Glossary

Customer satisfaction score (CSAT)

Customer satisfaction score (CSAT) is the share of customers who were satisfied with a specific interaction. You measure it with a short survey right after a call or chat: the customer gives a rating, usually from 1 to 5.

Why it mattersShows whether customers are happy with your service right now – for each queue and each agent.

Also called: Customer satisfaction score, CSAT, Customer satisfaction

FormulaCSAT = satisfied responses / total responses × 100%Satisfied responses are ratings of 4 or 5 on a five-point scale.

How it works

How it's measured

Right after the interaction, you ask the customer one question, such as "How satisfied are you with the help you received?", and ask for a rating from 1 to 5. You can ask in the IVR at the end of a call, by SMS, with buttons in a messaging app, or in the chat window.

Ask within minutes of the conversation, not days later
One question, plus an optional comment field
Tie every rating to the agent, queue, and inquiry topic

Example

You get 400 responses: 200 fives, 120 fours, 50 threes, and 30 lower ratings. Satisfied customers: 200 + 120 = 320. CSAT = 320 / 400 × 100% = 80%.

If 400 out of 2,000 customers responded, your response rate is 20%. Show it next to CSAT: when few people respond, the ratings come mostly from the very happy and the very unhappy, and the result gets skewed.

Comparison

CSAT vs. NPS

Both metrics come from surveys, but they ask about different things.

CSATWas the customer satisfied with this specific interaction? It varies from one conversation to the next, so it works well for evaluating agents and queues.

NPSWould the customer recommend the company? It reflects how they feel about the whole company – product, price, and service together.

In practice

How to improve CSAT

Resolve issues on the first contact: when customers don't have to call back, ratings go up
Cut wait times and the number of transfers between agents
Give agents a knowledge base and real-time suggestions during the call
Every week, read the comments on low ratings and fix the most common causes

In CONTACT.WORK

How it works in CONTACT.WORK

The post-call CSAT survey runs in the IVR, in a chatbot, or as a message to the customer. Ratings appear in platform reports next to NPS. To find out why ratings drop, use quality management: reviewers score calls, chats, and emails with comments, and speech analytics transcribes conversations automatically and checks them against a scorecard.