Many commercial businesses that provide after-sale
services seek ways to improve customer loyalty through their customer service
organizations. In addition, companies want to utilize their resources as
productively as possible. Since there are many dimensions to customer service,
companies want to understand how best to utilize limited resources. The basic
premise that most companies rely on is that satisfied customers are more likely
to increase loyalty than non-satisfied customers. For that reason a number of
metrics have been developed which attempt to measure the influence of various
customer interactions. While metrics can be used both tactically and
strategically, this research has focused on metrics used to measure tactical
performance.
Two of the more popular metrics are Customer
Satisfaction (CSAT) and Customer Effort Score (CES). The goal of this research is determine which
of these two metrics will have more impact on customer loyalty. Since each of
these metrics has a different objective, the question is whether they could be
used interchangeably. Is one more
effective than the other, or should they be used complementary. The CSAT metric
is designed to maximize satisfaction
whereas the CES metric is designed to minimize
customer effort. The first issue is
whether the two metrics yield the same service factors for resource allocation.
The second issue is, if the metrics do not yield the same factors for research
allocation, then which is preferable. The decision criteria for selection of
which metric would be preferable is the strength of the correlation
relationship between the independent service factors and either the CSAT or CES
metric. The metric with the higher
correlation would make the most sense to use.
This study included 6381 customers from the medical
electronics and IT industries. Surveys were taken during the months of April
and May 2015 and included customers in both North America and Europe. The
results of the surveys indicated a relatively low correlation (0.51) between
the two metrics, CSAT and CES; however, the results yielded similar
relationships between the independent service factors and each metric when the
total sample was considered. These results also held true when the total sample
was examined independently for field service and technical support. However,
when the sample was examined separately for medical electronics and IT
equipment the most highly correlated independent factors with CSAT and CES were different for the two
products.
As a result of this research we notice that
maximization of satisfaction and minimization of customer effort only provide
similar rankings for the independent variables. Since the two product groups
which were included in the study yielded different rankings for the independent
variables, a generalization seems inappropriate for concluding that the two
metrics are interchangeable.
Because this
research focused on two very different groups of technology products, the
solution for businesses wanting to increase customer loyalty should be to consider
the use both metrics since it is not clear what the criteria should be for
using one metric in lieu of the other. When both metrics are used the question
is which of the independent variables are most appropriate for the
products. Until an individual product
area is evaluated, there is no obvious preferred method. To choose one over the
other without the understanding of the relationships between the individual
independent variables and CSAT or CES may lead to inappropriate allocation of
resources.
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