What is CSAT? The Customer Satisfaction Score explained
CSAT, the Customer Satisfaction Score, measures how satisfied customers are with a product, a service or one specific interaction. Customers usually answer on a scale from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 5 (very satisfied). Your CSAT is the percentage of customers who gave a 4 or a 5.
The CSAT question
Unlike NPS, CSAT has no fixed, official wording. The question follows what you want to know. A few examples:
- How satisfied are you with how your query was handled?
- How satisfied are you with your order?
- Overall, how satisfied are you with [product]?
Customers answer on a scale, usually from 1 to 5:
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- Does not count 1–3
- Satisfied: counts towards CSAT 4–5
You'll also see scales from 1 to 7, from 1 to 10, or made of smiley faces. Any of them is fine, as long as you choose once and stick with it. Do label the end points ("very dissatisfied" and "very satisfied") so everyone reads the scale the same way round.
Satisfied with what, exactly? The trap in a general satisfaction question is that customers decide for themselves what they're rating. One rates the person who helped them, another the fact that their problem still isn't solved. Make the subject of the question as concrete as you can.
How to calculate CSAT
Two methods are in common use. The most widespread is the percentage of satisfied customers, sometimes called the top-two box:
The other is the average score. Both have their uses, but they tell different stories.
A worked example
A customer service team asks for a CSAT score after every completed conversation. In one month, 180 responses come in:
| Score | Responses | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 5, very satisfied | 62 | 34% |
| 4 | 58 | 32% |
| 3 | 28 | 16% |
| 2 | 18 | 10% |
| 1, very dissatisfied | 14 | 8% |
| Total | 180 | 100% |
- CSAT as a percentage: 62 + 58 = 120 satisfied customers out of 180, so a CSAT of 67%.
- Average score: (5 × 62 + 4 × 58 + 3 × 28 + 2 × 18 + 1 × 14) ÷ 180 = 3.76.
The percentage is easier to explain: "two in three customers are satisfied". The average hides more. A 3.76 could mean nearly everyone gave a 4, or that a large group was very happy and a sizeable group very unhappy. So look at the bottom end too: in this example almost one customer in five gave a 1 or a 2. That group deserves attention in its own right.
The CSAT calculator works out both, with a margin of error.
When to use CSAT
CSAT works best straight after a concrete experience, while it's still fresh:
- after a customer service call or a resolved ticket;
- after delivery or installation;
- after a training session, an appointment or an event;
- after someone uses a new feature.
Because the question is about one moment, you can tie the result to that moment: to a team, a channel or a step in the customer journey. That makes CSAT useful for steering. For how loyal customers are overall, NPS is the better fit. To find out how much effort something took, look at the Customer Effort Score. All three side by side: NPS vs CSAT vs CES.
What is a good CSAT?
CSAT depends heavily on what you measure and how. The scale, the wording, the timing and the channel all play a part, and a satisfaction question about a delivery measures something different from the same question after a complicated complaint. So there's no universal threshold for "good", and published averages are only useful if they were measured in exactly the same way.
These questions are more useful:
- Is your CSAT going up or down? Same question, same touchpoint, month on month.
- Where is it lowest? Compare channels, teams or products. The gap shows you where to look.
- How big is the unhappy tail? The share of 1s and 2s often tells you more than the share of 4s and 5s.
Pitfalls
Asking too late. A CSAT question about a call three weeks ago mostly measures what someone remembers of it. Send it within a day.
Only measuring resolved cases. If you only ask for a score once a ticket is closed, you miss the customers who gave up. They're the ones with the most to tell you.
Leading questions. "How satisfied are you with our fast service?" gives away the answer. Leave the adjectives out.
Mixing scales. A CSAT on 1 to 5 in one channel and 1 to 10 in another can't be added together. Choose one scale for the whole organisation.
Only the extremes respond. The delighted and the furious reply faster than people who thought it was fine. A short question at the right moment helps; more in increasing survey response rates.
After the score: ask why
A CSAT of 67% tells you a third of your customers aren't satisfied, but not why. Was it the wait, the answer itself or the tone? An open follow-up question makes the difference: what would have made this better? or what was the main reason for your score?
How ScoreStory does it. ScoreStory measures CSAT on a 1 to 5 scale and shows the score as the percentage of participants who gave a 4 or a 5. After the score, Vox, the AI interviewer, asks what went well and what could have been better. Answers are grouped into themes such as waiting time or expertise automatically, with sentiment alongside. More on the product page.
Frequently asked questions
Is CSAT a percentage?
Usually, yes. The standard CSAT is the share of satisfied customers: those who gave a 4 or 5 on a 1 to 5 scale. Some organisations report the average score instead, such as 3.8. Always say which of the two you mean.
What's the difference between CSAT and NPS?
CSAT asks about satisfaction, often with one experience. NPS asks whether someone would recommend you and says more about the relationship as a whole. That makes CSAT better suited to measuring a specific interaction, and NPS to tracking loyalty over time.
Which scale should I use for CSAT?
A 1 to 5 scale with labelled end points is widely used and easy to answer, on a phone too. More important than the choice itself is sticking with it: a CSAT on 1 to 5 can't be compared with a CSAT on 1 to 7.
Measure the score, then ask why
ScoreStory asks for one score and then holds a short conversation about the reasons behind it. Your first 10 interviews are free, with no credit card and no end date.