Customer satisfaction, a business term, is a measure of how products and services

supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. Customer satisfaction is defined as

It is seen as a key performance indicator within business and is part of the four of a
Balanced Scorecard. In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for customers,
customer satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a key element
of business strategy.

Within organizations, customer satisfaction ratings can have powerful effects. They focus
employees on the importance of fulfilling customers’ expectations. Furthermore, when these
ratings dip, they warn of problems that can affect sales and profitability. These metrics quantify
an important dynamic. When a brand has loyal customers, it gains positive word-of-mouth
marketing, which is both free and highly effective.

In researching satisfaction, firms generally ask customers whether their product or service
has met or exceeded expectations. Thus, expectations are a key factor behind satisfaction. When
customers have high expectations and the reality falls short, they will be disappointed and will
likely rate their experience as less than satisfying. For this reason, a luxury resort, for example,
might receive a lower satisfaction rating than a budget motel—even though its facilities and
service would be deemed superior in “absolute” terms.

The importance of customer satisfaction diminishes when a firm has increased bargaining
power. For example, cell phone plan providers, such as AT&T and Verizon, participate in an
industry that is an oligopoly, where only a few suppliers of a certain product or service exist. As
such, many cell phone plan contracts have a lot of fine print with provisions that they would
never get away if there were, say, a hundred cell phone plan providers, because customer
satisfaction would be way too low, and customers would easily have the option of leaving for a
better contract offer.
Customer Satisfaction in 7 Steps

It's a well known fact that no business can exist without customers. In the business of
Website design, it's important to work closely with your customers to make sure the site or
system you create for them is as close to their requirements as you can manage. Because it's
critical that you form a close working relationship with your client, customer service is of vital
importance. What follows are a selection of tips that will make your clients feel valued, wanted
and loved.

1. Encourage Face-to-Face Dealings

This is the most daunting and downright scary part of interacting with a customer. If
you're not used to this sort of thing it can be a pretty nerve-wracking experience. Rest assured,
though, it does get easier over time. It's important to meet your customers face to face at least
once or even twice during the course of a project.

2. Respond to Messages Promptly & Keep Your Clients Informed

This goes without saying really. We all know how annoying it is to wait days for a
response to an email or phone call. It might not always be practical to deal with all customers'
queries within the space of a few hours, but at least email or call them back and let them know
you've received their message and you'll contact them about it as soon as possible. Even if you're
not able to solve a problem right away, let the customer know you're working on it.

3. Be Friendly and Approachable

A fellow Site Pointer once told me that you can hear a smile through the phone. This is
very true. It's very important to be friendly, courteous and to make your clients feel like you're
their friend and you're there to help them out. There will be times when you want to beat your
clients over the head repeatedly with a blunt object - it happens to all of us. It's vital that you
keep a clear head, respond to your clients' wishes as best you can, and at all times remain polite
and courteous.
4. Have a Clearly-Defined Customer Service Policy

This may not be too important when you're just starting out, but a clearly defined
customer service policy is going to save you a lot of time and effort in the long run. If a customer
has a problem, what should they do? If the first option doesn't work, then what? Should they
contact different people for billing and technical enquiries? If they're not satisfied with any
aspect of your customer service, who should they tell?

There's nothing more annoying for a client than being passed from person to person, or
not knowing who to turn to. Making sure they know exactly what to do at each stage of their
enquiry should be of utmost importance. So make sure your customer service policy is present on
your site -- and anywhere else it may be useful.

5. Attention to Detail (also known as 'The Little Niceties')

Have you ever received a Happy Birthday email or card from a company you were a
client of? Have you ever had a personalized sign-up confirmation email for a service that you
could tell was typed from scratch? These little niceties can be time consuming and aren't always
cost effective, but remember to do them.

Even if it's as small as sending a Happy Holidays email to all your customers, it's
something. It shows you care; it shows there are real people on the other end of that screen or
telephone; and most importantly, it makes the customer feel welcomed, wanted and valued.

6. Anticipate Your Client's Needs & Go Out Of Your Way to Help Them Out

Sometimes this is easier said than done! However, achieving this supreme level of
understanding with your clients will do wonders for your working relationship.

Take this as an example: you're working on the front-end for your client's exciting new
ecommerce Endeavour. You have all the images, originals and files backed up on your desktop
computer and the site is going really well. During a meeting with your client he/she happens to
mention a hard-copy brochure their internal marketing people are developing.
As if by magic, a couple of weeks later a CD-ROM arrives on their doorstep complete with high
resolution versions of all the images you've used on the site. A note accompanies it which reads:

7. Honour Your Promises

It's possible this is the most important point in this article. The simple message: when you
promise something, deliver. The most common example here is project delivery dates.

Clients don't like to be disappointed. Sometimes, something may not get done, or you might miss
a deadline through no fault of your own. Projects can be late, technology can fail and sub-
contractors don't always deliver on time. In this case a quick apology and assurance it'll be ready
ASAP wouldn't go amiss.