What is CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score)?

CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) is a metric that measures how satisfied a customer was with a specific interaction, product, or service. You collect it by asking a short "How satisfied were you?" survey, then score it as the percentage of responses that are positive. It's the most direct, immediate read on support quality.

How CSAT works

You ask customers a single question right after an interaction — "How satisfied were you with the support you received?" — usually on a 1-5 scale. Responses in the top one or two boxes (4 and 5) count as satisfied. Because it's tied to a specific moment, CSAT is the fastest way to spot a broken workflow, a confusing article, or an interaction that went sideways.

What's a good CSAT score?

It varies by industry, but a CSAT around 75-85% is generally healthy for support, and 90%+ is excellent. More useful than the absolute number is the trend: track it weekly, segment it by channel, team, and topic, and watch where it dips. A falling CSAT on one topic usually points to a fixable gap in your docs or product.

How to improve CSAT

Reply faster, resolve on the first contact, and write clearly. The biggest lever for most teams is speed and accuracy on repetitive questions — which is exactly where an AI agent or a strong help center helps, by answering the easy ones instantly and freeing agents to do a great job on the hard ones.

Formula

CSAT % = (Satisfied responses ÷ Total responses) × 100

Example: If 180 of 200 respondents rated their support 4 or 5 out of 5, CSAT = 180 ÷ 200 × 100 = 90%.

Calculate your CSAT score with our free CSAT calculator →

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Selvo's shared inbox turns email into real support: assignments, internal notes, saved replies, SLA tracking, and CSAT — without the duplicate replies and dropped threads a plain distribution list creates.

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Questions about CSAT

What is a good CSAT score?

Roughly 75-85% is healthy for customer support and 90%+ is excellent, though benchmarks vary by industry. The trend over time and per-topic breakdown matter more than the headline number.

How is CSAT different from NPS?

CSAT measures satisfaction with a specific interaction; NPS measures loyalty to your whole brand. CSAT is immediate and tactical, NPS is periodic and strategic. See our CSAT vs NPS comparison for details.

Related terms

CSAT vs NPS

CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) measures how happy a customer was with a specific interaction, asked right after it happens. NPS (Net Promoter Score) measures long-term loyalty to your whole company, asked periodically. CSAT is transactional and tactical; NPS is relational and strategic. Most support teams track both.

CSAT vs CES

CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) measures how happy a customer was with an interaction. CES (Customer Effort Score) measures how hard they had to work to get their issue resolved. CSAT captures sentiment; CES captures friction — and low effort is often a stronger predictor of loyalty than high satisfaction.

CES

CES (Customer Effort Score) measures how hard a customer had to work to get an issue resolved or a task done. You ask them to rate a statement like "The company made it easy to handle my issue" on an agreement scale. Lower effort predicts loyalty and repeat business more reliably than high satisfaction alone.

Browse the full customer support glossary →