What is customer satisfaction score?
Also known as: CSAT
Customer satisfaction score (CSAT) measures how satisfied a customer is with a specific interaction, product, or service, usually by asking them to rate it on a scale of 1 to 5. It is expressed as the percentage of responses that are satisfied — typically the top two ratings.
Formula
How to calculate customer satisfaction score
CSAT = (Satisfied responses ÷ Total responses) × 100- Satisfied responses
- Count of responses in the top two boxes — 4 and 5 on a 5-point scale
- Total responses
- All responses received
Worked example
Of 300 responses, 240 rate 4 or 5. CSAT = (240 ÷ 300) × 100 = 80%.
Benchmarks
Typical customer satisfaction score ranges
Commonly reported ranges for B2B SaaS. Treat these as orientation — your own segment and contract structure matter more than any cross-industry figure.
| Segment | Typical range |
|---|---|
| B2B SaaS support | 85–90% |
| Good, general | 75–85% |
| Needs attention | Below 70% |
In practice
What you need to know about customer satisfaction score
CSAT vs NPS vs CES
CSAT measures satisfaction with a specific interaction and is transactional and immediate. NPS measures overall loyalty and is relational and longitudinal. Customer effort score measures how hard a task was, and tends to predict repeat behavior better than either. They answer different questions, and a team tracking all three without knowing which decision each informs is generating reporting rather than insight.
Scale choice changes the number
A 5-point scale and a 7-point scale produce different CSAT figures for identical underlying sentiment, and the definition of "satisfied" — top box versus top two boxes — shifts it again. Neither is wrong, but comparing your CSAT to an external benchmark computed differently is meaningless. Fix your methodology and compare against yourself.
How to improve it
Improving customer satisfaction score
Ask immediately after the interaction
CSAT decays fast as memory fades. Surveys sent days later measure general mood rather than the specific interaction.
Keep it to one question
Every additional question measurably reduces completion. If you need more detail, use a single optional free-text follow-up.
FAQ
Customer satisfaction score questions, answered
What is a good CSAT score?+
75–85% is generally good, and B2B SaaS support teams often target 85–90%. Because the figure depends heavily on scale design and on whether you count top-box or top-two-box responses, your own trend is far more meaningful than an external benchmark.
How do you calculate CSAT?+
Divide the number of satisfied responses — conventionally ratings of 4 and 5 on a 5-point scale — by total responses, then multiply by 100. Document whether you use top-box or top-two-box, since the choice materially changes the result.
What is the difference between CSAT and NPS?+
CSAT measures satisfaction with a specific recent interaction and is transactional. NPS measures overall willingness to recommend and is relational. A customer can report high CSAT on every support ticket while being a detractor overall, because the product is not delivering strategic value.
Related terms
Keep reading
Net promoter score
Net promoter score (NPS) is a customer loyalty metric based on a single question: how likely are you to recommend this product to a colleague, on a scale of 0 to 10. It is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors (0–6) from the percentage of promoters (9–10), producing a score between −100 and +100.
Customer effort score
Customer effort score (CES) measures how much effort a customer had to expend to complete a task, typically by asking them to rate their agreement with a statement such as "the company made it easy for me to handle my issue" on a 1–7 scale. Lower effort correlates strongly with loyalty and repeat purchase.
Customer health score
A customer health score is a composite metric that summarizes how likely an account is to renew, expand, or churn, calculated by weighting signals such as product usage, engagement, support history, and relationship strength into a single value.
Voice of the customer
Voice of the customer (VoC) is the systematic collection, analysis, and distribution of customer feedback across an organization so that product, service, and strategy decisions reflect what customers actually experience and need.
Your next account move is already in the signals
Know the metric. Know why it moved.
Aartha keeps a cited, time-aware memory of every account — so a health change or a churn signal comes with the evidence behind it.