Measures of Customer Satisfaction in a call center

[Vishwadeep Khatri]

Q 76. Some of the commonly used measures of customer satisfaction are given below - 

 

1. NPS (Net Promoter Score) - Loyalty and referral check. 
2. C-SAT (Customer Satisfaction Index) - Satisfaction attained by the use of product/service. 
3. Churn (Customer Churn Rate) -  Customer loss assessment.
4. CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) - CAC is all the costs spent on acquiring more customers (marketing expenses) divided by the number of customers acquired in the period the money was spent.
5. CES (Customer Effort Score) - Customer effort assessment in getting work done/ issues resolved. 

 

What will be your ranking for the five metrics (NPS, C-SAT, Churn, CAC, CES) as per order of importance for Performance of a call center for credit card support services and why? 

 

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[Venugopal R]

The below table gives the ranking for the 5 metrics as per the order of importance and relevance for assessing the “Performance of a call center for credit card support services”

Rank	Customer Satisfaction Measure
1	CES – Customer Effort Score
2	C-SAT – Customer Satisfaction Index
3	Churn – Customer Loss Assessment
4.	NPS – Net Promoter Score
5	CAC – Customer Acquisition Cost

 

1.      The top ranking has been given for CES, since it gives a metric to assess the customer experience for resolving an issue. The CES is best applied, when used after every customer interface instance for resolving an issue.

2.      The C-SAT metric is not as specific as the CES for the given question; however, it is useful to get the customer satisfaction index with respect to a product / service.

3.      Churn or customer loss assessment could possibly be a measure, provided we are able to segregate the customer loss happening due to the call center experience from the other reasons.

4.      NPS would be score to evaluate the overall experience of holding the credit card, and not just limited to the call center support. NPS is important to assess the potential to attract new customer due to referrals by existing ones, whereas in the given situation pertains to already existing customers only.

5.      CAC – This more applies to determine how many leads get converted as actual customers i.e. the amount of cost that is being invested to acquire a customer. This metrics is least applicable for the given example.

[Anupama]

•  NPS
•  Churn / C-SAT
•  CES
•  CAC

 

 

Considering the fact that a credit card has its own limitations, resulting in bad debts or non-payment, I would begin the rating with NPS since, this would be the motivating factor for usage and keeping the card active for further discounts.  Luring the customers to be active with the card is the main aim.

 

Churn and C-SAT stands equal since a satisfied customer would not only recommend but churn along with additional requirement either for family or children.

 

Addressing and keeping the CES high is a non-negotiable criterion, of course followed by CAC.

[Rajesh Babu T]

 

t

This is the order that i feel will help - the ranking possibly may vary based on the type of product and service ... i write this from a Service industry point of view

1. Churn (Customer Churn Rate) - Customer loss assessment - First - its an internal metric, easily measurable and is a cut throat representation of customers willingness to stay with us. A well-balanced Churn management which can recognize between good and bad churn should have enough analysis done and determine the cause as to why good customer leave and should be able to plug back the gaps into service design and delivery. this is also instant in many case

 

2. CES (Customer Effort Score) - Customer effort assessment in getting work done/ issues resolved - Second - companies work towards first time right and Zero defects. Every said and unsaid needs of the customer have to be met, and during this journey the transactions that customer goes through right from getting to know about our service to purchase decision to experiencing our service to  building loyalty there are multiple cues that he could give... this measure is one of those which can give us the real perception of the customer if the question is posed appropriately. the ones where we think was brilliant could be nonsense to our customers. for eg some of the IVR are built to ease the efforts of the customer !!! we all know  how some can be real irritating ones 

 

3. C-SAT (Customer Satisfaction Index) - Satisfaction attained by the use of product/service - Third, A descriptive CSAT could be a real effective way to get the voice of the customer however there is considerable cost involved in this method. it also depends on the sort of interviews and questions that are asked to the customers that matters and identifying the exact target audience who can give us the right inputs requires real intelligence and also the coverage(sample size) matters ... requires some home work 

 

4. NPS (Net Promoter Score) - Loyalty and referral check - fourth - gained some momentum as it was considered as a tough way to get to a metric that defines our service. in many places, it is just a numbers and we dont get to see why ?? poor or great!! organisations need inputs by way of true voice, just a number can be misleading and sometimes due to toughness can be a demotivating 

 

5. CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) - CAC is all the costs spent on acquiring more customers (marketing expenses) divided by the number of customers acquired in the period the money was spent – this measure is inward

[Krishnamurthy Rao]

My ranking of the metrics for a classroom training provider would be

 

1) Churn 2) CES 3) C-SAT 4) NPS & 5) CAC

 

Churn would hold the first place to measure the performance as when a customer wants to close a credit card with a bank or any company, there would usually be a call from the service provider trying to convince the customer to hold on to the card. Here if the customer states a bad feedback, this directly points the level of service provided by the call center. CES would hold the second place in credit card support services offline because the customer retention and usage on the credit card is directly proportional to the service provided to him as and when required. Only when the customer service is able to provide his required service, would the usage go up which is a result of service. The effort put in by the customer is to be minimum for him to be loyal. The next would be the C-SAT which he receives upon the service provided by the call center which is a result of this effort put to resolve his issue/query. The next would be NPS as Word of mouth or any positive feedback written in any web portal which is a sign of Performance of call center. Although the feedback on service on portals would not directly imply new customers, but has slight correlation with an existing customer suggesting his friend about the service provided. The final metric would be CAC as acquiring more customer based on the previously mentioned four factors which would only be a small part of the new customers acquired because of performance of call center.

[Praful Bonde]

Looking at all the five metrics , following are recommended priority for call center for credit card support services

 

 

Call center for any credit card support services carry out various sub function.

1.    Compliant handling which is more time based feedback and satisfaction level.

2.    Enquires which is more of information sharing to the satisfactory level.

3.    Support requirement which is execution of work in accordance with customers requirement

4.    And rewards points which is Customer fulfillment of desire beyond expectation.

These requirement when we put in Kano model to indicate the impact it will occupy different quarters , and few delightness will automatically gets converted as expectations whereas expectations will get converted to basic needs in future. Refer attached image for reference.

Lets think of prima-fascia the unit of measurement for various function

Function	Unit -1	Unit-2	Unit-3	Unit 4
Compliant handling	Time	Satisfaction level rating	Behavior quality rating	Ease of reach
Inquires	Time	Satisfaction level rating	Ease of reach	Ease of communication
Support requirement	Time	Ease of reach	Ease of communication	Satisfaction level rating
Rewards	Usefulness of rewards	Ease of rewards usage	Future expectations

 

If we see at the measure units it will be mainly have following categories

1.    Time based output

2.    Ease mode of engagement (ways and customer can reach )

3.    Satisfaction level (rating)

4.    Behavioral quality (rating)

5.    Ease and usefulness of rewards (rating)

6.    Future / Expectations based on competition offering beyond business requirement (Survey)

 

Looking at Kano, measure of subduction following metrics will have priority according to they are indexed. The reason will be based on how good above measurement can  be analysed

	NPS	CES	C-SAT	Churn	CAC
Time based output	Yes	-	-	-	-
Ease mode of engagement	Yes	YES	-	-	-
Satisfaction level	YES	YES	YES	-	-
Behavioral quality	YES	YES	YES	-	-
Ease and usefulness of rewards	YES	YES	-	-	-
Future Expectations	YES	-	-	-	-

 

 

 

 

Hence from above Chart , the index should be as follows

1.    NPS

2.    CES

3.    C-SAT

[Rajesh Chakrabarty]

In case of an objective to measure the customer satisfaction for the performance of a Call Center for Credit card Support, the obvious situation is that the customer is already a customer and has called for some query or concern or Information- Basically an immediate need.

Hence in the quest to measure the customers overall satisfaction, following is the ranking I would suggest for the five metrics:

1)    CES- It is important to measure how the customer felt about the effort it took for him to interact with the Call Agent/support team. The customer’s experience , or the ease with which his need was satisfied here by the call center team will determine his loyalty to the Credit Card Brand.

2)    C- Sat- The next objective would be to understand the satisfaction of the customer on the advantages/ facilities he gets through his credit card ,  as it will help the organisation to understand the opportunities / corrections required in the services and the product by itself that are required to keep the customer’s loyalty and also define measures to create better/ best satisfaction levels as a process.

3)    NPS- This will help the organisation to understand whether the customer is a promoter or detractor and thus understand whether the service provided was apt for the situation.

4)    Churn- In this case, the churn of the customer will happen only after a period of time as the solution is provided for immediate purpose – However it will be good to keep in touch with the customer through engagement programmes to ascertain whether the customer has churned out, or using any other cards.

5)    CAC- This is the last preference - Actually has limited significance as the customer is already acquired and the  cost of acquisition is already borne- The focus now should be on the cost of staying in touch with him through execution of CRM and other engagement programmes and retaining him as a loyal customer with Higher value (Upgraded) Cards .

Having said that , The most important point that we must remember here is to make good use of the measures  and learnings derived from them and implement improvements in the process to ensure immediate customer satisfaction, future loyalty and referrals.

 

[Sumanta Das]

As per my opinion, list for call centre will be:-

 

 

1. C-SAT (Customer Satisfaction Index) - As it is short term and can have satisfaction index just after resolving the issue.
2. CES (Customer Effort Score) - as it is also short term and can have satisfaction level just after work done/ issues resolved. 
3. NPS (Net Promoter Score) - As it is long term and also can have rate of satisfaction there only 
4. Churn (Customer Churn Rate) -  this comes in 4th position
5. CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) - this is limited case, hence fifth

[Subhrajyoti Das]

Customer Effort Score  

An important parameter which focuses on how efficiently customer queries are resolved . this could take place

• after an interaction with the customer for any queries he/she has in respect to credit card's different offers
• after account or billing updates
• after resetting a password
• after upgrading membership
• after return or refund 

we could do a study here for e.g if there is 1000 calls in day and we divide the queries into the above categories and now do a sample study among 25 operators dividing them equally among the 5 categories, then start measuring what is the max and min time to resolve a query. this could be set as a baseline and we could do the similar activity after a week to see if there is any improvement in CES

 

NPS

 

2nd important parameter to assess the customer loyalty and it could be send out at any time once a call is over.We can have 3 different sets of out comes here : Promoters, dis-tractors and Passive, while interacting with 100 customers we find that 60 customers like the way operator has resolved the query and gives a rating of 8 out of 10 their locality could be considered high (95-100%) , rest 15 customers are passive and they are not bothered about how the queries are resolved and they have also done minimal transaction and so we can discard them. the rest 25 customer's response is crucial since they have disliked the way queries have been resolved or not  and they would be the real dis-tractor for the credit card business to grow l. But the advantage would be that as a seller you would be able to find out the gaps in the existing products like billing cycle, offers, discounts and you could benchmark your product with the other products in the market.

 

CSAT

 

3rd important parameter  because high CSAT can guarantee that the existing customer is going to use the card for longer time but poor CSAT could lead to customer loss and making things difficult to acquire a new customer

 

Churn 

 

A  valuable indicator to see for a specific period % of customers the credit card company has lost and gives a broader spectrum to  brainstorm and find the root causes  of the loss and which could lead to revamp the existing product

 

CAC

 

A valuable indicator to understand how much cost has been incurred to acquire a customer and how much spending they have done over a period