After closing a sale: measuring customer satisfaction

Usually, when we own a business, we are focused on closing more and more sales without thinking about how satisfied our customers are after they made a purchase. This will determine whether they will choose us, buy our products or services to meet their needs and improve their quality of life.

Everybody has needs to meet so we all buy products or ask for a service that makes our lives easier or more comfortable. 

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All customers visiting a store for the first time are willing to come back if the product or service they were looking for doesn't meet their expectations. Moreover, and most importantly, if the way sellers treat customers is what they expect and they feel motivated to purchase our products without feeling they are forced to is very positive. 

In general, all business owners want to increase their sales and attract new stable customers because they are the ones that will make your business grow if their satisfaction level is high. Consequently, they will not only recommend your products but also, they will rate the service they were provided. 

However, the questions that arise after getting in touch with customers are always the same: are they satisfied with our products and the service we provide to them? What aspects can be improved and what resources should we reconsider?

So far, with no statistical information to measure customer satisfaction, you just have the certainty of having loyal and satisfied customers when they come back and buy more of your products, those customers who trust that your commercial proposal is so efficient as a loyal friend. 

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But as you may have realized, it's not enough for your customers to come back to measure their satisfaction because you don't know why they do it. Maybe they go to your store because it's closest to their homes, or maybe it's the cheapest option they found or they like you more than they like your products per se. 

The truth is that reasons are endless. 

Helping people solve a problem -in this case, offering them products they need to improve their quality of life- is what makes a business grow and survive throughout time. No customers, no profitable business; that's why it's important to measure customer satisfaction beyond the sale/purchase interaction. 

How can you measure customer satisfaction?

If you don't have the psychic ability of Mel Gibson in the movie "What women want", you should pay attention to the following simple but efficient methodological proposals that will allow you to know your customers in-depth and be able to solve their problems and satisfy their demands. 

• Customer satisfaction surveys.

Surveys are the most common and used methods to measure customer satisfaction. They allow you to ask specific questions about the experience customers had with your product, the attention they got at the store, the quality of the information provided to use the product, their future expectations, among others.

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You can gather very valuable information from a customer to identify possible weaknesses so that you can help him/her strengthen them. Advantages: they're endless sources of information about people and efficient resources to measure satisfaction. Disadvantages: answering them consumes time and effort, and not all customers are willing to make them. They aren't useful when you have a small number of customers. 

However, customers understand that these surveys aim at knowing their opinion in order to improve the quality of a product; it's also true that customers are more eager to help us when you offer them something in return, such as a discount or a raffle. 

• Satisfaction through a complaint registration.

Here you'll measure the level of nonconformity with your product. To do this, you'll have to count the number of complaints you received in a specific period of time. 

Carrying out this measurement will allow you to do a follow-up on the level of nonconformity to contrast it against the level of conformity so that you understand how nonconformity levels can be reduced, improving the profitability of your products and your customers' trust by solving their problems.

There are several devices to do measure customer satisfaction, apart from surveys. In the current context of a pandemic, there are even devices that avoid contact. 

• Links between customers and your business or company.

On the other hand, you can also measure customer satisfaction by keeping a register of what they buy from your company. This way, you'll know those who are most involved in your business according to the number of products they buy. If it's high, the link is strong; if it's low, it's weaker, but you have to keep in mind, the period of time. 

Moreover, not all people have the same needs, since some of them just buy more than others independently of their needs. The secret is to understand the needs of each particular customer.

After a successful sale, a satisfied customer recommends your business. 

An undeniable fact is that a satisfied customer will definitely recommend your business to their friends and family because if their satisfaction level is high, he/she will naturally want others to experience the same satisfaction. 

This way, you'll not only get loyalty from your usual customers but also from new ones that were recommended to your business. You'll have to keep both new and old customers satisfied; you should manage to keep them interested so they don't get tired and look for "new horizons". 

These were some of the methods you can use to measure customer satisfaction in your business. You can turn these methods into assessments to give you a broader idea of your customers and how satisfied they are with your commercial proposal.