What are CSAT Surveys?
CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) Surveys measure how happy your customers are with the support they received. Atender’s survey system handles everything end-to-end: creation, delivery, multi-language localization, conditional follow-ups, and analytics.
Most teams trigger surveys after conversation resolution — the conversation moves from Done to Archived, indicating the issue is truly settled — at which point eligible customers get a survey that fits how they were already in contact (email, SMS, in-app). Not every resolved conversation is eligible: unanswered phone or voice calls are not surveyed because no support interaction occurred. If an agent follows up in writing, the conversation can still receive CSAT like other handled work.
Three question types
- Rating scale — The main CSAT score: stars, numbers, or emoji-based satisfaction rating (typically 1–5)
- NPS — Net Promoter Score (0–10): “How likely are you to recommend us?”
- Open-ended — Free-text feedback for qualitative depth
The main CSAT question captures the customer’s satisfaction score. Conditional follow-ups are configured separately: after the main rating, you can ask for more context with either a text answer or another rating answer.
A common shape is a star rating followed by a conditional “tell us more” text prompt — captures both the number and the why. You can also use a rating follow-up, which keeps the same 1–5 visual style selected for the main score.
Three delivery channels
- Email — Async support, conversations that resolved over multiple days
- SMS — Mobile-heavy customer base, time-sensitive, when email may go to spam
- In-app (web chat) — Conversations that happened in the chat widget — respond inline before the customer leaves
A single survey can be delivered across all three channels; Atender picks the channel matching how the conversation was conducted.
Multi-language
Each survey supports per-language versions. A Norwegian customer receives the Norwegian survey; a Spanish customer receives the Spanish one. Translations are managed centrally in Settings → CSAT Surveys → Languages tab. See Localize CSAT surveys.
Frequency controls (don’t fatigue customers)
Don’t survey every customer after every conversation. Frequency controls limit how often a single customer is asked:
- A “no more than once per N days per contact” cap
- A “skip if surveyed in last X conversations” rule
A customer who contacts you three times in a week should not get three surveys. Frequency caps prevent that.
Conditional follow-ups
Configure follow-up behavior based on response:
- Low rating → ask “what could we improve?” with a text answer (qualitative depth)
- Specific rating range → ask a rating follow-up using the same 1–5 visual style selected for the main score
- Very low rating → trigger an automation rule (alert a manager, create a case, escalate)
- No response → optionally send a reminder
Follow-ups are rule-based: each rule decides when to show the follow-up and whether the customer answers with text or a rating. This is where survey data becomes operational, not just reporting.
Where the data lives
- Analytics → Customers & CSAT view — Aggregate scores, NPS over time, response rates, breakdowns by channel/team/agent
- Settings → CSAT Surveys table — Survey configuration, response metrics, and per-rule follow-up reporting such as response count and average rating
- CSV export — Settings → CSAT Surveys → Export. Custom date range, including main scores and follow-up answer columns. For BI tools, board reporting, or deeper analysis
- Conversation timeline — The survey response (when received) appears as an event on the originating conversation
Where to start
- Build your first survey: Configure and deliver a CSAT survey
- Translate it: Localize CSAT surveys
- Trigger it from a rule: CSAT survey automation recipe
- Low response rates? FAQ — Low CSAT response rate