Glossary
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
A short-interval rating of satisfaction with a specific experience.
CSAT asks how satisfied someone was with a specific interaction — a support ticket, a purchase, an onboarding call — usually on a 1–5 scale, and reports the percentage giving the top one or two boxes. It is transactional: it measures one moment, right after it happened.
That makes it complementary to NPS, which measures broad, durable loyalty. CSAT tells you a particular touchpoint went well or badly today; NPS tells you whether someone would advocate for you overall. Tracking both separates a good relationship from a good interaction.
Because CSAT is most accurate close to the experience, trigger it immediately after the event and keep it to one rating plus an optional comment. A long survey attached to a CSAT prompt depresses both the response rate and the score itself.