boundaries and so businesses must establish cross-functional teams to develop and implement action plans. One of the best ways of achieving this involvement by different groups of employees is to involve them in the whole process.

When the survey results are available, they should be shared with the same groups that were involved right at the beginning. Workshops are an excellent environment for analyzing the survey findings and driving through action planning. These are occasions when the survey data can be made user friendly and explained so that it is moved from something that has been collected and owned by the researcher to something that is believed in and found useful by the people that will have to implement the changes.

As with all good action planning, the workshops should deliver mutually agreed and achievable goals, assigned to people who can make things happen, with dates for achievements and rewards for success. Training may well be required to ensure that employees know how to handle customer service issues and understand which tools to use in various situations. Finally, there should be a constant review of the process as improving customer satisfaction is a race that never ends.

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Measuring and Managing Customer Satisfaction

It takes continuous effort to maintain high customer satisfaction levels. As markets shrink, companies scramble to boost customer satisfaction and keep their current customers rather than devoting additional resources to chase potential new customers. The claim that it costs five to eight times as much to get new customers than to hold on to old ones is key to understanding the drive toward benchmarking and tracking customer satisfaction.

Measuring customer satisfaction may be a new concept to companies that have been focused almost exclusively on income statements and balance sheets. Companies now recognize that the new global economy has changed things forever. Increased competition, crowded markets with little product differentiation, and years of sales growth followed by two plus decades of flattened sales curves and a global pandemic indicate to today’s sharp competitors that their focus must change.

Related Survey Types

Competitors that are prospering in the new global economy recognize that measuring customer satisfaction is key. Only by doing so can they hold on to the customers they have and understand how to better attract new customers. Successful competitors recognize that customer satisfaction is a critical strategic weapon that can bring increased market share and increased profits.

The problem companies face, however, is exactly how to measure customer satisfaction and do it well. They need to understand how to quantify, measure, and track customer satisfaction. Without a clear and accurate sense of what needs to be measured and how to collect, analyze, and use the data as a strategic weapon to drive the business, no firm can be effective in this new business climate. Plans constructed using customer satisfaction research results can be designed to target customers and processes that are most able to extend profits.

Too many companies rely on outdated and unreliable measures of customer satisfaction. They watch sales volume. They listen to sales reps describing their customers’ states of mind. They track and count the frequency of complaints. And they watch aging accounts receivable reports, recognizing that unhappy customers pay as late as possible — if at all. While these approaches are not completely without value, they are no substitute for a valid, well-designed customer satisfaction survey program.

It’s no surprise to find that market leaders differ from the rest of their industry in that they have programs in place to hear the voice of the customer and achieve customer satisfaction. In these companies:

• Marketing and sales employees are primarily responsible for designing (with customer input) customer satisfaction surveying programs, questionnaires, and focus groups.
• Top management and marketing divisions champion the programs.
• Corporate evaluations include not only their own customer satisfaction ratings but also those of their competitors.
• Satisfaction results are made available to all employees.
• Customers are informed about changes brought about as the direct result of listening to their needs.
• Internal and external quality measures are often tied together.
• Customer satisfaction is incorporated into the strategic focus of the company via the mission statement.
• Stakeholder compensation is tied directly to the customer satisfaction surveying program.
• A concentrated effort is made to relate the customer satisfaction measurement results to internal process metrics.

To be successful, companies need a customer satisfaction surveying system that meets the following criteria:

• The system must be easy to understand.
• It must be credible so that employee performance and compensation can be attached to the final results.
• It must generate actionable reports for management.

Defining Customer Satisfaction

The concept of customer satisfaction is widely used by many organizations, but it’s important to be clear on exactly what’s meant by the term.

Customer satisfaction is the state of mind that customers have about a company when their expectations have been met or exceeded over the lifetime of the product or service. The achievement of customer satisfaction leads to company loyalty and product repurchase. There are some important implications of this definition:

• Because customer satisfaction is a subjective, nonquantitative state, measurement won’t be exact and will require sampling and statistical analysis.
• Customer satisfaction measurement must be undertaken with an understanding of the gap between customer expectations and performance perceptions.
• There is a connection between customer satisfaction measurement and bottom-line results.

“Satisfaction” itself can refer to a number of different aspects of the relationship with a customer. For example, it can refer to any or all of the following:

• Satisfaction with the quality of a particular product or service.
• Satisfaction with an ongoing business relationship.
• Satisfaction with the price-performance ratio of a product or service.
• Satisfaction because a product/service met or exceeded the customer’s expectations.

Each industry could add to this list according to the nature of the business and the specific relationship with the customer. Customer satisfaction measurement variables will differ depending on what type of satisfaction is being researched. For example, manufacturers typically desire on-time delivery and adherence to specifications, so measures of satisfaction taken by suppliers should include these critical variables.

Clearly defining and understanding customer satisfaction can help any company identify opportunities for product and service innovation and serve as the basis for performance appraisal and reward systems. It can also serve as the basis for a customer satisfaction survey program that can ensure that quality improvement efforts are properly focused on issues that are most important to the customer.

Objectives of a Customer Satisfaction Survey Program

In addition to a clear statement defining customer satisfaction, any successful customer survey program must have a clear set of objectives that, once met, will lead to improved performance. The most basic objectives that should be met by any customer surveying program include the following:

• Understanding the expectations and requirements of your customers.
• Determining how well your company and its competitors are satisfying these expectations and requirements.
• Developing service and/or product standards based on your findings.
• Examining trends over time in order to take action on a timely basis.
• Establishing priorities and standards to judge how well you’ve met these goals.

Before an appropriate customer satisfaction surveying program can be designed, the following basic questions must be clearly answered:

• How will the information we gather be used?
• How will this information allow us to take action inside the organization?
• How should we use this information to keep our customers and find new ones?

Careful consideration must be given to what the organization hopes to accomplish, how the results will be disseminated to various parts of the organization, and how the information will be used. There is no point asking customers about a particular service or product if it won’t or can’t be changed regardless of the feedback.

Conducting a customer satisfaction survey program is a burden on the organization and its customers in terms of time and resources. There is no point in engaging in this work unless it has been thoughtfully designed so that only relevant and important information is gathered. This information must allow the organization to take direct action. Nothing is more frustrating than having information that indicates a problem exists but fails to isolate the specific cause. Having the purchasing department of a manufacturing firm rate the sales and service it received on its last order on a survey scale of 1 (terrible) to 6 (magnificent) would yield little about how to improve sales and service to the manufacturer.

The lesson is twofold. First, general questions are often not that helpful in customer satisfaction measurement, at least not without other more specific questions attached. Second, the design of an excellent customer satisfaction surveying program is more difficult than it might first appear. It requires more than just writing a few questions, designing a questionnaire, calling or emailing some customers, and then tallying the results.

Understanding Differing Customer Attitudes

The most basic objective of customer satisfaction surveys is to generate valid and consistent customer feedback (i.e., to receive the voice of the customer), which can then be used to initiate strategies that will retain customers and thus protect one of the most valuable corporate assets — loyal customers.

As it’s determined what needs to be measured and how the data relate to loyalty and repurchase, it becomes important to examine the mind-set of customers the instant they are required to make a pre-purchase (or repurchase) decision or a recommendation decision. Surveying these decisions leads to measures of customer loyalty. In general, the customer’s pre-purchase mind-set will fall into one of three categories — rejection (will avoid purchasing if at all possible), acceptance (satisfied, but will shop for a better deal), and/or preference (delighted and may even purchase at a higher price).

This highly subjective system that customers themselves apply to their decisions is based primarily on input from two sources:

• The customers’ own experiences — each time they experience a product or service, deciding whether that experience is great, neutral, or terrible. These are known as “moments of truth.”
• The experiences of other customers — each time they hear something about a company, whether it’s great, neutral, or terrible. This is known as “word-of-mouth.”

There is obviously a strong connection between these two inputs. An exceptional experience leads to strong word-of-mouth recommendations. Strong recommendations influence the experience of the customer, and many successful companies have capitalized on that link.

How does a customer satisfaction surveying program allow you to make the connection between the survey response and the customer’s attitude or mind-set regarding loyalty? Research conducted by both corporate and academic researchers shows a relationship between customer survey measurements and the degree of preference or rejection that a customer might have accumulated. When the customer is asked a customer satisfaction question, the customer’s degree of loyalty mind-set (or attitude) will be an accumulation of all past experiences and exposures that can be indicated as a score from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 6 (very satisfied).

Obviously, the goal of every company should be to develop customers with a preference attitude (i.e., we all want the coveted preferred vendor status such that the customer, when given a choice, will choose our company), but it takes continuous customer experience management, which means customer satisfaction measurement, to get there — and even more effort to stay there.

If you would like to know more about how NBRI can help you, please contact us at 800-756-6168.

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Multi-objective multi-compartment vehicle routing problem of fresh products with the promised latest delivery time

• Original Research
• Published: 09 September 2024

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• Xiufeng Li   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-6072-652X 1  

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In light of the growing consumer emphasis on delivery speed and corporate environmental responsibility, it becomes paramount to simultaneously address the alignment of customer expectations with corporate objectives. We undertake a comprehensive examination of delivery delays and carbon emissions stemming from e-commerce logistics, leading us to formulate a delivery delay penalty function informed by customer behavior traits such as loss aversion. Concurrently, we analyze various factors influencing customer satisfaction and integrate them into our model. Similarly, we incorporate multiple determinants impacting vehicle emissions, devising a logistics cost-minimization model encompassing carbon emissions and cooling expenses. By amalgamating considerations of customer satisfaction, logistics expenses, and environmental concerns, we devise a dual-objective optimization model. To tackle this complex challenge, we introduce a multi-objective Artificial Bee Colony algorithm based on MOEA/D principles, substantiating its efficacy through extensive numerical experiments. Our findings demonstrate the algorithm's ability to intelligently optimize logistics routes, thus reducing vehicle utilization. Finally, we present a Pareto front, illustrating how mitigating customer satisfaction can alleviate logistics and carbon emission costs.

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Xiufeng Li conceived this study, conducted and drafted the context, and designed the algorithm. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Li, X. Multi-objective multi-compartment vehicle routing problem of fresh products with the promised latest delivery time. Ann Oper Res (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-024-06254-4

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Received : 15 May 2023

Accepted : 29 August 2024

Published : 09 September 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-024-06254-4

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