Customer satisfaction score (CSAT)
A survey score that shows how customers rate a purchase, a call or a service experience, usually collected right after it.
Use this definition in team training or when clarifying a sales note.
Definition
A customer satisfaction score, usually shortened to CSAT, comes from a short survey sent after a purchase, a support call or a meeting: how satisfied were you, on a fixed scale, often with one open question. It is usually reported as the share of respondents who chose the top answers, or as an average.
Question wording, scale and timing all move the number, so a score is only comparable with itself over time. Some suppliers, franchisors and marketplaces run their own versions of these surveys, and in some programs the scores affect eligibility for incentives, placement or recognition.
Why it matters
Most satisfaction damage is done before the survey arrives, usually by something that was promised and not delivered. A price quoted on the phone that changed at signing, or a callback that never came, shows up later as a score nobody can explain. The conversations behind a low score usually find the broken promise faster than the survey comments do.