The crux of every business is its customers. While every business aims to deliver the best customer service possible, how often do they actually evaluate if their customers are happy with their products or are willing to purchase their products or not? This validation is very important to know that you are doing a good job and if there is anything you can do to improve your business.

Here comes the term, ‘customer satisfaction’ into play. It is the toughest concept to measure and often requires an in-depth planning and strategising. You could employ a research company to conduct a long qualitative survey for you. Although these might be very informative, they are also time consuming and expensive. So, how what do you do? How great would be it be if you could regularly get some feedback from your customers through some unconventional channels.

Here we lay out some uncommon yet effective methods of measuring customer satisfaction:

1. Keep a check on your social media handles

During the earlier days when the access to the internet was limited and people had fewer means to interact with each other, they would keep a complaint to themselves. Today the scenario has changed. People turn on to social media even for the itsy-bitsy things and complaints regarding a product can easily reach a million with a single tap on the ‘share’ button.

Hence, it is advisable that you keep a track of all your social media pages.

Also read: Customer satisfaction is the key to unlocking your business potential

2. Ask your employees

Your employees are the best source of information while gathering a data about your products and services. They deal with customers on a daily basis and are well aware of their ‘pain points’ of old customers and the ‘happiness triggers’ of the new customers. Start by listing all the complaints and suggestions that customers share with your employees on a daily basis. This will help you alter the way processes are executed.

'Customer satisfaction’ is the toughest concept to measure and often requires an in-depth planning and strategising.

3. Crisp customer surveys

Customer surveys are the best possible ways to get that crucial insight into your customer’s behaviour. The two most popular metrics that customer surveys depend on are:

• Customer satisfaction score (CSAT)

If you know what your customers expect it becomes easier for you to fix bugs and solve problems if any.  This score measures the short term happiness or despair of your customers. It allows a customer to rate their experience on the basis of a scale from 1-10. Remember having done that? These scores are then collected and analysed.

• Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Now if your customer has rated you ‘nine’ out of ten, this means he becomes a promoter and is likely to recommend you to others.  If the rating is somewhere between six and eight, then the customer has yet not decided if you are good enough and any score below that shows the red flag and you need to take immediate actions to resolve the issue.

Now, how do you create a great customer survey? Long surveys are boring and customers loose interest halfway through it. Here are some tried and tested ways to get your customers to respond to your survey:

I. Use quizzes to make it more interesting:  Quiz based surveys like ‘find out what kind of a marketer are you’ or ‘which your favorite retail brand is?’ can make it really interesting for your customers.

II. Include prizes to be won: Most often than not the issue is getting your customers to hit the submit button. Offering a prize at the end of a survey can lure them into filling out the form and submitting it.

III. Make your surveys funny: Using humour to win over your clients is a classic because it works everytime. Include GIFs or jokes or any silly news updates to make the survey light and appealing.

 Also read: 4 ways to improve customer loyalty

4. Analyse your competition

You can’t relax just because you have rolled out a great customer feedback. The next mission is to track what your opponents are doing to keep their customers happy and why some customers prefer their brand over you. What is it that your competitors are offering and is there anything you can do differently to improve your products and services.

By connecting and consulting with different stakeholders, you will be able to improve your customer relationship and satisfaction. Your understanding of what works and doesn’t will improve and your business will grow from this continuous and constructive feedback.

Also read: How to build customer loyalty

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