6 Secrets to Improve Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) in the Contact Center

We’ve been chatting a lot about customer satisfaction (CSAT) recently, but for excellent reason, measuring the degree to which your product or service meets customer expectations is critical to your brand’s success, regardless of the vertical or size. Here, we’re going to discuss six secrets your call center can adopt to ensure high caller satisfaction.

1. Understand your customers’ expectations

An average of 26 other unhappy customers remained silent for every customer complaint you get. TWENTY-SIX unsatisfied customers! Make sure you collect customer feedback to understand what customers expect from you. Customer satisfaction surveys are one way to do this. If you don’t understand customer perceptions, you can’t manage them.

2. Make sure your CSAT metrics are accurate

Have you ever considered that your data might not be reliable? That’s a scary thought, assuming you make decisions based on data. Still, a recent report by Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business revealed that a broad cross-section of industries often overestimate their customers’ satisfaction. That leads them to rely on unrealistic expectations when making marketing decisions and allocating resources to address marketplace issues. Make sure you watch and double-check numbers to maintain accuracy.

3. Test your own experience

Contact your own company and see how the process feels. What is it like to chat with an agent, how does it feel to call the contact center, what’s the self-service process? Not only can you personally test these experiences, but you can also have a focus group perform the tasks and gather feedback that way. Once you’ve completed that step, do the same thing with your competition. How does it compare? Are you better or worse? Fix the area(s) that need improvement or pat yourself on the back for outperforming.

4. Keep your agents happy

Agent attrition is a top challenge. Studies have shown that call center agents quit most often because of their work environments rather than their compensation. Agent turnover is a huge problem and a costly one!

Companies need to find more ways to increase agent engagement, improve coaching, and motivate employees. Most importantly, be nice and friendly. It’s the right thing to do and will help your bottom line.

5. Don’t leave customers on hold

Rather than forcing customers to wait on hold, your customer support center should be offering a callback during periods of long queue times. Just keep in mind that a callback solution can also hurt your contact center. There are two types of callback methodologies on the market. Often, the call center manager doesn’t realize the vast differences between the two.

6. Offer training and professional development

A well-trained team makes all the difference in the world. They are more efficient, provide better service, and more likely to stay with your call center. All of this translates into superior customer service, which creates the high CSAT score you desire. Provide training opportunities to your agents, and you will see your customer loyalty increase. Plus, setting your agents up for success will make them feel less stressed, and that relaxed tone will translate over the phone.