Customer satisfaction score (CSAT): What you need to know

Customer satisfaction scores (CSATs) show how happy your accounts are with your services and support. Research suggests tracking these scores pays off: Organizations that prioritize CSATs and the customer experience see revenue grow 41% faster and have 51% better customer retention than their competition.

In this guide, we’ll walk through what CSAT is, how to measure it, and when to start using it across your customer support channels to build stronger customer relationships.

What’s a customer satisfaction score (CSAT)?

A CSAT score measures how satisfied a customer is with a specific interaction or product. It answers the question, “How happy is your customer right now?”

Typically, CSAT is measured on a scale from 1 to 5, where customers rate their satisfaction from “very unsatisfied” to “very satisfied.” If you’re getting 4s and 5s, it means your customers are satisfied.

CSATs are directly tied to how effective your customer support team is. But this score doesn’t exist in a vacuum. To understand your customer health, you need to see how it stacks up against other customer support metrics.

CSAT vs. net promoter score (NPS)

CSAT helps your team make tactical and immediate choices, but NPS is best for strategic long-term decisions. 

NPS asks, “How likely is a customer to recommend us to a friend or colleague?” It highlights whether a customer would advocate for or promote your brand. Typically, NPS is measured on a scale of 0 to 10 and tracked less often than CSAT — quarterly or annually. 

High NPS scores suggest a particularly strong relationship and plenty of enthusiasm about your company. Since advocacy is the last and most powerful stage of the customer journey, high NPS scores can take time to reach but clearly indicate you’re doing something right. 

Between the two metrics, CSAT is a better predictor of immediate churn risk. If a customer gives you a low CSAT score after a support interaction, that’s a red flag — they’re frustrated, and not following up to make things better could hurt your relationship. While CSAT is a first warning sign of customer dissatisfaction, NPS shows the long-term results of your efforts. 

A customer with high NPS will likely renew, expand, and refer. But if you ignore low CSAT scores, you’ll eventually see NPS decline. Keep customer feelings positive in the moment so NPS stays strong over time.

CSAT vs. customer effort score (CES)

CSAT measures a customer’s satisfaction with the outcome, while CES measures how smooth they found the experience. CES asks, “How easy was it for the customer to get their issue resolved?” 

CES identifies where your support process is broken or unnecessarily complicated. For example, if a customer had to contact your team 3 times to get their issue resolved, they might give you a low CES score, even if the final resolution was perfect. It’s typically measured on a scale of 1 to 5 and asked along with CSAT questions.

Your customers might find a process easy but still be unsatisfied with the outcome, or vice versa. Aim for high CSAT (the customer is satisfied) and low CES (they didn’t have to jump through hoops to get there). That way, customers get what they need without going out of their way, and you’ll build their trust.

How to measure and calculate CSAT scores

To see how satisfied customers generally are with your company, divide the total number of satisfied scores (4s and 5s) collected by the total number of responses, then multiply that number by 100 to turn it into a percentage. Here’s the formula:

(Number of satisfied responses ÷ total responses) x 100% = CSAT score (%)

Let’s say you had 50 customers respond to a post-interaction survey with the following scores:

• 1. 0
• 2. 2
• 3. 8
• 4. 25
• 5. 15

Your CSAT calculation would be:

([25 + 15] / 50) x 100% = 80%

The average CSAT score in the B2B SaaS industry is 78%. To be competitive, aim for 80% or higher; industry leaders are often at 85% or more. Generally, CSAT scores between 75% and 85% are what’s considered good customer satisfaction scores, and scores over 90% are hard to reach but considered excellent. 

How to get reliable CSAT data

Your CSAT score quality depends on how many customers actually respond to your surveys. If only your most satisfied (or most frustrated) customers respond, you won’t get a true picture of how your team is performing. To get the most accurate data, you need to optimize your CSAT.

Make CSAT questions frictionless: Send them immediately after the interaction, keep them to one question, and make them mobile-friendly. If you want to go the extra mile, incentivize responses through bonuses like free credits. You can add a link to a longer survey to collect more data from customers who are willing, but those surveys should stay short too.

Remember that context matters. Your industry, competitors, and company size all play a role in what to expect. For B2B SaaS companies, response rates typically range from 8% to 20%. 

When and where to use CSAT

The best moments to gather customer feedback and CSAT data are:

• After support ticket resolution
• During and after customer onboarding
• After product updates or feature rollouts
• At key moments in the customer lifecycle

Send the CSAT immediately after interactions when customer feelings are still fresh. The longer you wait, the fewer responses you’ll get, and the less those responses will tell you. For live chat, use automations to send the survey within seconds of closing the ticket. For email and phone support, send it within a few hours.

Let’s say a customer submits a support ticket at 2 PM. Your team resolves it by 3 PM. The CSAT survey immediately follows at 3:01 PM, where the customer rates the experience as a 5 a few seconds later. This speed means you’ve captured real feedback while the positive experience is still top-of-mind.

It’s possible to send too many survey requests, which can be irritating and drop customer experience scores. You can avoid survey fatigue by tracking how many CSAT requests you send each customer in your support platform. Limit surveys to once per week per account, no matter how many channels they’re in.

An omnichannel AI-powered customer support software can help you measure and track CSAT across these touchpoints. Pylon’s AI-powered platform reduces average first-response times from 15 minutes to 23 seconds while earning 50% resolution rates from agentic customer support.

How to improve your CSAT score

CSAT is a feedback loop. Use it to improve constantly. 

Here are a few ways to raise your CSAT score:

• Actively listen to feedback. When a customer gives you a low CSAT score, send a personalized follow-up. Ask what went wrong, understand their pain point, and then fix it. This closes the loop and shows customers your company actually implements feedback. High CSAT scores also reveal best practices. Study what your best team members do and replicate their strategies.
• Reduce friction in how customers reach you. If your support team is scattered across email, chat, and Slack, customer concerns are more likely to fall through the cracks. But asking them to use multiple new platforms lowers the chance they’ll reach out when there are problems. An omnichannel customer support platform unifies all your channels into one workspace, so customers can reach you however they prefer and get faster responses from your team — which are associated with higher CSAT scores.

• Leverage AI and automation for routine tasks. AI agents can handle common questions, like redirects to your knowledge base, so your team can focus on issues that need human judgment. Not only does this reduce wait times and improve the customer experience, but customers tend to be more satisfied when they can quickly resolve minor issues by themselves.
• Train your team and create a customer-centric culture. Support is a skill, so invest in training on topics like effective communication, empathy, and problem-solving. These soft skills help them build better relationships with your customers, which can raise CSAT scores long-term. Share your CSAT data with your team so they see how their work impacts customer satisfaction.
• Monitor trends and adjust based on data. Track CSAT weekly or monthly, identify patterns, and adjust your processes. For example, if chat issues have higher CSAT than email, shift more resources to chat or improve your email response process.

Grow customer satisfaction sustainably with Pylon

Customer satisfaction metrics give your team the chance to act before customers churn. By regularly measuring CSAT, listening to feedback, and using automations to improve your process, you can build stronger scores and customer relationships that drive retention and growth.

Pylon is the modern B2B support platform that offers true omnichannel support across Slack, Teams, email, chat, ticket forms, and more. Our AI Agents and Assistants automate busywork and reduce response times. Plus, with Account Intelligence that unifies scattered customer signals to calculate health scores and identify churn risk, we're built for customer success at scale.

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FAQ

Can I measure CSAT in real time?

Yes. CSAT can be collected when you’re interacting with customers via surveys, chat prompts, or in-app feedback.

Can small companies use CSAT effectively?

Yes. Small teams can use surveys like CSAT at key touchpoints to gather actionable insights, and any team can automatically collect feedback without extra manual work.

How often should I measure CSAT?

Ideally, you measure CSAT at every key interaction, like right after closing a support ticket or after onboarding. This helps you get the most accurate insights.