How to Measure Customer Satisfaction
and Build a Customer Satisfaction Survey
“Customer satisfaction measurement reports
the state of mind that customers have about a company and its products or
services when their expectations have been met or exceeded. This state reflects
the customer’s lifetime of product or service experience“
Customer satisfaction with
any product or survey reflects the evaluation of the product, service, company,
and environment. Customer satisfaction is critical to any product or service
because customer satisfaction is a strong predictor of customer loyalty and
product repurchase.
Customer satisfaction may be
measured by including cognitive (thinking-evaluative), affective (like/dislike),
and behavioral action dimensions of the product or service experience.
Customer satisfaction
surveys, along with market segmentation and concept testing surveys are one of
the three most common survey types.
Customer
satisfaction usually leads to customer loyalty and product repurchase. But
measuring satisfaction is not the same as measuring loyalty. Satisfaction
measurement questions typically include items like:
- Overall, how satisfied are you with (brand name)?
- Would you recommend (brand name)?
- Do you intend to repurchase (brand name)?
Graphically, customer
satisfaction can be depicted as being influenced by perceived quality of
product and service attributes, features and benefits, and is moderated by
customer expectations regarding the product or service. Each of these constructs that influence
customer satisfaction also need to be defined:
Customer Expectations
Customer satisfaction is
largely a reflection of the expectations and experiences that the customer has with
a product or service. However
expectations also reflect that influences the evaluation of the product or
service. When we make major purchases,
we research the product or service and gain information from the advertising,
salespersons, and word-of-mouth from friends and associates. This information influences our expectations
and ability to evaluate quality, value, and the ability of the product or
service to meet our needs.
Types of Expectations that Influence
Customer Satisfaction
Customer performance
expectations about the product and service attributes, features and benefits to
be enjoyed may be identified as including both explicit and implicit
expectations. Explicit expectations are mental targets for product
performance that include well identified performance standards. Implicit expectations represent the
norms of performance that reflect accepted standards established by business in
general, and other companies, industries, and even cultures.
Static performance
expectations concern how performance
and quality for a specific application are defined. Although each
system’s performance measures are unique, general expectations relate to
quality of outcome and include: accessibility, customization, dependability,
timeliness, accuracy, tangible cues which augment the
application, options, cutting edge technology, flexibility, and user friendly
interfaces. Static performance expectations are the visible part of
the iceberg; they are the ones we see and -- often erroneously -- assume are
all that exist.
Dynamic performance
expectations are about how the
product or service evolves over time and includes the changes in support and product
or service enhancement needed to meet future business or use environments. Dynamic
performance expectations may result in revised “static” performance
expectations as new uses, integrations, or systems require changes.
Technological expectations focus on the evolving state of the product
category. Mobile phones are a
continually evolving and very involving product that demonstrates a high switch
rate as new technology appears. The availability of text messing, email,
camera, blue tooth technology and MP3 capability changes technology
expectations as well as the static and dynamic performance expectations of the
product. These highly involving products
enhance perceptions of status, ego, self-image, and can even invoke fear when
the product is not available.
Interpersonal expectations involve the relationship between customer and the
product or service provider. These
person to person relationships are increasingly important, especially where
products require support for proper use and functioning. Expectations for interpersonal support
include technical knowledge and ability to solve the problem, ability to
communicate, time to problem resolution, courtesy, patience, enthusiasm, helpfulness,
understood my situation and problem, communication skills, and customer
perceptions regarding professionalism of conduct, often including image,
appearance.
For each of these types of expectations that result
in customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction and complaining behavior, the
perceived quality and value are critical and result in repurchase and loyalty.
Perceived Quality
Perceived quality is often
measured through three questions: overall quality, reliability, and the extent
to which a product or service meets the customer’s needs. Customer perceptions
of quality are the single greatest predictor of customer satisfaction.
Perceived Value
Perceived value may
conceptually refer to the overall price given quality or the overall quality
given price. Perceived value is measured in many ways including overall
evaluation of value, expectations of price that would be paid, and more
rigorous methodologies including the Van Westendorp
pricing analysis, and conjoint analysis.
The consumer behavior literature
shows that price is a primary indicator of quality when other attributes and
benefits are relatively unknown. However
for repeat purchases in some product categories, price may be reduced in
importance.
Customer Loyalty
Customer loyalty reflects the likelihood of repurchasing products or services.
Customer satisfaction is a major predictor of repurchase, but is strongly
influenced by explicit performance evaluations of perceived quality, and
perceived value.
Building a Customer Satisfaction Survey
When building customer
satisfaction surveys, several measures may be implemented through a variety of question
types that focus on the overall product or service attributes, features and
benefits, including:
- Overall measures of customer satisfaction
- Affective measures of customer satisfaction
- Cognitive measures of customer satisfaction
- Behavioral measures of customer satisfaction
- Expectancy value measures of customer satisfaction
General Measures that are part of a customer satisfaction analysis usually involve product fulfillment and will often include product use scenarios that identify specifically where and how is the product used?
When building a customer satisfaction survey, the following items may be considered for inclusion.
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General Measures in a Customer Satisfaction Survey
Product Use
Frequency of product use
Primary use location
Primary precipitating events or situations for product use or need
Usage rates and trends
Product Familiarity
Degree of actual product use familiarity
Knowledge (read product information, read product label, etc.)
Knowledge and Involvement with product and the purchase process
Awareness of other brands
Reasons for original product purchase (selection reasons)
Primary benefits sought from the product
Product Evaluation
Attribute evaluation matrix: (quality, price, trust, importance, performance,
value)
Perceived benefit associations matrix
Importance, performance
Identification of primary benefits sought
Comparison to other brands (better, worse)
What is the best thing about the brand, what could be done better
Message and Package Evaluation
Packaging size, design
Advertising Promise, message fulfillment evaluation
Value Analysis
Expectation of price
Expectation of relative price (full price, on sale)
Current price paid
Satisfaction Measurements
Overall Satisfaction
Reasons for Satisfaction
Evaluation
Satisfaction with attributes,
features, benefits
Satisfaction with use
Expected and Ideal
Satisfaction-Performance Measures
Likelihood of recommending
Likelihood of repurchasing
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