As a business owner, you definitely want to keep your customers happy; after all, you know satisfied customers are more likely to patronize your business and, thus, you should do everything in your power to provide a consistent and positive brand experience.
While there are many ways to accomplish this, one manner in which businesses can easily measure customer satisfaction is via a customer effort score, or CES.
This metric offers context into a customer’s ease of experience with a particular brand. Via a survey, customers can be asked to rate their experience on a five-point scale, allowing businesses like yours to understand the amount of effort customers need to make a purchase, get a question answered or resolve an issue.
Check out the following points to further explore this metric and examine ways companies can maintain or heighten customer satisfaction.
What Sets CES Apart from Similar Metrics
Rather than focusing on and measuring traditional goals like exceeding customer expectations and providing superior customer service, a CES can zero in on the ease of a consumer’s ability to ask a question, resolve an issue or merely engage with your brand.
And while you definitely want to employ friendly, customer-centric employees and offer great service and support, a CES takes a unique approach at measuring how much time and effort a customer has to put in to get what they need.
In other words, achieving — and maintaining — a high CES goes beyond “wowing” customers with uber-friendly service and instead aims to help businesses get their customers, many of whom are crunched for time, in and out of their doors as effortlessly as possible.
When You Should Ask Customers to Rate Your Business
Like anything in life, timing is everything — and experts say the best time to send out a CES survey is either directly after customers make a purchase or contact your customer service department.
For example, your website or CRM software platform can easily be set up in a manner in which customers automatically receive a post-purchase survey, asking them to rate their experience on your e-commerce site.
The same idea can be applied after a customer service call. Interested consumers can be asked to stay on the line and answer a short, automated survey about their overall brand experience.
What Tips You Should Adopt to Improve Your CES Rating
To build superior customer loyalty in your organization, business owners will need to study customer satisfaction surveys and highlight any low scores and comments the company receives to determine what steps they can take to improve.
For example, if a majority of customers are consistently satisfied ordering online but tend to experience in-store hiccups, it may be wise to implore your employees to ask customers if they need any assistance as they walk in the door.
Now, if the opposite is true, business owners may need to revamp their website to make it less cluttered and easy to use with a quick and efficient checkout system.
Which Ways Customers Can Help Themselves
Another effective way business owners can boost their CES rating is by adding a cloud-based call center to their customer service operations. Ultimately, because you don’t want your customers to exert too much energy and effort to make a purchase and/or resolve an issue, it’s vital to offer solutions that will take up less of their time.
In virtually all walks of business, management understands they likely have customers who want to get things done when they want and how they want.
To achieve — and maintain — superior customer satisfaction scores, consider adopting a call center in the cloud that includes IVR, chatbots and other self-service options that will provide smooth interactions for customers when they contact your business.
Move ‘em in and Move ‘em out — The Secret to a High CES Rating
Ultimately, the more you understand what makes your customers tick, the more easily you can keep them happy and ensure they become repeat customers.
By understanding CES — and continually utilizing surveys that analyze this metric — you’ll not only boost your CES rating but your bottom line as well.
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