How to Measure Your Customers’ Happiness Score (and Why That Matters)

July 9, 2018

5 min read

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Happy customers make for a happy business owner … and on the other hand, unhappy customers can really bring you down.

If you’re a business owner, you already know that the increasing popularity of review sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor gives your customers more power than ever. Just one negative review from an unsatisfied customer can cost you a lot of potential business. You might be thinking, “Well, I don’t have any bad reviews, everything’s fine!”

Related: 5 Proven Ways to Get More Customer Reviews On Google and Facebook

But do you really know how your customers feel?

If the answer is no, learning how to determine your customers’ happiness score and improve your customer service will be one of the best time investments you can make.

Why does your customer’s happiness score matter?

According to Help Scout, poor customer service costs U.S. companies more than $62 billion annually. When it comes down to it, unhappy customers can end up costing you a lot of money.

Satisfied customers might recommend you to a couple of people, but generally, you won’t hear from those customers if you don’t ask. If a customer has a bad experience with your business, though, he or she will let everyone know just how disappointing that experience was — as in the number of stars selected:

Google reviews (screenshot). https://www.google.com/

Marketing and sales are much more difficult these days: Customers are smarter about making purchases and are less trusting of companies, making customer retention more essential than ever to growing a business.

Customer retention, in turn, is much less expensive than customer acquisition; and, according to Invesp, the probability of selling to an existing customer is 60 percent to 70 percent, while the probability of selling to a new prospect is less: 5 percent to 20 percent. This is why you need to focus on your customer service and ensure you have a good relationship with your existing customers.

To start focusing on improving customer service, here are some simple ways to measure your customers’ happiness score:

Customer satisfaction score (CSAT)

Key to a customer’s happiness score is his/her customer satisfaction score. This basically entails asking customers to rate their satisfaction with your service, product or business, in general. Your score is the average rating of your customer responses. It’s a simple and direct way to gauge the happiness of your customers.

You can make it easier on the customer to let you know how they’re feeling by asking them to click the face that best describes their satisfaction with your service.

Customer satisfaction scale (image), https://www.questionpro.com/article/likert-scale-survey-questions.html

You can send targeted emails to your customers asking for their overall satisfaction rating. Make it simple for them to choose their level of happiness, as in the example above; also consider adding an optional text box to get more detailed feedback.

Net promoter score (NPS)

A net promoter score works to determine how likely your customers are to recommend your product or service to a friend, family member or colleague. Typically, customers are asked how likely they are to recommend you, on a scale of 1 to 10. You can use an in-app survey, where you subtly integrate a feedback bar right into your website, or a slide-in popup that appears for customers and subscribers only. For example, take a look at Asana’s feedback bar: 

Asana feedback bar (screenshot). https://app.asana.com/

This is a great way to measure brand loyalty and to see which of your customers are going to be ambassadors for your brand. Brand loyalty also helps you connect with your customers. Using the word “friend” in your question creates an emotional connection between the customer and your business.

Related: 4 Lesser-Known Customer-Review Platforms You Need to Know About

Customer effort score (CES)

After having a negative experience, 51 percent of people would never use the company again, according to New Voice Media. Customers don’t have a ton of patience, and that means you need to be quick and efficient at solving any problems they have. This is what the customer effort score can help you with.

You can use a tool like QuestionPro to help you understand how easy or difficult it was to use your product or get help from customer service. 

Customer effort score (image). https://www.questionpro.com/customer-effort-score.html

Customers here aren’t being asked for their happiness score but instead for the amount of effort they invested to get a problem solved. The goal is to lower this customer effort score. That way, you’ll know your business is easy to use, and your customers will be more likely to want to repurchase your product or reuse your service again.

Monitor social media conversations

Customers talk about brands on social media all the time. If they have a problem with your business and are ranting about it on social media, you’ve got a good opportunity to improve your customer service. Many companies will reach out to unhappy customers on social media personally, offering their apologies and help in solving their issues. Customers appreciate the convenience this method offers.

You can also use a tool like Mention, to track everything that’s being said about your company online, making it easier for you to manage unhappy customers and see what people are saying about you.

Mention brand monitoring (screenshot). https://mention.com/en/

Related: 6 Ways to Make Online Reviews Work for Your Business

You’ve got to realize, however, that there’s always room for improvement when it comes to your customer service. Constantly looking for ways to raise your customer’s happiness score is never a wasted effort and will help grow your business to new heights.