In market research, it is important to focus on investigating causes. Of course, it is important to recognize whether your customers are satisfied or dissatisfied. However, if a company finds out from a customer survey that overall satisfaction is poor, it still doesn’t know where to start to change this.

To take targeted action, it is essential to identify the causes of dissatisfaction. This can be done by asking very open-ended questions, but it is also possible to consider possible causes in advance when developing the survey so that these can be explicitly queried.

A so-called driver analysis can be helpful in identifying the relevant starting points for improvement measures. This statistical method shows which aspects have a significant impact on overall satisfaction and thus helps to prioritize measures and ensure efficient use of available resources. Not every criticism or deficiency necessarily has an impact on overall satisfaction. Addressing such points would therefore not achieve the desired effect.

In-depth interviews are a suitable method to gain detailed insights into the causes of dissatisfaction. At TEMA-Q we combine quantitative and qualitative aspects in our CX studies. While ratings and questions with clearly defined answer options provide an initial overview of possible problem areas, the open-ended questions in the Voice of Customer can be used to identify details that may not have been present at the outset and would therefore never have been selected as a starting point for improvement measures.

As is so often the case, there is no single right way. However, one conclusion can be drawn: It is not enough to simply know HOW something was rated – you also need to understand WHY it was rated that way.

Take a look at our LinkedIn profile at https://www.linkedin.com/company/tema-q/ to gain exciting insights into the world of customer and employee experience in the future.

If you have any questions about these or other topics, or would like a live demo version of ClaralytiX via video conference, click here to make an appointment or contact us.

Verhagen et al., Drivers of Customer Satisfaction in a Project-Oriented, Business-to-Business Market Environment: An Empirical Study, 2009
Le et al., An empirical research on customer satisfaction study: a consideration of different levels of performance, 2016