The primary objective of customer satisfaction surveys is to gather reliable and consistent feedback from customers, commonly known as the "voice of the customer." This feedback serves as a foundation for implementing strategies aimed at retaining customers and safeguarding one of the most valuable corporate assets — loyal customers.
Once the metrics to measure and their relation to loyalty and repurchase are established, it becomes essential to understand customers' mindsets when making purchasing or recommendation decisions. Surveying these decisions provides insights into customer loyalty. Generally, customers' pre-purchase mindsets can be categorized into rejection (avoid purchasing if possible), acceptance (satisfied but open to better deals), and preference (delighted, willing to pay more).
These mindsets are influenced by two main sources:
1. Personal experiences: Each interaction with a product or service shapes the customer's perception, whether positive, neutral, or negative. These moments of truth significantly impact their decision-making.
2. Word-of-mouth: Customers' perceptions are also shaped by the experiences shared by others about a company, product, or service. Positive recommendations enhance customer experience, creating a loop of positive feedback.
Customer satisfaction surveys help bridge the gap between survey responses and customers' loyalty attitudes or mindsets. Research conducted by both corporate and academic entities has shown a correlation between survey measurements and the level of preference or rejection a customer may exhibit. When customers respond to satisfaction questions, their level of loyalty reflects an accumulation of past experiences, typically scored from very dissatisfied to very satisfied.
Ultimately, every company aims to cultivate customers with a preference mindset, indicating that customers consistently choose their company when given a choice. Achieving and maintaining this status requires ongoing customer experience management, which includes robust customer satisfaction measurement practices.