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Measuring Customer Satisfaction in Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Post Author: Joe D365 |

At PowerObjects we have been busy with a little xRM application to measure our customer satisfaction (CSAT) inside of Dynamics CRM. When we started looking at the issue we first had to decide the timing of our survey and how long they should be — I don't know about you but I'm not a huge fan of getting these surveys that take 15-30 minutes of my life to fill out after the vendor is done and gone. Maybe my attention span is too short, but I think I'm like most people and if takes much longer than a good tweet — forget it… the phone has rung, an important email popped up, or someone has walked into my office. I also feel like these lengthy surveys are not a two way street. It seems like they are just trying to suck information out of me and before I get to the end, I've quit reading the questions closely, and am just hammering in answers to finish because I've already got 10 minutes invested.

So with these thoughts in mind we set out to build a better survey tool, and surprise surprise, we just happened to do it in our Microsoft CRM system. Makes sense seeing as how all the people I want to survey are already in CRM and what better place to write reports on the data.

To make sense of the survey we created, I need to introduce the PowerObjects Proven Process. We do one thing and one thing only — we implement kick butt systems in Dynamics CRM. Having done this hundreds of times, we have a process we use and constantly refine to make sure each project is a success. Although there are many little steps in each major step, we have broken it down into five major steps: Evaluation (this is our sales process), Plan for Success (this is our process of hand-off from sales to delivery), Design, Build & Validate (process to deliver the defined implementation), Train & Deploy (I'll let you guess this step) and Lifecycle (everything that happens after we go live with a project).

We decided the best way to measure satisfaction is at the end of each step in the Proven Process. This way we could ask fewer questions and take up less of the contacts' time and have questions related to the specific step in the process. This will also give us valuable data about what part of our Proven Process needs work. If we see scores drifting down during a project, we'll still have time to step in and get everything on course. Make sense? I hope so because now I'll talk a little bit about how we do it in CRM.

So when you think about a survey in our world, it is comprised of a group of questions that get tied to a specific survey. This survey is tied to a contact in CRM once we decide to send it out. First you must create questions — creating good questions is harder than you think!


We have designed this so we can choose a number of different types of questions. In our surveys I'm just using a one to 10 rating and a comment box. I do this so that everything has a numeric rating with our goal of striving for a 10 on every question. I also like to put a comment box at the end of each survey so people can let you know about other things that aren't captured in a rating. We did build this with other applications in mind — think of the power of the data you could capture with these types of questions above and beyond a CSAT application —really any survey or questionnaire could be pushed out with the application.

So let's talk about the survey we sent after the first step of our Proven Process, the Evaluation Process. Below you'll see the survey questions we came up with.

Evaluation Process:

How well do you feel your account executive understood your business?
How would you rate the solutions demonstration we provided?
How would you rate the proposal that was presented?
How would you rate PowerObjects ability to meet your needs?
Please provide any other comments you would like (this is my text box question)

Next I need to create the survey in CRM

And then I need to assign questions to the survey

This pretty much lays the ground work for the survey. The next step is where a little of the programming magic comes in to play. What we do is create an email template inside of CRM that is specific to a certain survey. When we are at the end of a step in the PowerObjects Proven Process, we select the individuals in an account to receive the email. They get a short email asking them to take the survey. A link is provided that is unique to them and when they click it, it takes them to a webpage to collect the survey.

One of the many neat things we've added is the ability to specify what it says for the low and high value — this helps give context to your question. You can also add a 'N/A' for an option.

Once a contact submits the survey they can't submit it again. You can see above that this should take no more than a minute to fill out.

Well that our two cents on measuring CSAT in Dynamics CRM — if you have questions or comments please post!

Happy CRM'ing

Joe CRM
By Joe D365
Joe D365 is a Microsoft Dynamics 365 superhero who runs on pure Dynamics adrenaline. As the face of PowerObjects, Joe D365’s mission is to reveal innovative ways to use Dynamics 365 and bring the application to more businesses and organizations around the world.

3 comments on “Measuring Customer Satisfaction in Microsoft Dynamics CRM”

  1. Joe

    Varies based on number of users / training and other things you might need. We'd be happy to get you pricing once we know more about the implementation. Please fill out the contact form on our site and we'll be in touch - or just give us a call. http://www.powerobjects.com

    Happy CRM'ing

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