If we are unhappy with the service, most probably we won’t come back and very likely will tell many of our friends about our bad experience. The same applies to products. If the product doesn’t perform as we expect, we might look for another brand at the time of reorder.There are numerous studies that show that the cost of acquiring a new customer is higher that the resources required to keep the actual customers. Besides, existing customers are more likely to buy more and try new products than new customers if they are satisfied with past experiences. Customer Satisfaction Survey is a measurement tool that will tell you the level of satisfaction with the service and therefore, if the customer will stay with you or not. It can be thought as a quality control point on the customer side. As matter of fact, you can use the results to develop standards for quality control through the value chain. The most used questions in customer satisfaction surveys are about the overall level of satisfaction with the service or product and the wiliness to recommend them. The overall satisfaction should be breakdown in the dimensions of quality to identify the sources of problem. However, the overall satisfaction should not be an average of the dimensions identified it should be an individual question by itself. Customer satisfaction survey use mostly rating scales. Rating scales can be continuous, Licker, Staples or Semantic Differential. Rating scales are Interval scales therefore you can apply mean range and standard deviation to get insights. The questions should be asked while their answers still have an impact. Waiting for a problem can cause the lost of the customer. If there is not a customer satisfaction survey in place, you might not even know the cause of the lost. It is recommended to send the survey as soon as possible after an interaction, while the experience is still fresh. However, many customer satisfaction survey programs are longitudinal studies that are repeated at periodic intervals. You can develop a control chart to detect deviations in quality sooner. Finally, have a plan of action for the most frequent problems that can arise from the study. As you repeat the study through the years, you will be able find problems with high frequency and impact on customer retention.
