While NPS evaluates customer loyalty and advocacy, CSAT focuses on immediate feedback about specific experiences. Both play essential roles in understanding how customers perceive your brand, but their purposes and applications differ. This article explores their key distinctions, benefits, and best-use scenarios to help you choose the right approach to enhance your CX.
What’s the difference?
NPS measures customer loyalty by asking one simple question: "How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?". Customers answer on a scale of 0 to 10 and, based on their score, they’re sorted into three groups:
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Promoters: customers who are not only happy with your brand or service, but who identify with it and would actively seek it out over other options)
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Passives: customers who are happy with your brand but consider it as one of many comparable options
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Detractors: customers who are dissatisfied with your brand and are likely to share their frustrations with others
The goal here is to separate clients who would endorse your brand to others, from those who are neutral, and those who are unhappy with your product or service.
CSAT, on the other hand, focuses on how satisfied customers are with a specific moment or interaction. It’s more about the here and now. A CSAT survey might ask, "How satisfied were you with our customer support?" Customers typically rate their experience on a scale, often 1 to 5.
When should you use each?
NPS is your overall client relationship check-in. It helps you understand how customers feel about your brand and whether they’d recommend you to others. A high NPS score is a sign that people trust your brand and are willing to advocate it.
CSAT is more of a pulse check. It’s perfect for figuring out if customers are happy with specific parts of their journey - like their latest support call, whether they see the value in your offerings, or the quality of your service delivery.
Use NPS when…
- Measuring overall customer loyalty and advocacy
- Evaluating the broader impact of your brand or business
- Comparing performance over time or against competitors
Use CSAT when…
- Assessing satisfaction with specific scenarios
- Measuring the effectiveness of recent changes to services
- Pinpointing immediate areas for improvement
Why not use both?
NPS and CSAT work really well together. Think of them as two sides of the same coin.
You could use CSAT to measure satisfaction with individual touchpoints and then track NPS to see how those interactions impact loyalty over time. Together, they give you a wide picture of how customers feel about your brand.
One important thing to remember is to use these metrics consistently. Regularly collecting NPS and CSAT scores over time allows you to build a comprehensive view of your customers’ opinions of your company. Using these insights, you can build a successful customer experience which, in turn, leads to more positive feedback!
Final Thoughts
Choosing between NPS and CSAT depends on what your goals are. If you're looking to gauge overall customer loyalty and identify advocates, NPS is ideal. On the other hand, if your focus is on understanding and improving specific aspects of the customer journey, CSAT is the better choice.
However, for a holistic view of the customer journey, consider using both metrics in parallel, to gain a more thorough understanding of how clients experience your brand.
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