While there's no way to beat measuring customer satisfaction with surveys, businesses can still gather valuable insights without them.
These methods include:
- Net promoter score (NPS)
- Customer churn rate
- Calculating LTV
Each method relays important insight into customer sentiment, allowing businesses to improve related strategies. This also leads to increased customer retention, as shoppers are happy to stay with businesses that meet their needs.
Below, we’ll show you how to measure customer satisfaction without surveys.
Why is Customer Satisfaction Important?
Customer satisfaction is important for a number of reasons.
Firstly, customers are the foundation of every brand. If they're unhappy, they can simply do business elsewhere, leaving the original brand low on sales.
For instance, nearly 3 in 4 consumers say that when it comes to purchasing decisions, customer experience is a very important factor. It is so important, that even if they love a company or product, 59% of customers will not return after having a bad experience.
Luckily, customer satisfaction research aims to correct this information by delivering timely, actionable data about customer preferences. Businesses can then use this information to create better customer outreach services.
These can include:
- Marketing strategies
- Online shopping experience
- Better understanding of customer base
These points all contribute to maintaining a high customer satisfaction rate.
Again, when a business has a high customer satisfaction rate, brands can expect to see increased sales and overall business success.
Customer Satisfaction Metrics to Measure
There are multiple ways to measure this key metric. Each of these customer satisfaction metrics will reveal important data about customer shopping habits.
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
A net promoter score tracks customer loyalty levels, focusing on the total satisfaction of a company. Measuring NPS uses a Likert scale, which is made up of 11 points, 0 to 10.
Customers will be asked how they would rate their overall satisfaction and then choose a number on the scale. These responses are grouped into three main groups: promoters, passives, and detractors.
Promoters
Promoters are those that rated a brand highly, within the 9 to 10 range, meaning they would highly recommend the business.
Passives
Passives fall in the 7 to 8 range on the scale. The difference between this group and the promoters is that they're more easily swayed to hop to another brand.
Detractors
Lastly, the detractors have rated 0 to 6 on the Likert scale. These lower numbers equate to a lower satisfaction rate with a company. This is the group that needs to be watched carefully, as they're close to jumping ship.
Churn Rate Of Customers
Churn rate refers to the number of customers leaving a company within a certain time period.
Market research can reveal if a company is having a high customer churn rate or a lower churn rate. In this case, companies should aim for a low churn rate.
A few causes of churn rate include:
- Poor customer service
- Low-quality products/services
- Not meeting customer needs
Like many issues regarding customer satisfaction, customer churn rates need to be approached by looking at the big picture. Typically, there's more than one issue at play.
Calculate Your LTV
"LTV" refers to the lifetime value of a customer and their financial impact on a company.
More specifically, the metric is designed to measure the total revenue a customer would bring in for a brand throughout their lifetime. LTV delivers important insights into how well a brand is serving its customers.
The goal when measuring this metric is to retain customers through increased knowledge of their preferences. In turn, this promotes customer loyalty.
How to Measure Customer Satisfaction Without Surveys
If you're looking for alternatives to traditional customer surveys, there are several creative and engaging methods you can consider to gather valuable insights from your customers.
Here are some other options for measuring customer satisfaction without surveys:
- Focus Groups: Bring together a small group of customers for in-depth discussions. Focus groups allow you to explore specific topics in detail and gather qualitative insights that might not be captured in a survey.
- In-Depth Interviews: Conduct face-to-face or virtual in-depth interviews with customers to delve deeper into their experiences, preferences, and feedback. These interviews can provide more nuanced insights compared to written surveys.
- Customer Journeys Mapping: Map out the entire customer journey, identifying touchpoints and pain points. This helps you understand the customer experience from start to finish.
- Feedback Cards or Tablets in Physical Locations: Place feedback cards or tablets in your physical locations where customers can quickly provide feedback after their visit.
I recommend contacting a full-service market research company, like Drive Research to learn what approach is best based on your unique objectives.
Our customer satisfaction company specializes in various quantitative and qualitative market research methodologies and therefore can recommend if focus groups, IDIs, or surveys can effectively tackle your needs.
Final Thoughts
While surveys remain a powerful tool for measuring customer satisfaction, businesses have a range of alternatives at their disposal to gather valuable insights.
The methods mentioned above, including Net Promoter Score (NPS), customer churn rate analysis, and calculating the Lifetime Value (LTV) of customers, offer different perspectives on customer sentiment.
By understanding and addressing customer preferences and pain points, companies can enhance their marketing strategies, refine the online shopping experience, and better connect with their customer base.
When considering these methods, it's also worth consulting expert market research companies like Drive Research to determine the most suitable approach for your specific goals.
Contact Our Customer Satisfaction Company
Drive Research is a national customer satisfaction company. We work with a variety of organizations and industries across the country to assist with customer surveys, focus groups, in-depth interviews, and more.
As a full-service market research company, we can manage your entire project from start to finish.
Interested in working with Drive Research to measure customer satisfaction? Contact our team through any of the four ways below.
- Message us on our website
- Email us at [email protected]
- Call us at 888-725-DATA
- Text us at 315-303-2040
Lark Allen
As a Content Marketing Specialist, Lark has a strong background and passion for creative, professional, and journalistic writing. She is also a self-proclaimed music freak and 90s enthusiast.
Learn more about Lark, here.
