How to increase customer satisfaction: The action plan for businesses

Successful businesses know that the customer journey does not stop at delivering quality products. Instead, they should always follow up with excellent customer service to separate themselves from competitors. However, regardless of an organization's current help desk quality, there is always room for improvement. Finding those shortcomings can be difficult, but remaining proactive and continuously looking for new ways to increase customer satisfaction via an action plan is a great place to start.

Why is customer satisfaction important?

Customer satisfaction is critical to any organization's success because happy customers typically become repeat customers, and this added business helps companies claw back consumer acquisition costs. Loyal customers are also more willing to serve as case studies and give testimonials.

Five steps to increase customer satisfaction: An action plan

The following five steps might provide an organization with a solid foundation for developing an action plan for increasing customer satisfaction:

1. Make customer satisfaction a company-wide goal

Making client satisfaction a priority for all employees across an organization is the basis of a successful customer service approach. While certain companies believe this to be a help desk-specific goal, all teams function and perform better when customer service becomes a broader priority.

One reason is that a customer-centric strategy can eliminate organizational silos. The customer support team and other departments can promptly exchange information, increasing the efficiency and thoroughness of client service.

Also, when production teams design products with consumers in mind, those items become more user-friendly, and that makes everyone's job easier. Help desks won't spend unnecessary time addressing customer issues, marketing teams will find it easier to sell subsequent products, and production teams can avoid additional time making retroactive design changes.

2. Understand your customer service goals

An organization might consider the following when establishing service team goals:

• Set goals that are demanding yet attainable
• Make them clearly defined and area-specific instead of general and unclear
• Ensure they align with company directives
• Determine a method for measuring goal progress

3. Identify and address customer touchpoints

Review and analyze prior customer encounters and answer the following questions:

• How frequently do customers contact the help desk?
• How quickly do customers contact them after purchase?
• What contact channels do they use?
• What specific (and consistent) questions or requests do they have?
• Do any customers stop doing business after contacting the help desk?
• How does the service department track consumer satisfaction?

Knowing these answers can help management better understand the contexts in which customers request support, anticipate those demands, and prepare help desks accordingly.

4. Identify the right team members

People who work on successful customer support teams are dedicated to providing the best possible customer service. When putting together a help desk, companies might look for characteristics that demonstrate this core value, such as:

• Cheerful outlook
• Self-motivation
• Self-awareness
• Social Skills
• Empathy

Management should determine which personalities will provide value and fit the company culture. They might then list their preferred talents for employees working in these positions.

5. Identify customer satisfaction KPIs to monitor and review

Finally, organizations should develop key performance indicators (KPIs) to track the new action plan's effectiveness. KPIs give businesses a quick and accurate snapshot of how well a particular department performs.

The following is a list of customer service KPIs that an organization might consider:

• Net promoter score (NPS): measures the effectiveness of customer referrals.
• CSAT customer satisfaction index (CSAT): measures overall customer contentment.
• First contact resolution: estimates the number of customers who will need to contact the help desk multiple times before receiving a solution.
• First response time: quantifies how long customers are on hold.
• Average resolution time: quantifies the average time a help desk takes to resolve an issue.
• Customer Retention Rate (CRR): quantifies the percentage of customers that buy additional products or services.

Five ServiceNow CSM features that boost customer satisfaction

1. Reduced resolution time. CSM conducts a cross-company investigation, discovers the root cause of the customer issue, and provides the appropriate resolution in the shortest time feasible by collaborating with siloed departments.
2. Omnichannel customer support. Omnichannel delivers dynamic customer support solutions by automating and unifying service requests and resolution processes across all communication channels, including email, phone, and chat.
3. Customer trend analysis with AI. AI can access intelligent, individualized dashboards that display customer behavior concerning products and services. It also aids in identifying the source of customer complaints, inspecting the situation, and generating reports to provide fast resolutions to avoid further delays.
4. Improved customer relationship management: Businesses can access real-time assistance from multiple internal departments and external partners with better visibility and responsibility.
5. Better view of workflows. Organizations can track front-to-back digital workflows, including automated processes ranging from simple to complex.  CSM provides status updates and closed-loop feedback, accelerating IT development and integrating third-party service.

Start your action plan with Cask ServiceNow CSM solutions

Understanding the importance of high-quality customer interactions and reviewing, analyzing, and improving on them is critical for running a competitive business. Consumers have lofty expectations and on-demand mentalities in today's fast-paced world, where turnaround times range from short to non-existent.

Request a quote today and learn how Cask ServiceNow CSM features can help you enforce your customer service action plan and boost the consumer journey.