CSAT, QA, and AI – The New Formula for Customer Satisfaction

This blog summarizes the key points from a recent article from David McGeough at Scorebuddy, where he explores what customer satisfaction score really is, and how you can pair CSAT with QA (and AI) to turn scores into action.

What is CSAT and Why it Matters

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) is one of the most familiar metrics in the contact centre world. It measures how happy your customers are right after an interaction – whether that’s a call, chat, or email. Usually, it’s a quick survey: “How satisfied were you with your experience today?” on a 1-5 or 1-10 scale.

Because it’s simple and instant, CSAT is perfect for capturing how customers feel in the moment – helping teams spot quick wins or early warning signs that something isn’t working.

How Contact Centres use CSAT

In most contact centres, CSAT is used to track agent performance, highlight process friction, and monitor trends over time. High scores tell you things are working; dips help uncover where extra coaching or process changes might be needed.

Common uses include:

• Tracking customer sentiment daily
• Identifying training or script gaps
• Spotting early churn risks
• Recognising top performers
• How to calculate CSAT

The formula is straightforward:

(Number of satisfied responses ÷ Total responses) – 100 = CSAT (%)

For example, if 150 out of 200 respondents give you a 4 or 5, your CSAT is 75%. Most contact centres aim for scores between 75% and 85%, with anything above 80% considered excellent.

Why CSAT Isn’t The Full Picture

CSAT gives valuable feedback – but only tells part of the story. It reflects short-term sentiment, not long-term loyalty or the quality of every interaction. Low response rates also mean you’re often missing insights from customers who don’t reply.

That’s where Quality Assurance (QA) steps in. By analysing real interactions, QA explains the why behind your CSAT scores – showing whether tone, empathy, or compliance issues are affecting the customer experience.

Why QA and CSAT are Stronger Together

When QA and CSAT work hand-in-hand, you move from reactive to proactive. QA surfaces the behaviours and processes driving satisfaction (or frustration), while CSAT confirms how customers actually feel. Together, they:

• Create clearer coaching opportunities
• Catch small issues before they grow
• Build consistency across teams
• Drive long-term loyalty, not just high scores
• How GenAI is transforming CSAT and QA

Generative AI is reshaping how contact centres measure and improve customer satisfaction.

For agents, GenAI acts as a real-time support tool – suggesting empathetic phrasing, summarising calls, and speeding up after-contact work. The result? Faster resolutions and smoother, more human conversations that naturally lift CSAT.

For QA and CX leaders, AI unlocks full visibility. Instead of sampling a few calls, AI can analyse 100% of interactions for tone, empathy, and compliance.

It highlights trends, flags outliers, and connects QA insights directly to CSAT outcomes – so you can see exactly what drives customer satisfaction.

CSAT is The Start – Not The Strategy

CSAT tells you how customers feel. QA and AI tell you why. Together, they transform satisfaction data into meaningful insight, helping teams coach smarter, improve faster, and deliver consistently better experiences.

When you connect the dots between CSAT, QA, and AI, you’re not just measuring customer happiness – you’re building it.

This blog post has been re-published by kind permission of Scorebuddy – View the Original Article

For more information about Scorebuddy - visit the Scorebuddy Website

Call Centre Helper is not responsible for the content of these guest blog posts. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of Call Centre Helper.

Author: Scorebuddy
Reviewed by: Rachael Trickey