Customer satisfaction score (CSAT) is a metric that measures how satisfied customers are with a specific interaction or experience. It is usually calculated as the percentage of respondents who give a positive rating (for example a 4 or 5 on a 5-point scale) on a short survey sent right after a support conversation.
CSAT is interaction-level and immediate, which makes it different from relationship metrics like NPS. It tells you whether a given ticket, chat, or call left the customer feeling helped. Because response rates are low and self-selected, it is best read as a trend over many interactions rather than a verdict on any single one.
CSAT vs NPS vs CES at a glance
| Dimension | CSAT | NPS | CES |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asks about | one interaction | the whole relationship | effort to get help |
| Scoring | percent rating 4 or 5 | promoters minus detractors | mean ease rating |
| Best read as | trend over many interactions | slow loyalty signal | friction detector |
CSAT is an industry-standard metric, not an Aide-owned term. Aide, the agentic AI platform for customer experience, treats CSAT as an outcome signal, not a target to optimize in isolation. The view is that satisfaction follows from resolving the right intents well, so CSAT should track alongside resolution rate, with Intent Coverage Rate as the supporting diagnostic underneath, rather than being chased on its own.
An automated reply reaches a customer only after its intent has cleared verification, so automation earns satisfaction rather than degrading it. Everything handed to automation stays inventoried by intent, which means the team always knows which conversations still need a human: the ones where CSAT is won or lost.
Frequently asked questions
- How is CSAT calculated?
- Divide the number of positive responses by the total number of responses, then multiply by 100. A common scale asks customers to rate satisfaction from 1 to 5, with 4 and 5 counted as positive.
- Is CSAT the same as NPS?
- No. CSAT measures satisfaction with a specific interaction, while NPS measures loyalty toward the overall brand or relationship.
- What does CSAT stand for?
- CSAT stands for customer satisfaction score. It is the standard shorthand support and contact-center teams use for the metric collected through short post-interaction surveys.
- How do you define CSAT?
- CSAT is defined as the percentage of survey respondents who rate a specific interaction positively, typically a 4 or 5 on a 5-point satisfaction scale, measured immediately after the interaction ends.
- What is a good CSAT score?
- Benchmarks vary by industry, but many support teams treat scores in the high 70s to mid 80s as healthy and 90 percent or above as excellent. The trend over time matters more than any single number, because responses are low-volume and self-selected.