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Glossary · Call centre operations

What is CSAT (customer satisfaction score)?

  • Also called: customer satisfaction score, csat score

Reviewed by Sujan ThapaliyaLast updated

Definition

CSAT is the share of surveyed customers who rate an interaction positively, usually the top two points of a five-point scale. It measures a specific contact rather than the relationship, which is what separates it from a loyalty measure like NPS.
The three STIR/SHAKEN attestation levels, which underpin how csat (customer satisfaction score) behaves in practice: A asserts both that the carrier knows the customer and that the customer may use the calling number, B asserts the customer only, and C asserts neither. A shared number pool can reach B at best, which is why number ownership keeps recurring in these definitions.
Attestation is the backdrop to most caller-ID and deliverability terms, csat (customer satisfaction score) included.

In practice

How csat (customer satisfaction score) actually works

Response rates are the weak point. Post-call surveys are answered disproportionately by the delighted and the furious, and a 6% response rate describes those two groups rather than your customers.

It is also heavily influenced by things the agent did not control: the wait before the call, the policy they had to apply, the product itself. Scoring agents on CSAT alone punishes them for the queue.

The useful version pairs the score with the free-text comment and reads them together, because the comment is where the actionable part lives.

Timing changes the score more than wording does. A survey sent immediately measures the interaction; one sent the next day measures the memory, and one sent after the problem recurred measures the problem. Fixing the send timing usually moves a CSAT programme more than rewriting the question ever does.

Worked example

A 6% response rate on a post-call survey describes the delighted and the furious. Read the free-text comments before the score, because that is where the actionable half lives.

CSAT (customer satisfaction score): common questions

What is a good CSAT score?
Above eighty per cent top-two-box is strong for voice support. Comparisons between companies are close to meaningless, because scale wording and survey timing differ more than the underlying experience does.
Should agents be scored on CSAT?
Partly, and never alone. Wait times, policy limits and product faults all move the score without the agent touching it. Use it alongside quality monitoring rather than instead of it.
When should the survey be sent?
Immediately after the contact, while the experience is intact. Delay reduces both response rate and accuracy, and a survey sent the next day measures the memory rather than the call.

Sources

  1. Combating Spoofed Robocalls with Caller ID Authentication — Federal Communications CommissionThe STIR/SHAKEN framework, the attestation levels carriers sign calls with, and the mandate requiring providers to authenticate caller ID.
  2. 47 U.S.C. § 227 — Restrictions on the use of telephone equipment — Cornell Legal Information InstituteThe Telephone Consumer Protection Act itself — the consent requirements, calling-hours limits, and private right of action.
  3. ITU-T Recommendation E.164 — The international public telecommunication numbering plan — International Telecommunication UnionThe international number format, the 15-digit maximum, and how country codes and national numbers compose.

See csat (customer satisfaction score) in the product

Call analytics turns raw call records into the numbers a manager can act on: volume by hour, connect and answer rates, talk time, dispositions, service level, abandonment and the per-number reputation behind all of it. Reporting on activity, as distinct from attributing calls to campaigns.

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