This feature is currently in beta, and will soon be available to all Tally users.
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) is a customer experience metric that measures how satisfied your customers are with a specific interaction, product, or purchase. It's calculated from a single question — "How satisfied were you with [product/experience]?" — and used by most modern companies to track satisfaction at key moments in the customer journey.
This guide covers what CSAT means, and how to build a CSAT survey in minutes with Tally.
What is Customer Satisfaction Score?How is CSAT calculated?How to build a CSAT survey with Tally1. Add the CSAT question2. Add a follow-up3. Share the survey4. Track your score insights5. Connect it to your stackWhat is a good CSAT score?FAQ
What is Customer Satisfaction Score?
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) is a customer experience metric that measures how satisfied customers are with a specific interaction, product, or experience. It's typically captured with a single question — "How satisfied are you with the overall quality of [X]?", answered on a 1–5 scale (or sometimes 1–7 or 1–10), and expressed as a percentage.
CSAT is a satisfaction metric, not a loyalty metric. It tells you how a specific moment landed, a support ticket, a purchase, an onboarding step, which makes it the sharpest diagnostic tool for fixing broken experiences, and the best complement to a loyalty metric like NPS.
How is CSAT calculated?
CSAT is calculated by dividing the number of satisfied responses by the total number of responses, and multiplying by 100. Respondents are grouped into three categories based on a 1–5 scale:
- Satisfied (4–5): happy customers who had a good experience.
- Neutral (3): indifferent, excluded from the calculation.
- Dissatisfied (1–2): unhappy customers whose experience missed the mark.
Formula: (Satisfied responses ÷ Total responses) × 100 = CSAT %
Example: Out of 100 responses — 75 Satisfied, 15 Neutral, 10 Dissatisfied → 75 ÷ 100 × 100 = CSAT of 75%.
Scores range from 0% (no one satisfied) to 100% (everyone satisfied), and are always expressed as a percentage.
How to build a CSAT survey with Tally
The standard CSAT question is: How satisfied are you with the overall quality of our product / service / interaction?
Keep the wording simple and focused on the specific moment you want to measure. Pair it with one open-ended follow-up to capture the "why" behind the score, and you've got your whole survey. Here's how to build it in Tally in five steps.
Tally has a free, pre-built CSAT survey template that includes the standard CSAT question, a 1–5 scale, and a follow-up comment field, ready to send in a few clicks.
1. Add the CSAT question
Create a new form and type
/csat to insert a 5 star-rating block. Use the standard question wording above as the label.
2. Add a follow-up
Add a short-text or long-text question directly after the scale to capture the "why" behind the score. A simple "What's the main reason for your rating?" works across all respondents, but you can use conditional logic to tailor the follow-up:
- Satisfied (4–5): "What did you like most?", great for testimonials and reinforcing what's working.
- Neutral (3): "What would have made this a 4 or 5?", surfaces the smallest improvement with the biggest impact.
- Dissatisfied (1–2): "What went wrong?", usually the most diagnostic feedback you'll get.
3. Share the survey
You can share your CSAT form as a direct link, embed it on your site, or launch it as a popup to catch users in-product. CSAT works best when sent right after the moment you're measuring, like a completed purchase, a resolved support ticket, or an onboarding step, while the experience is still fresh.
4. Track your score insights
Once responses start coming in, Tally's Insights tab automatically calculates your CSAT score for any 1–5 rating or linear scale question. No formulas, no spreadsheets, the score updates live as people respond, and you can see the split between Satisfied, Neutral, and Dissatisfied at a glance.
5. Connect it to your stack
Once feedback is flowing, push it wherever your team works:
- Slack: get an instant ping when a new Dissatisfied response (or a celebration-worthy 5-star review) comes in, so you can close the loop fast.
- Claude (via Tally's MCP server): analyze open-ended feedback at scale, build a live CSAT dashboard, or let Claude summarize weekly trends for you.
- Other integrations: send responses to your CRM, data warehouse, or spreadsheet via native integrations, Zapier, or Make.
What is a good CSAT score?
Any CSAT above 70% is generally considered healthy, above 80% is strong, and above 90% is exceptional. But like NPS, the only score that really matters is the one in your industry. A 75% in telecom would be very strong; in consulting, it would be below average. Average CSAT by sector in 2026 looks roughly like this:
- Consulting: 83%
- E-commerce / retail: 82%
- Financial services: 81%
- SaaS: 78%
- Healthcare: 75%
- Telecom: 70%
- Media: 62%
Benchmarks aggregated from Retently, SurveySparrow, and the American Customer Satisfaction Index (2026).
The global median across all industries sits around 77%. Always benchmark against your sector, not against cross-industry averages, and more importantly, benchmark against your own trend over time.
FAQ
What's the difference between CSAT, NPS, and CES?
All three measure customer experience but answer different questions. CSAT measures satisfaction with a specific interaction, usually on a 1–5 scale ("How satisfied were you with this purchase?"). NPS (Net Promoter Score) measures long-term loyalty ("Would you recommend us?") on a 0–10 scale. CES (Customer Effort Score) measures how easy a specific task was ("How easy was it to solve your issue today?").
How often should you send a CSAT survey?
Send CSAT right after the moment you want to measure, typically within 24–48 hours of a purchase, support ticket, or onboarding step, while the experience is still fresh. For ongoing product experience, a quarterly CSAT check-in is common.
What is a good CSAT follow-up question?
"What's the main reason for your rating?" works for all respondents. For more targeted insight, branch the follow-up by group: Satisfied customers get "What did you like most?", Neutrals get "What would have made this a 5?", and Dissatisfied customers get "What went wrong?"
For Satisfied customers, this is also the perfect moment to ask for a public review. Add a one-click link to G2, Trustpilot, or Google Reviews right after they submit, while the positive experience is still fresh, you'll never get higher review conversion than from a 4- or 5-star respondent who just told you they're happy.
Does Tally calculate CSAT automatically?
Yes. Any 1–5 rating or linear scale question in a Tally form automatically generates a CSAT score in the Insights tab, updated live as responses come in.