Leaderboard

The winning answers are provided by Natwar Lal for B2C overall and by Kiran Kumar for Hotels and Hospitality.

Customer Satisfaction is a key metric for all organizations but more so for any marketing company. It is commonly known as CSAT score and is an average of ratings provided by customers who have used the organization's service / product. CSAT happens to be most common way of capturing Voice of Customer (VOC). Business to Customer (B2C) company is where the product or service is offered directly to customer. E.g. Uber, Fast Food Joints, Netflix, FMCG companies, Airtel DTH etc. Sometimes the CSAT captured for such companies could be misleading. Below are the reasons and how best to tackle it 1. Intermediaries between the company and customer: Following a typical value chain, you will have Manufacturer --> Distributor --> Wholesaler --> Retailer --> Customer. Ideally speaking the immediate customer for Manufacturer is the Distributor, however it is a very narrow view by the organization and is not a good idea. In this value chain, the customer experience is influenced by a lot of other factors as well which may not be in direct control of the the manufacturer. However, it is only the manufacturer that captures the CSAT. 2. Customer does not provide unbiased and specific CSAT score (even if there are not too many intermediaries between the provider and customer) 3. Average of scores is used to check for overall customer satisfaction. Even though average works in most cases, sometimes it ignores the extreme scores which might be of importance 4. Capturing of CSAT is outsourced to a third party which might not give it the due importance. Even if it is done inhouse, one should be vary of the below a. Customer segments or sample not selected appropriately: With B2C companies the customer base is very big and hence selecting the right sample sometimes becomes a challenge as the service offering could be different for say different regions b. Questions in CSAT survey not designed effectively: CSAT could be done for multiple reasons. One of the most common drawback in a CSAT survey is that it usually focusses on the overall satisfaction of the customer. At times, the company might want to know about the additional features that they want to provide and if the survey does not capture these correctly in questions, then the effectiveness of the survey becomes a challenge c. Inappropriate rating scale in the CSAT survey: Giving too many options to the customer might confuse them. Also it might possess a challenge in inferences d. Too small a sample to make any meaningful inferences e. Purpose of capturing CSAT is unclear f. Data cleansing not performed. There are methods in which you could actually check if the customer feedback is consistent or not as one would ideally want to filter out those customers who have just filled the survey without giving due attention to it. Certain questions may not be answered etc. and these have to factored in during reporting How to overcome the above: 1. Do not outsource the work that is core to the organization. E.g. You may purchase an Airtel DTH set from any electrical shop. However, it is only the Airtel servicemen who will come and install it 2. Ask the customer to be more specific when capturing feedback. E.g. If a less than 5 star rating is given in Uber, they ask customers to choose from multiple options for giving low rating. Some of the parameters are linked to driver while rest are for Uber 3. Increase the touch points with the customer i.e. the company should be easily accessible to the customers who want to give a feedback 4. If CSAT is a key performance indicator for the organization, do not outsource it and have competent team plan and execute on how CSAT has to be captured 5. Requesting customers to register the product. This could not be done for all B2C companies, however, it gives an opportunity to the organization to know about the customer 6. Value chain integration i.e. the manufacturer works with various partners in the value chain to inculcate the same values and attitude towards customer service. E.g. automobile companies 7. Keep the questionnaire relevant to the purpose of seeking the CSAT