Great customer satisfaction is at the top of any company’s priorities, but are you taking the time to measure it? While you may think you know how they feel toward you, your product or your service based on sales or retention metrics, it’s difficult to actually know unless you ask. This is where customer satisfaction or customer loyalty surveys and questionnaires come into play.

Here at Armada, we use the Net Promoter Score, or NPS, to gauge customer loyalty. You can find details about how it works here, but it essentially revolves around the question of, “How likely would you be to recommend this product or service?” Last year, we received a Best-In-Class NPS of +58.4, on par with the leading companies in customer satisfaction, such as Amazon, Southwest and Zappos. This year, our NPS rose 10 points to +68, putting us light years ahead of the health insurance industry average (+12).

Even if NPS isn’t the right customer loyalty metric for you, it’s still important to have a systematic way of checking in with your customers to see how you’re performing in their eyes. Why?

• Things can change. A customer who was satisfied may no longer be satisfied—without a survey, you would be unaware of this change in attitude or the need to take action to fix it.
• Chances are you don’t have the full story. According to Lee Resource Inc., for every customer complaint there are 26 other unhappy customers who haven’t said a thing. Give them a chance to voice their opinions.
• Improve customer experience. Even if you’re doing a good job already, there are always areas to improve upon. Your customers know what they want. Incorporate a space for them to tell you their ideas.
• Retention is cheaper than marketing to new customers. And while, of course, you want to be doing that as well, it’s important to not forget about the customers you already have. That way you can keep customers, gain customers and by extension grow your business. Plus, happy customers always refer.
• Low customer satisfaction is a flashing red sign your customers are looking at competitors. It’s better to know this is happening so you can stop it!
• Great customer satisfaction sets you apart. When choosing between two companies selling the same thing, which would you rather do business with? The company who can’t tell you what their customers think or the company who can boast a fantastic metric. I think you know the answer.