Social media and CSAT surveys

Are opinions on social media a lead indicator for CSAT? Absolutely yes. With millions of opinions expressed on social media sites such as Twitter/ Facebook everyday it has become a reality today. For example as a company we analyse tweets about several companies through 247tweetview (http://www.247tweetview.com) and when we compare the sentiments expressed by consumers with the end customer CSAT for our clients there is a clear pattern. Companies do not need to wait for a survey to be done/ analyse it and then figure out their CSAT scores are good or bad. The moment of truth is happening every minute/ every day.

Sample this. On an average the CSAT survey responses are between 1%-1.5%. For a company that has a million contacts every month, this would be 10,000 responses in a month. On the other hand a company with a similar contact base would receive anywhere between 50,000 to 60,000 tweets every month.

Even if one discounts 50% of this , it is still a threefold volume in terms of direct voice of customer inputs. And this is only from one source in social media. Compound this with other social media sites and the level of insights one can get from social media cannot be ignored. This does not mean that CSAT surveys are redundant. It only means that CSAT surveys should be seen in conjunction with the opinions expressed in social media. And it will not be long before social media starts driving redesign of CSAT surveys. Companies need to start thinking about this as part of their customer service and social media strategy.