Call Center KPIs & Performance Management

The 2 Agent-Controlled Factors to Improve CSAT Scores

May 8, 2018
0 minute read

Customer satisfaction (CSAT) is one of the most important metrics in customer service. Given its importance to the customer and your business, many teams make it a top initiative to improve their CSAT.

However, most customer care teams have many demands on their plate. For example, a team might aim to scale and support a new product in one quarter. This team is still expected to raise their CSAT.

As a result, we often see teams looking for quick wins or tips to raise their CSAT. To identify more specific areas they can optimize to improve their CSAT, we tapped into QA data to see what agent actions were linked to high CSAT.

Here are the 2 agent-controlled areas that are most correlated with CSAT and some actionable tips to help drive your scores higher:

1. Tone And Communication Skills

Communication skill and tone related performance are tightly linked to CSAT. This is great! Tone and communication is relevant on almost every ticket. Improving here can have an impact on many tickets.

Tone and communication are especially important to avoid bad CSAT (DSAT) scores. Tone is a commonly cited reason for a bad CSAT score, even when the agent followed internal processes correctly.

This is a good area to focus your training. You can get a bit of improvement on all your interactions and cut down on bad survey results, even when customers are upset at your policies or limitations with your service. Nick Martin, Quality Assurance Analyst at Harry’s Razors, talks about this concept here!

2. Going Above And Beyond

This category is even more strongly linked to CSAT.

While you can't always offer a superhero effort for your customer, there are small creative ways you can be proactive and delight your customer. For example, proactively communicating an issue to customers delights them (more on this here). When you get a chance to wow the customer, this can strengthen your relationship and drive great CSAT.

A little inside tip here: focusing on going above and beyond can also help you get more positive CSAT ratings. Many of the times you have a good but not outstanding interaction, the customer is satisfied, but doesn’t fill out the survey. Going above and beyond to help the customer builds currency with the customer. This translates into more satisfied users filling out surveys.

There is also some evidence that a single, fantastic, above and beyond effort can pay dividends down the line. Meaning, a customer may give you more positive results in the future (stay posted for future posts on this topic).

Focusing on these two areas can help you improve your CSAT. Improving your tone can cut down on bad CSAT scores, even within the limitations of your existing systems. Going above and beyond for customers will motivate satisfied customers to actually fill out their surveys. Hopefully these changes can help your team improve its scores!

This article originally appeared on the Support Driven Blog.

Previous Article

Empowering Agents to Overcome Customer Service Challenges and Drive Brand Loyalty

Leanna Merrell

Navigating Legal Risks of AI in Employee Performance Management

Leanna Merrell

How QA is Transforming Sales

Leanna Merrell

Navigating AI Pitfalls and Enhancing CX in Call Centers

Leanna Merrell

Beyond VOC: The Future of Customer Service Conversation Intelligence

Leanna Merrell

How to Optimize Your Chatbot Strategy: QA’s Critical Role in Enhancing Accuracy & Effectiveness

Leanna Merrell

MaestroQA Achieves PCI DSS 4.0 Level 1 Compliance: Leading the Way in Secure QA Solutions

Lauren Alexander

Don't Settle. Dig Beneath The Surface For Customer Insights.

Team MaestroQA

Using Zendesk CSAT Reviews and Slack to Appreciate CX Agents

Customer Support Best Practices From The NYC Support Driven Meetup

Why Failure To Provide Great Customer Service Is A Risk To Company Success

Maintaining Quality Of Customer Support In The Face Of Hyper-Growth

Customer Service Quality Assurance and Soft Skills

The 2 Agent-Controlled Factors to Improve CSAT Scores

Guide to Building Call Center Quality Monitoring Scorecards

How To Improve CSAT Scores for Your Call Center in 3 Steps

Customer Service Quality Assurance for Higher CSAT Explained

How To Build Your First QA Scorecard — A Comprehensive Guide

Innovation in Quality Management with Freshly at The Art of Conversation

A maybe-too-honest perspective on our rebrand

How FabFitFun Uses Customer Service Quality Assurance To Manage A Best-In-Class Support Team

Team MaestroQA

How to Create A Customer Service Quality Assurance Form

See The Future: Be Proactive In Support Of Your Customers

Team MaestroQA

Quality Management and Customer Service Training Programs

Why Paving A Path To Resolution Is A Customer Service Best Practice

Team MaestroQA

CSAT Scores vs. Quality Assurance Metrics – Which Is Better?

5 Ways Quality Assurance Programs Can Improve CSAT Scores

MaestroQA Partnerships: Introducing Zendesk Suite

Is Your Quality Assurance Program Built For 2018?

Fresh Take: How Peer Review Can Identify Improvements

Roger That! Assume Nothing Until You Get Confirmation

Creating a Multi-Channel Quality Form For Contact Centers

The Art of Training with Harry's Razors and FuboTV

Building Customer Loyalty And Trust Through Service

Team MaestroQA

How ActiveCampaign Uses MaestroQA To Scale Their Support Team, And Improve Team Dynamics

Team MaestroQA

Omnichannel Support For Agents And Customers: A Necessity

2 Types Of Agent Skills That Impact Customer Satisfaction

Mastering Customer Interactions in the Age of DSAT

Leanna Merrell

How Shinesty Uses Alternative Positioning as a Best Practice

Dangers Of The 90%+ QA Scores

Using Positive Positioning to Improve Call Center CX

Team MaestroQA

Navigating AI Implementation Strategy in Customer Experience: Risks and Strategies

Leanna Merrell

Elevating Call Center Performance with Six Sigma and MaestroQA

Lauren Alexander

Elevating Business Excellence Through Non-Customer-Facing QA: A Strategic Imperative

Leanna Merrell

Elevating Trust and Safety through QA: How TaskRabbit Sets the Standard

Leanna Merrell

The Essential Guide to Chatbot Quality Assurance: Ensuring Excellence in Every Interaction

Leanna Merrell

Unlocking Superior CX: The Bombas Blueprint for Quality and Coaching

Leanna Merrell

Agent Empowerment: 5 Tactics for Customer Retention from Industry Leaders

Mastering Agent Onboarding: Quality Assurance Lessons from ClassPass

How Angi Unlocked Growth and Continuous Improvement with QA

The Transformation of QA: Driving Business Results - Key Takeaways from MaestroQA’s CX Summit

Lauren Alexander

Unleashing the Power of Customer Conversations: Top 6 Tech Trends Revealed at the CX Summit

Lauren Alexander

Important Factors to Consider when Exploring Sentiment Analysis in Customer Support QA: A CX Community Discussion

Driving Business Impact with Targeted QA: Insights from an Expert

The Art of Outsourcing Customer Support: Lessons from Stitch Fix's BPO Partnership

Larrita Browning

How to Revamp QA Scorecards for Enhanced Quality Assurance

De-Villainizing QA Scorecards with Hims & Hers Customer Service

How to Maximize Call Center & BPO Performance | MaestroQA

Larrita Browning

Writing the Auto QA Playbook & Transforming Customer Support

Larrita Browning

MaestroQA Named One of Comparably’s 2023 Best Workplaces in New York for the Second Consecutive Year

Larrita Browning

Advancing Customer Service Metrics with AI Classifiers

Lauren Alexander

MaestroQA Named on Comparably’s Best Workplaces in New York

Larrita Browning

CX Strategy: The Future of AI in Quality Assurance

Larrita Browning

Elevating Customer Satisfaction with Visibility & Coaching

Larrita Browning

How Customers Collaborate with Their BPO Partners Today

5 Key Strategies to Supercharge Your BPO Partnership

Larrita Browning

Champion-Challenger Model: Improve Customer Service In BPOs

Larrita Browning

Kick Start Your Customer Service BPO Partnership Successfully

Larrita Browning

BPO Call Centers: Best Practices for Quality Assurance

Larrita Browning

Call Calibration: What is It & What are the Benefits?

Larrita Browning

Increase QA Team Alignment with Call Calibration & GraderQA

Dan Rorke

Measuring An Organization's 3 Ps: People, Process and Product

Larrita Browning

Empathy in Customer Service: Everything You Need to Know

Larrita Browning

Average Handle Time (AHT): How to Calculate & Reduce It

How to Onboard Your Customer Service Team to a New QA Program

21 Key Customer Experience Definitions for QA Professionals

Should You Have Dedicated Quality Assurance Specialists?

How Top eCommerce Brands Ensure Exceptional Customer Service in a Remote World

The Top 4 CX Books Recommended by Our QA Community

A Guide to Customer Service Quality Assurance Programs

5 Key Components of a Remarkable Customer Service Experience

The Ultimate Guide to Improving First Call Resolution (FCR)

How to Refresh Your Call Center Quality Monitoring Scorecard

The Key to Customer Service Coaching Is More Data (and Fewer Opinions)

Call Center Quality Assurance with Zola and Peloton

How to Update Your QA Scorecard

3 Ways to Test Your Call Center Quality Assurance Scorecard

The 9 Customer Service KPIs Needed To Improve CX

What is DSAT and 5 Steps to Improve It

Leveraging Customer Sentiment to Improve CX in Call Centers

Larrita Browning

Customer Experience Management and Quality Assurance Jobs

How Deeper CX Analytics Lead to Better CSAT | MaestroQA

Customer Service Management 101: Everything You Need to Know

Beyond Low CSAT Scores: Finding the Root Cause of Poor CX

How to Create an Omnichannel Call Center Quality Assurance Scorecard

Achieving Effortless Customer Experiences (CX) with QA

This Is What an Effective Customer Service Coaching Session Looks Like

Customer Service Coaching 101: Improve Agent Performance

Auto-Fail in Call Center QA: What It Means and When to Use It

MaestroQA's Aircall Integration: Bring Your Calls to Life