In my last article about how to improve customer satisfaction, I talked about the three principles I believe are essential to delivering great customer service: consistency, communication and commitment.
But how do you know whether you’re actually delivering on those principles?
It’s easy to assume your customers are happy if you’re not receiving many complaints, or that your service is performing well because your team is answering calls quickly. But neither tells you the full story. A customer might get through to you straight away but still feel frustrated because their issue wasn’t resolved. Equally, someone who never complains might simply decide to take their business elsewhere.
That’s why measuring customer satisfaction is so important.
During my 25+ years in customer service, I’ve learned that some of the most valuable insights come from looking beyond what customers tell you directly. Combining customer feedback with operational data can reveal where your team is performing well, where customers are experiencing frustration and what you could do differently.
The challenge is knowing which metrics to track and, more importantly, what to do with the information you collect.
In this guide, I’ll explain four ways to measure customer satisfaction, what each metric can reveal about your business, and how to use those insights to improve your customer experience and business performance.
Customer satisfaction metrics to track
Customer satisfaction isn’t one single number. Different metrics tell you different things about the customer journey. Here are my top four:
| Metric | What it measures | Best used for |
| Net Promoter Score (NPS) | Likelihood of recommending your business | Understanding customer loyalty |
| Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) | Satisfaction with a particular experience | Evaluating customer interactions |
| Customer Effort Score (CES) | Ease of completing a task or resolving an issue | Identifying friction in the customer journey |
| First Contact Resolution (FCR) | Percentage of enquiries resolved first time | Improving service efficiency |
Rather than relying on just one measure, I recommend using several together to build a complete picture. Let’s look at them in more detail.
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Net Promoter Score was the most popular metric used to measure customer satisfaction in 2025, according to Statista. First developed by Fred Reichheld of Bain & Company in 2003, it measures how likely a customer is to recommend your product, service or brand.
Collecting the data is simple. You ask your customers one question:
“On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our business to a friend or colleague?”
Responses are scored and grouped into three categories:
- Promoters (9-10): Loyal advocates who are likely to recommend your business.
- Passives (7-8): Satisfied customers who aren’t devoted to your brand, so could be tempted by a better offer from a competitor.
- Detractors (0-6): Customers who are unhappy and are likely to affect your business reputation through negative reviews and word of mouth.
Usually, businesses ask an optional follow-up question asking customers why they chose their score. This helps you to understand the things you’re doing well and the elements of your customer service that you may need to improve.
To calculate your NPS, you take the percentage of promoters minus the percentage of detractors. So, if you have 100 customer responses and 40 are promoters while 25 are detractors, your NPS is 15.
NPS helps businesses understand the strength of long-term customer relationships and provides an indication of future growth through word-of-mouth recommendations.
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
CSAT is another widely used customer service metric, and it’s also very simple to collect the data.
After any type of customer service interaction, customers are usually asked a question such as:
“How satisfied were you with your experience today?”
Usually, responses are collected on a five-point Likert scale ranging from ‘Very dissatisfied’ to ‘Very satisfied’.
CSAT is useful because it’s quick and easy for customers to complete and provides immediate feedback on individual interactions.
However, it only measures satisfaction at a specific point in time. A customer may be delighted with today’s phone call but still choose a competitor next month for other reasons. That’s why it’s important to use it alongside other metrics.
Customer Effort Score (CES)
Sometimes the easiest way to improve customer satisfaction is simply to reduce the amount of effort customers have to make.
Customer Effort Score asks customers how easy it was to complete a task, such as resolving an issue or getting support.
The question is often something like:
“How easy did the company make it to resolve your issue?”
Then customers can answer in a number of ways, such as using the Likert scale (ranging from very difficult to very easy), a numeric scale or emoticons. Once you’ve chosen one, it’s best to keep it the same so you’ll always be able to compare your data.
Created by the Corporate Executive Board (now part of Gartner) in their Harvard Business Review article ‘Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers’, they argue that CES is a better predictor of true customer loyalty than NPS or CSAT.
In fact, one of their studies found that 94% of customers with a good CES expressed an intention to repurchase from a company, while 81% of customers with high-effort experiences planned to spread negative word of mouth.
While CES only takes a snapshot of customer experience, it’s a great metric to measure alongside NPS and CSAT. CES gives you an idea of whether there is friction in a specific part of your customer journey, CSAT tells you how satisfied they are with your product or service, and NPS helps you understand how many of your customers are happy overall.
First Contact Resolution (FCR)
One of my favourite operational metrics is First Contact Resolution.
FCR is the percentage of customer contacts – whether by phone, email, live chat or anything else – that are resolved on the first attempt.
To calculate FCR, you take the number of customer enquiries resolved in a single interaction and divide it by the total number of enquiries received:
FCR = Total number of one-touch contacts ÷ total number of enquiries received
High FCR usually leads to:
- Higher customer satisfaction
- Lower operating costs
- Shorter waiting times
- Greater agent confidence
It’s also a good indicator of whether your team has the knowledge, systems and authority needed to solve problems effectively.
At OpenContact, we aim for first contact resolution every time. It’s not always possible, but our agents have all the training on our clients’ systems and policies to make first contact resolution the norm.
Of course, it’s important not to focus on FCR at the expense of getting the right outcome. Some issues genuinely need more time, and rushing to close an enquiry can leave customers feeling that their problem hasn’t been properly addressed.
How to use customer satisfaction metrics to improve your business
Collecting customer satisfaction data is only the first step.
The real value comes from understanding what the numbers are telling you and using those insights to make meaningful improvements.
Here are three ways to turn your customer service metrics into better business outcomes.
1. Look for patterns rather than individual scores
It’s tempting to celebrate when your NPS increases or worry when your CSAT drops. But individual scores rarely tell the whole story.
Instead, look at how your metrics change over time and whether there are relationships between them.
For example, imagine your CSAT is consistently high, but your FCR has been falling over the last few months.
This could suggest that customers appreciate the friendly, professional service they’re receiving, but their enquiries aren’t being resolved efficiently.
You might discover that agents don’t have access to the information they need or that too many enquiries require approval from another department.
By looking at both metrics together, you can identify an issue that might otherwise go unnoticed.
It’s also worth comparing performance across different communication channels, enquiry types and customer groups.
You may find that customers are very satisfied with your telephone support but regularly struggle to resolve issues through email, for example.
These patterns can help you decide where to focus your attention.
2. Find out what’s causing customer frustration
Once you’ve identified a problem, the next step is understanding what’s behind it.
This is where qualitative feedback becomes just as important as your customer satisfaction scores.
Let’s say your CES results suggest customers are finding it difficult to resolve their enquiries.
Rather than immediately introducing a new system or changing your processes, investigate what’s causing the frustration.
Are customers being transferred between departments? Do they have to repeat information? Are they waiting too long for a response?
Your frontline employees can be an excellent source of insight here.
They speak to customers every day and often recognise recurring problems long before they become obvious in your reports.
At OpenContact, we work closely with our clients to understand their customers, products and processes. That knowledge helps our agents deliver better service and means we’re well placed to identify recurring enquiries or issues that could be addressed.
Combining customer feedback with insights from your team can help you get to the root cause of a problem rather than simply treating the symptoms.
3. Make improvements and measure the results
Once you understand what’s causing a problem, you can start making changes.
Here are some examples for different scenarios:
- Low CSAT scores: Review customer feedback and call quality to identify whether additional training, clearer communication or changes to your processes are needed.
- Falling FCR: Improve your knowledge base, review escalation procedures or give advisers greater authority to resolve common issues.
- High customer effort: Simplify processes, improve communication between departments and reduce the number of times customers need to provide the same information.
- Declining NPS: Investigate recurring complaints and look for broader issues affecting customer trust, value or service quality.
You might also discover that the problem isn’t the quality of your customer service, but your team’s capacity to deliver it consistently.
For example, if customers regularly experience long waiting times during busy periods, introducing overflow call handling could help ensure enquiries are answered promptly without the expense of recruiting additional permanent staff.
Whatever changes you make, it’s important to measure their impact.
Compare your results before and after implementing improvements, allowing enough time to identify meaningful trends.
If your FCR improves following additional training, that’s a positive sign. If your CSAT remains unchanged, you may need to investigate whether there are other factors influencing customer satisfaction.
The aim is to create an ongoing cycle of measuring, learning and improving rather than treating customer satisfaction as a one-off exercise.
Measuring customer satisfaction is about much more than collecting positive feedback or achieving an impressive score. It’s about understanding what your customers need, identifying where your service could be better and making changes that improve their experience.
As I discussed in my previous article, great customer service comes down to consistency, communication and commitment. The right metrics help you understand whether you’re delivering on those principles and, more importantly, where you need to improve.
Remember, you don’t have to measure everything at once. Start with the metrics that are most relevant to your business, establish a baseline and focus on making improvements that genuinely benefit your customers.
At OpenContact, we believe that understanding your customers is the first step towards building stronger, more profitable relationships with them. Our UK-based customer service teams work closely with businesses to deliver knowledgeable, personal support and identify opportunities to improve the customer experience.
Whether you’re struggling with missed calls, inconsistent service, or simply need more support as your business grows, we’d love to have a conversation about how we can help.
Get in touch with our team to find out more about our flexible, outsourced customer service solutions.
