Case-by-Case Customer Satisfaction

One of the most revealing ways to measure your help desk or service desk performance is to survey your customers. There are many approaches to surveying, but some are more effective than others.

Many companies will annually send a customer satisfaction survey to the whole company to gauge performance. There are several problems with this approach. First not everyone surveyed will have used your help desk's services. This will either make your percentage of responses low or add irrelevant responses to your data. Since you only request this information once in a while, you will be tempted to cram too much information into the survey. Often these surveys lack focus and do not give you a clear picture of performance.

A better approach to help desk customer satisfaction measurement is case-by-case surveying. Each time a case is closed, meaning the problem was resolved and the resolution was already communicated to the requester, a short survey on the case is sent to the requester. Some companies limit the number of surveys sent to the same end user in a given month.

Here is a sample survey, based on critical to quality (CTQ) goals that you may have already established.

Please describe your satisfaction in the following areas for your recent help desk case:

Availability - how quickly we responded to your call or email:

1. Very satisfied
2. Somewhat satisfied
3. Somewhat dissatisfied
4. Very dissatisfied

Turn Around - how quickly your request was completed:

1. Very satisfied
2. Somewhat satisfied
3. Somewhat dissatisfied
4. Very dissatisfied

Courtesy - how well we listened and empathized with you:

1. Very satisfied
2. Somewhat satisfied
3. Somewhat dissatisfied
4. Very dissatisfied

Communication - how well we communicated with you on this case:

1. Very satisfied
2. Somewhat satisfied
3. Somewhat dissatisfied
4. Very dissatisfied

Comments

When reporting on your results, you can measure customer satisfaction for each of your CTQ goals. Simply report on the percentage of responses that were either 1 or 2. For example:

Customer Satisfaction % = [Number of 1 and 2 responses]/[Total responses for CTQ]

Taking this to the next level, you can review the comments provided by your customers. By reporting on comments where one of your CTQ goals was 3 or 4, showing dissatisfaction, you will find suggestions for improvement. Reporting on your 1 and 2 responses, showing satisfaction, will show you what you are already doing well. This is great information for continuous improvement.

Another way you can use the results is to tie the case ID back to the analyst who took the call. This is a good way to balance individual analyst performance with other internal metrics, like first call resolution. For this it is important to embed the case ID in the request for the survey, since end-users may not remember their case ID.

If you want to be successful in customer satisfaction measurement, you need to automate everything. If surveys require time from other important work, it will quickly go by the wayside. Automate both your requests for completing the survey and your collection and reporting of the data. Some help desk management software will do this for you. If yours does not, consider customization that will enable it -- it's worth the investment.

Good luck with your surveying. Hopefully you will be pleasantly surprised by the results.

-Steve McElwee