Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:
Understand the true drivers of customer satisfaction and build a process for managing and improving customer satisfaction.
EXECUTIVE BRIEF
“Healthy customer relationships are the paramount to long-term growth. When customers are satisfied, they remain loyal, spend more, and promote your company to others in their network. The key to high satisfaction is understanding and measuring the true drivers of satisfaction to enable the delivery of real customer value.
Most companies believe they know who their satisfied customers are and what keeps them satisfied, and 76% of B2B buyers expect that providers understand their unique needs (Salesforce Research, 2020). However, on average B2B companies have customer experience scores of less than 50% (McKinsey, 2016). This disconnect between customer expectations and provider experience indicates that businesses are not effectively measuring and monitoring satisfaction and therefore are not making meaningful enhancements to their service, offerings, and overall experience.
By focusing on the underlying drivers of customer satisfaction, organizations develop a truly accurate picture of what is driving deep satisfaction and loyalty, ensuring that their company will achieve sustainable growth and stay competitive in a highly competitive market.”
Emily Wright
Senior Research Analyst, Advisory
SoftwareReviews
Your Challenge |
Common Obstacles |
SoftwareReviews’ Approach |
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Getting a truly accurate picture of satisfaction levels among customers, and where to focus efforts to improve satisfaction, is challenging. Providers often find themselves reacting to customer challenges and being blindsided when customers leave. More effective customer satisfaction measurement is possible when providers self-assess for the following challenges:
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What separates customer success leaders from developing a full view of their customers are several nagging obstacles:
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Through the SoftwareReviews’ approach, customer success leaders will:
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All companies measure satisfaction in some way, but many lack understanding of what’s truly driving customers to stay or leave. By understanding the true drivers of satisfaction, solution providers can measure and monitor satisfaction more effectively, pull actionable insights and feedback, and make changes to products and services that customers really care about. This will keep them coming back to you to have their needs met.
Measuring customer satisfaction is critical to understanding the overall health of your customer relationships and driving growth.
Through effective customer satisfaction measurement, organizations can:
Improve Customer Experience |
Increase Retention and CLV |
Increase Profitability |
Reduce Costs |
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“Measuring customer satisfaction is vital for growth in any organization; it provides insights into what works and offers opportunities for optimization. Customer satisfaction is essential for improving loyalty rate, reducing costs and retaining your customers.”
-Ken Brisco, NICE, 2019
Direct and Indirect Costs |
Being unaware of true drivers of satisfaction that are never remedied costs your business directly through customer churn, service costs, etc. |
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Tarnished Brand |
Tarnished brand through not resolving issues drives dissatisfaction; dissatisfied customers share their negative experiences, which can damage brand image and reputation. |
Waste Limited Resources |
Putting limited resources towards vanity programs and/or fixes that have little to no bearing on core satisfaction drivers wastes time and money. |
“When customer dissatisfaction goes unnoticed, it can slowly kill a company. Because of the intangible nature of customer dissatisfaction, managers regularly underestimate the magnitude of customer dissatisfaction and its impact on the bottom line.”
- Lakshmiu Tatikonda, “The Hidden Costs of Customer Dissatisfaction”, 2013
Most companies struggle to understand what’s truly driving customers to stay or leave. By understanding the true satisfaction drivers, tech providers can measure and monitor satisfaction more effectively, avoiding the numerous harmful consequences that result from average customer satisfaction measurement.
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Surface-level satisfaction has immediate effects, but they are usually short-term or limited to certain groups of users. There are several factors that contribute to satisfaction including:
Deep satisfaction has long-term and meaningful impacts on the way that organizations work. Deep satisfaction has staying power and increases or maintains satisfaction over time, by reducing complexity and delivering exceptional quality for end-users and IT alike. This report found that the following capabilities provided the deepest levels of satisfaction:
The above solve issues that are part of everyday problems, and each drives satisfaction in deep and meaningful ways. While surface-level satisfaction is important, deep and impactful capabilities can sustain satisfaction for a longer time.
Driving deep satisfaction among software customers vs. surface-level measures is key
Vendor capabilities and product features correlate significantly to buyer satisfaction
Yet, it’s the emotional attributes – what we call the “Emotional Footprint”, that correlate more strongly
Software companies looking to improve customer satisfaction will focus on business value created and the Emotional Footprint attributes outlined here.
The essential ingredient is understanding how each is defined by your customers.
Leaders focus on driving improvements as described by customers.
These true drivers of satisfaction should be considered in your customer satisfaction measurement and monitoring efforts. The experience customers have with your product and brand is what will differentiate your brand from competitors, and ultimately, power business growth. Talk to a SoftwareReviews Advisor to learn how users rate your product on these satisfaction drivers in the SoftwareReviews Emotional Footprint Report.
“81% of organizations cite CX as a competitive differentiator. The top factor driving digital transformation is improving CX […] with companies reporting benefits associated with improving CX including:
– Dan Cote, “Advocacy Blooms and Business Booms When Customers and Employees Engage”, Influitive, 2021
1. Identify true customer satisfaction drivers |
2. Develop metrics dashboard |
3. Develop customer satisfaction measurement and management plan |
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Phase Steps |
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Phase Outcomes |
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All software companies measure satisfaction in some way, but many lack understanding of what’s truly driving customers to stay or leave. By understanding the true drivers of satisfaction, solution providers can measure and monitor satisfaction more effectively, pull actionable insights and feedback, and make changes to products and services that customers really care about and which will keep them coming back to you to have their needs met.
Positive experiences drive satisfaction more so than features and cost
According to our analysis of software buyer reviews data*, the biggest drivers of satisfaction and likeliness to recommend are the positive experiences customers have with vendors and their products. Customers want to feel that:
Measure Key Relationship KPIs to gauge satisfaction
Key metrics to track include the Business Value Created score, Net Emotional Footprint, and the Love/Hate score (the strength of emotional connection).
Orient the organization around customer experience excellence
Have a designated committee for customer satisfaction measurement
Best in class organizations create customer satisfaction committees that meet regularly to measure and monitor customer satisfaction, resolve issues quickly, and work towards improved customer experience and profit outcomes.
Use metrics that align to top satisfaction drivers
This will give you a more accurate and fulsome view of customer satisfaction than standard satisfaction metrics alone will.
Identify True Customer Satisfaction Drivers |
Develop Metrics Dashboard | Develop Customer Satisfaction Measurement and Management Plan |
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Call #1: Discuss current pain points and barriers to successful customer satisfaction measurement, monitoring and maintenance. Plan next call – 1 week. Call #2: Discuss all available data, noting any gaps. Develop plan to fill gaps, discuss feasibility and timelines. Plan next call – 1 week. Call #3: Walk through SoftwareReviews reports to understand EF and satisfaction drivers. Plan next call – 3 days. Call #4: Segment customers and document key satisfaction drivers. Plan next call – 2 week. |
Call #5: Document business goals and align them to metrics. Plan next call – 1 week. Call #6: Complete the SoftwareReviews satisfaction measurement diagnostic. Plan next call – 3 days. Call #7: Score list of metrics that align to satisfaction drivers. Plan next call – 2 days. Call #8: Develop metrics dashboard and definitions. Plan next call – 2 weeks. Call #9: Finalize metrics dashboard and definitions. Plan next call – 1 week. |
Call #10: Discuss committee and determine governance. Plan next call – 2 weeks. Call #11: Map out gaps in satisfaction along customer journey as they relate to top satisfaction drivers. Plan next call –2 weeks. Call #12: Develop plan and roadmap for satisfaction improvement. Plan next call – 1 week. Call #13: Finalize plan and roadmap. Plan next call – 1 week. Call # 14: Review and coach on communication deck. |
A Guided Implementation (GI) is series of calls with a SoftwareReviews Advisory analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.
For guidance on marketing applications, we can arrange a discussion with an Info-Tech analyst.
Your engagement managers will work with you to schedule analyst calls.
DIY Toolkit |
Guided Implementation |
Workshop |
Consulting |
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“Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.” | “Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.” | “We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.” | “Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.” |
Included within Advisory Membership | Optional add-ons |
“Are you experienced?” Bain & Company, Apr. 2015. Accessed 6 June. 2022.
Brisco, Ken. “Measuring Customer Satisfaction and Why It’s So Important.” NICE, Feb. 2019. Accessed 6 June. 2022.
CMO.com Team. “The Customer Experience Management Mandate.” Adobe Experience Cloud Blog, July 2019. Accessed 14 June. 2022.
Cote, Dan. “Advocacy Blooms and Business Booms When Customers and Employees Engage.” Influitive, Dec. 2021. Accessed 15 June. 2022.
Fanderl, Harald and Perrey, Jesko. “Best of both worlds: Customer experience for more revenues and lower costs.” McKinsey & Company, Apr. 2014. Accessed 15 June. 2022.
Gallemard, Jeremy. “Why – And How – Should Customer Satisfaction Be Measured?” Smart Tribune, Feb. 2020. Accessed 6 June. 2022.
Kumar, Swagata. “Customer Success Statistics in 2021.” Customer Success Box, 2021. Accessed 17 June. 2022.
Lakshmiu Tatikonda, “The Hidden Costs of Customer Dissatisfaction”, Management Accounting Quarterly, vol. 14, no. 3, 2013, pp 38. Accessed 17 June. 2022.
Loper, Matthew. “Why ‘Customer Satisfaction’ Misses the Mark – And What to Measure Instead.” Newsweek, Jan. 2022. Accessed 16 June. 2022.
Maechler, Nicolas, et al. “Improving the business-to-business customer experience.” McKinsey & Company, Mar. 2016. Accessed 16 June.
“New Research from Dimension Data Reveals Uncomfortable CX Truths.” CISION PR Newswire, Apr. 2017. Accessed 7 June. 2022.
Sheth, Rohan. 75 Must-Know Customer Experience Statistics to move Your Business Forward in 2022.” SmartKarrot, Feb. 2022. Accessed 17 June. 2022.
Smith, Mercer. “111 Customer Service Statistics and Facts You Shouldn’t Ignore.” HelpScout, May 2022. Accessed 17 June. 2022.
“State of the Connected Customer.” Salesforce, 2020. Accessed 14 June. 2022
“The true value of customer experiences.” Deloitte, 2018. Accessed 15 June. 2022.