Measuring Customer Satisfaction

Digital platforms, chatbots and invitations to “Contact Us” on company websites have transformed how a business interacts with its customers. While these developments enable faster, more efficient communication, call centres remain a vital first point of contact as many customers still prefer to pick up the phone and connect with a human being. This experience can set the tone for the customer’s entire relationship with the business. It’s not just about answering calls, it’s about providing a positive, supportive experience that meets the customer’s needs efficiently. Client satisfaction with your call centre is crucial for building loyalty, driving revenue, and fostering a positive brand image, as satisfied customers are more likely to return, recommend your services, and contribute to long-term business success. The use of Mystery Calls is a powerful tool in measuring your customer experience over the phone.

The research methodology behind Mystery Calls is quite straightforward: “Mystery callers” contacts the Call Centre, acting out a pre-defined scenario designed to measure specific aspects of a customer call, such as the satisfaction around:

• First contact (how the caller was greeted, did they listen to customer needs and enquiries),
• Competence of the Agent (was the customer transferred to the correct department, did the agent communicate clearly and correctly, could the agent provide answers to questions when asked about details?),
• The customer’s holistic experience with the call centre agent (did the customer feel valued, was the issue resolved or was there a commitment to follow-up contact?).

This call is followed by the completion of a short, focused questionnaire, commonly using a rating scale (e.g., 1-5) to describe their experience. Information around analysing the results of these surveys provides the CSAT score, a metric that indicates overall customer satisfaction.

When a proper mystery call program is set up, also called a tracking program, a company can reap the benefits almost instantly as well as on a continuous basis. Mystery call data provides valuable insights that can be used to make data-driven decisions for the improvement of the frontline service, focused training strategies, and effectively follow-up on development of further customer experience improvements. By focusing on customer service quality, businesses can build stronger customer relationships and foster loyalty, leading to higher retention rates and repeat business.