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What is CSAT, and how do you measure it?

By Thisys team · Last reviewed

Customer satisfaction score, or CSAT, asks people how satisfied they were with something specific, usually straight after it happened. It is the simplest of the customer experience measures and the most direct: it tells you how one interaction landed.

The question

“Overall, how satisfied were you with [the delivery, the call, the visit]?”

The most common scale has five labelled points: Very dissatisfied, Dissatisfied, Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, Satisfied and Very satisfied. Name the thing being rated. “How satisfied are you with us?” measures a vague mix of everything, and nobody can act on it.

Some teams use a three-, seven- or ten-point scale instead. Any of them works if you keep it the same from one survey to the next.

The formula

CSAT = (answers of 4 or 5 ÷ all answers) × 100

On a five-point scale, 4 is Satisfied and 5 is Very satisfied: the “top two box”.

Some teams report the average rating instead, for example 4.1 out of 5. Both are legitimate, but they answer different questions, so say which one you report and do not switch between them.

A worked example

Worked example: 80 customers rate a delivery
  1. 30 answer Very satisfied (5) and 26 answer Satisfied (4).
  2. 12 answer Neither (3), 8 Dissatisfied (2) and 4 Very dissatisfied (1).
  3. CSAT = (30 + 26) ÷ 80 = 56 ÷ 80 = 70%.
  4. Bottom two box = (8 + 4) ÷ 80 = 15%.
  5. Average = (30×5 + 26×4 + 12×3 + 8×2 + 4×1) ÷ 80 = 310 ÷ 80 ≈ 3.9 out of 5.

Report the bottom two box next to the CSAT. 70% satisfied with 15% dissatisfied is a different story from 70% satisfied with 2% dissatisfied.

CSAT, NPS or customer effort score?

What each measure asks, and what it suits
MeasureWhat it asksBest for
CSATHow satisfied were you with this?One interaction or touchpoint, asked straight after it
NPSHow likely are you to recommend us?The whole relationship, tracked over months
Customer effort scoreHow easy was it to get what you needed?Service and support, where hassle drives complaints

They are not rivals. Many teams ask CSAT after each interaction and NPS a few times a year.

Getting a CSAT you can act on

  • Ask soon after the interaction, while it is fresh.
  • Keep it short: the rating, one “why” question, and only what you will use.
  • Record what was rated, such as the channel, the site or the team, so results can be compared.
  • Watch the number of answers. A CSAT from 15 people can swing a long way by chance; the sample size guide shows how far.
  • Read the comments from dissatisfied customers first. That is where the fixes are.

Use this template

Each opens its own page, where you can preview every question before you use it.

Use cases: Customer satisfaction (CSAT) and Support ticket follow-ups.

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