Simplified Guide to NPS, CSAT, and CSI: Key Metrics for Customer Feedback

In the realm of measuring how happy customers are with your business, three important indicators stand out: Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), and Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI). Each of these metrics offers unique insights into customer loyalty, satisfaction with specific experiences, and overall contentment with your products or services over time. Let’s break down what each metric means, how to use them, and introduce some tools that can assist in gathering and analyzing these critical data points.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Overview: NPS categorizes customers based on how likely they are to recommend your service or product to someone else. It’s a straightforward way to look at customer loyalty.

Calculation: Subtract the percentage of detractors (those who gave a score of 0–6) from the percentage of promoters (those who gave a score of 9–10).

• Promoters are respondents giving a score of 9 or 10.
• Detractors are those giving a score of 0 to 6.
• Percentages are calculated out of the total number of respondents.

When to Use: Use NPS to get a quick snapshot of customer loyalty and to identify potential advocates or detractors of your brand.

Example:

You have a bookshop. You make a survey for your audience with one question: “How likely is it that you will recommend our company/brand to your friends, colleagues or acquaintances using the range from 0 to 10?”. And then you analize results. BUT be careful you can’t compare results with cafes or restaurants only with bookshops.

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

Overview: CSAT measures how satisfied customers are with a recent transaction or interaction with your business. It’s typically gauged by asking customers to rate their satisfaction on a scale.

Calculation: Divide the number of satisfied customers (those giving a 4 or 5 out of 5) by the total number of responses, then multiply by 100 to get a percentage.

When to Use: Deploy CSAT surveys following specific interactions, like a purchase or customer support call, to understand immediate customer sentiment.

Example:

You have a bookshop. You make a survey for your audience with a question like : “how do you feel about the quality of service of our store using range from 1 to 5?”.

Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI)

Overview: CSI offers a deep dive into how satisfied customers are with your products or services over a period. It uses a set of questions to evaluate different aspects of the customer experience.

Calculation: The score is usually an average of multiple detailed questions that touch on various facets of customer satisfaction.

When to Use: CSI is best for comprehensive analysis and tracking satisfaction trends over time, perfect for strategic planning and improvement.

Example:

You have a bookshop. You make a survey for your audience with a question like : “how do you feel about filters of our app using range from 1 to 5?”. Also you can add an open-ended question “why?/why do you think so?/specify” to know more details.

How These Metrics Differ and Complement Each Other

• NPS measures overall loyalty and the likelihood of customers to act as brand promoters.
• CSAT evaluates immediate satisfaction with a particular experience or interaction (for example, interaction with a specific part of your interface — bookshop app).
• CSI looks at overall satisfaction across multiple aspects of the business over time.

Tools to Measure and Analyze Customer Feedback

Many tools and platforms are available to help businesses measure NPS, CSAT, and CSI. These tools often come with features for creating surveys, distributing them across various channels, and analyzing the feedback received. The choice of tool can depend on the specific needs of your business, such as the level of detail you need in your analysis, the volume of customers you’re surveying, or how integrated the tool needs to be with your other business systems. I can advise these tools:

• SurveyMonkey and Typeform offer NPS survey capabilities that are easy to use and integrate with your customer service platform.
• Delighted provides a streamlined approach to NPS, with real-time analytics and feedback.
• Zendesk and Freshdesk integrate CSAT surveys directly into customer support interactions, making it easy to collect feedback.
• Google Forms is a free tool that can be customized for CSAT surveys and shared via email or on your website.
• Qualtrics provides robust survey tools that can be tailored for complex CSI surveys, with advanced analytics to interpret the results.
• SurveyGizmo (now Alchemer) allows for the creation of detailed surveys that can measure CSI, offering insights into long-term customer satisfaction trends.

Conclusion

Understanding NPS, CSAT, and CSI is crucial for any business focused on improving customer satisfaction and loyalty. By effectively measuring these metrics, you can gain valuable insights into what your customers think about your brand and where you can make improvements. The right tools can simplify this process, allowing you to collect, analyze, and act on customer feedback efficiently. Integrating these metrics into your customer feedback strategy can help you build a better, more customer-focused business.