Measuring Customer Satisfaction

Measuring Customer Satisfaction Initiative

What You Need to Know

The Human-Centered Design Center of Excellence (HCD CoE) is partnering with teams across the CCSQ community to increase customer feedback through the implementation of customer satisfaction surveys. These surveys provide a continuous feedback mechanism for customers to express actionable praise and critique of CCSQ products and services. Contact the HCD CoE to learn more about how it can support your team with customer satisfaction research: hcd@cms.hhs.gov

Background

Customer satisfaction research allows an organization to gather feedback from its customers about how well it is delivering its products and services and how it might improve delivery. We often prioritize research methods that answer specific and immediate questions for our projects at hand. How much time do users spend on a critical task? Do customers understand our instructions? Though, questions that yield insights for the totality of the customer experience (CX), such as customer satisfaction questions, help us to strategically inform project planning and prioritization across the enterprise.

While customer satisfaction as an idea is a general one, a customer satisfaction survey is more defined and refers to a particular type of customer feedback survey. CSAT surveys allow customers to assess and provide feedback, both quantitative and qualitative, on customer service and product quality.

These surveys are an ‘always on’ method of continuous data collection that allow us to measure aspects of the CX. These surveys typically provide insights related to:

Overall customer satisfaction
Ease of use
Efficiency
Open-ended, qualitative feedback

Most commonly, CSAT surveys are delivered to customers via email or in the context of a user interface, with a site intercept survey tool/form. The latter has many benefits, most importantly that customers can answer questions while immersed in the experience when it is most fresh in their minds.

Measuring the CX with a CSAT survey is an excellent step toward continuous improvement, but it’s what we do with the insights to drive and improve the experience that really counts. For this reason, it’s crucial to have a process in place for making sense of data, especially open-ended, qualitative feedback.

Measuring Customer Satisfaction Across CCSQ

The Human-Centered Design Center of Excellence (HCD CoE) advocates and advances customer satisfaction research across the CCSQ community. There is a clear connection between the ISG strategic goal to Improve Value as this research allows us to measure and understand the value of our products and services. In a recent QNET Chat, ISG's former director stated:

“If we do not measure the customer satisfaction, it’s very hard to improve. We want to make sure we continue to build 
that feedback loop for our business partners. Through that feedback loop we will monitor, measure, and improve how 
we provide value on an ongoing basis.” 
- CCSQ ISG leadership, QNet Chat, 2022

Accordingly, the HCD CoE has worked with teams to plan, execute, and share case studies from recent customer satisfaction research projects. We continue to provide support for teams as they plan for customer satisfaction research and we gladly provide insights and recommendations based on our experience with past projects.

Case Studies

To learn more about two recent CSAT survey implementations, please see the case studies from Hospital Quality Reporting and Quality Payment Program:

Quality Payment Program (QPP) CSAT Survey Case Study and Presentation>>

Hospital Quality Reporting (HQR) CSAT Survey Case Study and Presentation>>

Steps to Measuring and Improving Customer Satisfaction

We often receive questions about the recommended process for implementing a customer satisfaction survey. As every project is different, the process can vary, but here we've detailed some general milestones, timeframes, and considerations for planning.

Key Steps	Goals	Considerations
Research Planning	Prioritize a Customer Satisfaction Survey epic/feature in your backlog and initiate planning Gain alignment with stakeholders on who you'd like to survey, how, and what you will do with the data	Use our Customer Satisfaction Survey feature template for your backlog. Attend our Survey Design Best Practices training for guidance on planning and implementation Use statistical calculators to determine sample size needed
Survey Tool Selection	Review available survey tools that align with your research plan and select a tool. Commonly used tools include: Survey Monkey, Touchpoints, HotJar, and Qualtrics For most wed-based tool, you will need to submit Web Third Party Authorization (WTPA) form for approval	Tool selection should align with methodology (e.g. email survey tool vs site intercept survey tool) Some tools have already been approved by the Technical Direction Board, which can save time. Click here for the Approved Technology Portfolio (ATP) Survey Monkey is a CCSQ enterprise tool, which can be leveraged for free Touchpoints is a GSA shared service tool, which can be leveraged for free
Write Survey Questions	Select the customer satisfaction survey questions. Typically, these surveys include questions overall satisfaction, for ease of use, efficiency, and an open-ended field for qualitative insights	These questions should not change to allow for proper benchmarking and measurement Review existing CMS examples for inspiration 1) cms.gov (see right "Feedback" tab), 2) qpp.cms.gov (see bottom tab)
Gain Paperwork Reduction Act Coverage	Gain approval from OSORA to engage with your customers in accordance with your research plan	Leverage the CCSQ Generic Clearance for PRA coverage in as little as 30 days. Click here for everything you need to know about using this clearance
Implement Survey	Populate your survey tool with your questions. Program settings to 1) yield the appropriate amount of responses and, 2) display appropriately for delivery to customers	Most survey tools can end a survey once you've reached your sampling goals. This will help keep you aligned with your allotted customer interactions Many site intercept surveys have a variety of delivery displays. We recommend something subtle, such as a "Feedback" tab on the bottom or side of the web page
Leverage Insights	Process quantitative and qualitative insights for the benefit of project planning, feature prioritization, refinement, and to initiate follow-up research as needed Determine reporting format to inform stakeholders and act when appropriate	Incorporating customer feedback is the most important part of this research. To ensure that you have a proper agile process for making data actionable, consider partnering with the HCD CoE and LACE. Complete a RACI matrix to determine how to communicate insights with various stakeholders

We're Here to Help!

The HCD Center of Excellence is here to support you as you participate in the CCSQ-wide goal of increasing customer satisfaction research. We can partner with you through key tasks, such as:

Establish and test a site intercept survey tool
Determine questions for satisfaction, ease of use, and efficiency
Define a statistically relevant sample for continuous data collection
Resolve PRA coverage and Information Collection Request (ICR) for site intercept survey
Complete and submit Third Party Website and Applications (TPWA) form for the site intercept tool
Determine approach for survey display
Establish a plan for leveraging ongoing customer data

Use the buttons below to email us or submit a project intake through Confluence and our team will follow up with you shortly.

Resources

Customer Satisfaction Case Studies

QPP Customer Satisfaction Survey Case Study>>

HQR Customer Satisfaction Survey Case Study>>

CCSQ Generic Clearance for PRA

HCD CoE Guide to Navigating the Paperwork Reduction Act - Use this guide to help gain fast-track PRA coverage under the CCSQ Generic Clearance.

Generic Clearance Checklist - Use this job aid to help determine if your ICR is appropriate for the CCSQ generic clearance with fast track process.

Short form - ICR template - Use this form to capture the details of your ICR for OSORA and OMB review.

PRA Disclosure Statement - All collection instruments submitted under this generic fast track must include this statement.

Related Trainings

Survey Design Best Practices - An introductory course that provides a framework for planning and implementing survey projects.

Sampling Calculator

Statistical Sampling Calculator, from Survey Monkey - Use this to determine how many survey responses you should plan for to reach statistical significance.

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