Indicator barometer: where do companies stand with customer satisfaction?

As a Feedback Management player, measuring customer satisfaction and gathering the Voice of the Customer seems like a no-brainer in 2018. And yet, the latestKPI Barometer" produced by easiware turns this obvious statement on its head when it comes to our favorite indicators.

In fact, only 55% of the brands surveyed evaluate post-contact satisfaction, with significant disparities depending on the sector studied:

• 66% for Te?le?coms / Energy / Utilities
• 59% for the Banking/Insurance/Financial Services sector
• 52% in the Distribution / e-Commerce category
• 50% for B2B and B2B2C activities

For our part, we note that tourism is one of the most advanced sectors. There are two reasons for this: the satisfaction of a customer who spends a lot of money on a trip is taken into greater consideration. The second reason: the hegemony of review platforms such as TripAdvisor is forcing tourism players to create their own measurement tools. The same applies to e-commerce, which is following the trend towards post-purchase ratings offered by renowned players such as Amazon and E-bay.

Another differentiating criterion identified by easiware is company size. According to the barometer, 2.5 fewer customer services departments in small companies measure post-contact/treatment customer satisfaction. Beyond size or sector, it's often a question of corporate culture and how satisfaction is taken into account.

NPS tops the list of indicators

In 2018, it's the NPS that's used most by companies at 44.5%, followed by the CSat (26.5%) and the CES (14.5%); while others mention other tools at 14.5% (satisfaction terminals, for example). Even if this isn't necessarily the most appropriate indicator, nor the easiest for teams to understand, it's not surprising that it's the most widely used. For one thing, it's been around for almost 20 years: it was popularized in the early 2000s by Fred Reicheld. Secondly, it's a universal indicator that can be compared in all countries, a big advantage for multinationals.

Choosing several indicators: the right option?

While 45% of brands claim to use just one indicator, over a third (37.2%) have opted for two, three or even more, in order to build up their own satisfaction score. One of Fred Reichheld's studies showed that companies that tracked a single satisfaction indicator were better at improving it than those that decided to track several. This seems logical enough: it's hard enough to install one indicator in an organization, let alone manage several...! Ultimately, the most important thing is to be able to link this indicator - recommendation, loyalty or other - with the company's growth.

According to the barometer, the overall average return rate for post-contact satisfaction surveys is 35.7%. According to our observations, we note higher return rates for post-contact customer service than for post-purchase. In addition, we've been talking about over-solicited customers for several years now, yet we haven't seen a drop in return rates across all sectors. The customer feedback culture has finally taken hold.

Customer satisfaction as a business driver

Easiware also questioned companies on the indicators they would like to put in place in the short term to prove the performance of customer service on the business. To this question, 49% chose an indicator measuring customer satisfaction. A further 30% cite an indicator linked to sales or customer loyalty/retention (rate of re-purchase following contact, volume of up-selling, cross-selling, seized sales, etc.). And 11% refer to an internal productivity/efficiency indicator.

Nowadays, most companies think in terms of customer satisfaction first and foremost. It's hard to imagine up-selling, cross-selling or reducing churn without first ensuring customer satisfaction. It's also the basis of a relationship of trust that the company must never stop working on. As Jack Welch, the legendary boss of General Electrics, once said: "In a business, you have to concentrate on cash and customer satisfaction, and the rest follows."

Employees measured by customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is also the number one criterion when it comes to measuring advisor performance. It is used by 57% of companies in most sectors and types of activity. This criterion is taken into account more by customer relations service providers (71%) and in consulting and business services (65%). The focus is no longer solely on quality indicators (DMT, response time, etc.), but on customer satisfaction as a means of evaluating the work of employees - and so much the better!

This study shows the growing maturity of Feedback Management within companies, and the need to measure customer satisfaction on an ongoing basis, across the entire customer journey.

All that remains is for them to meet the following challenges:

• Decision-making in the face of accumulating data;
• Leading teams with customer feedback, in a long-term approach;
• Be able to measure the impact of corrective actions on satisfaction KPIs (impact in terms of satisfaction vs. costs incurred).