Measuring customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is a concept which is met with approval on all sides. Yet at the same time it is as subjective as it is freely interpretable. Because what is customer satisfaction? And how do you measure the satisfaction of end users or customers regarding the services provided?

According to TOPdesk consultant Hajo Kootstra the satisfaction of the end user or customer with regard to the services provided is essential for the survival of an organisation. “The customer’s assessment of the service plays a large role in the perception of the quality. The quality of the service provided is not only dependent on the performance delivered, but also on the expectations of the customer.” The European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM)1 also affirms that the assessment of your customers and own employees is an important factor for the operating profit. The success of a venture does not only consist of products or services - the perception of this also contributes to the result. Within an organisation it is therefore vital to measure the assessment by customers or your employees in order to reach a good result.

Feelings and emotions

A customer satisfaction investigation is made up of quantitative and qualitative aspects. The satisfaction can be measured using quantitative means such as surveys, polls and reports. The survey is perhaps the most effective of these methods as it can be reproduced, the results are comparable, and it is unambiguous and can be easily distributed to end users or employees. Yet not every aspect of customer satisfaction can be investigated using quantitative methods. The qualitative aspect consists of meetings, interviews and conversations in the corridor. Feelings and emotions are harder to measure. New, unique ideas are not usually concocted as the result of a survey, but during (group) discussions. Qualitative research is thus a valuable complement to quantitative research.

Getting to work

As a consultant for TOPdesk Hajo has helped numerous organisations to compose customer satisfaction investigations: “An investigation like this consists of various quantitative and qualitative phases, including an initial evaluation, a brainstorm session, the actual survey, analyses, reports and proposals for improvement. “To create the actual survey we use TOPdesk’s Survey module. The module enables you to easily send a standard feedback form to a customer or end user, for example automatically via an email, which contains a link to a specific survey. The collected data is then saved directly in a central location in TOPdesk to be reported on at a later stage.”

Points of improvement

In practice Hajo has carried out many investigations with customers: “Customer satisfaction investigations often reveal that many customers find effective communication regarding the processing of their question or problem more important than the actual time it takes to be resolved. It can also reveal that the increased number of calls has indeed gone hand in hand with the customers’ increased trust in the service desk, or that the management’s satisfaction with regard to the achieved KPIs does not match the satisfaction of the customers.” Ultimately a customer satisfaction investigation should identify the best ways to improve the service offered and should not be a goal in itself.

1 The EFQM Excellence Model was introduced at the beginning of 1992 as the framework for assessing organisations for the European Quality Award. It is now the most widely used organisational framework in Europe and it has become the basis for the majority of national and regional Quality Awards.