CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score)
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What CSAT is
A CSAT survey asks a single question right after an interaction, such as “How satisfied were you with the help you received?”, on a scale of 1 to 5 or with faces or thumbs. Because it is short and immediate, it captures how people felt about one specific moment rather than about the company as a whole. That is the main difference from Net Promoter Score (NPS), which asks how likely someone is to recommend the company.
How it is calculated
The common formula counts satisfied responses, usually 4 and 5 on a five-point scale, and divides them by all responses: CSAT = satisfied responses ÷ total responses × 100. Some teams report the average score instead. Whichever method you use, keep it consistent.
- Ask right after the interaction, while it is fresh.
- Keep it to one question, with an optional comment field.
- Watch the response rate, because very unhappy or very happy customers may answer more often.
- Read the comments: the score tells you that something is wrong, the comments tell you what.
Example
A hypothetical support team sends a five-point survey after each closed chat. In one month, 200 customers respond: 110 choose 5, 46 choose 4 and 44 choose 1 to 3. CSAT is (110 + 46) ÷ 200 × 100 = 78%. Comments from the low scores mention long waits for refunds, which points to a process problem rather than to the answers themselves.
Why it matters for business chatbots
CSAT is one of the few direct signals of whether a chatbot actually helped. Usage numbers show that people talk to the bot, not whether they left satisfied. Comparing satisfaction for bot-handled and staff-handled conversations shows where automation works and where it does not, and low scores on specific topics often point to missing or outdated content.