CSAT is the workhorse of satisfaction measurement. It is the metric you put on a confirmation page or send 3 days after a delivery, because it captures how someone felt about a specific moment while that moment is still fresh.
How CSAT is calculated
Send a survey asking "How satisfied were you with [specific experience]?" on a 1–5 scale. Count the responses of 4 and 5 (sometimes called "top-2-box") and divide by total responses. If 180 of 200 respondents rated 4 or 5, your CSAT is 90%.
- 1–5 scale is the standard.
- 1–7 or 1–10 scales generate more granular data but lower response rates.
- Top-2-box is the typical reporting convention for 1–5 scales.
What good CSAT looks like
For Shopify subscription stores: 80–90% CSAT (top-2-box) is the healthy range. Above 90% is excellent. Below 75% usually means you have a specific operational issue (slow delivery, bad packaging, weak first-month experience) that is dragging the score. CSAT scores around the first delivery moment are the most diagnostic — they predict whether the subscriber will reach month 3.
Where to deploy CSAT
- 3–5 days after the first delivery — earliest churn signal.
- Immediately after a support ticket closes — service quality measure.
- After a self-serve plan change — portal usability check.
- After cancellation — exit feedback, even if the customer left.
The trap of high CSAT and high churn
A common subscription pattern: CSAT scores are great, but churn is still high. This usually means non-respondents are the unhappy ones — they did not bother to fill out the survey because they had already decided to leave. The fix is two-fold: lighten the survey (fewer questions, faster), and track behavioral signals like skip rate and engagement decline alongside the survey numbers. See customer satisfaction survey for design specifics.