What is CSAT? Understanding customer satisfaction scores in IT support

If you're leading an IT support team, you've probably felt the sting of a low CSAT score. Maybe it came after a delayed response. A confusing resolution. Or maybe … you're not tracking CSAT at all yet — which makes it hard to know what’s working and what’s not.

Here’s the deal. Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) is one of the simplest ways to measure how people feel about your support. And while it won’t magically solve your help desk challenges, it’s a powerful place to start.

This guide breaks down how CSAT works in IT support, why it matters, and how you can improve it.

What is CSAT, really?

CSAT stands for Customer Satisfaction Score. It tells you how satisfied people are with a product, service, or support interaction. In IT, it usually means how end users feel about the help they got — whether it was fixing a login issue or dealing with a full-blown outage.

At its core, it’s simple. You ask a question like:

“How satisfied were you with your support experience?”

Users respond on a scale — often 1 to 5 or 1 to 10. Then you calculate the percentage of total satisfaction.

If you get 60 points out of a possible 75, your CSAT score is 80%.

Formula:
CSAT % = (total actual score ÷ total possible score) × 100

It’s not fancy. But it’s super effective.

How CSAT is used in IT support

In most IT organizations, CSAT appears after a ticket is closed — usually in a short follow-up survey that pops up on the screen or arrives in an email. 

The survey might ask:

• Were you satisfied with how your issue was resolved?
• Did the support meet your expectations?
• Was the issue handled clearly and quickly?

The questions are short. But the data? It’s incredibly useful — especially when tracked over time.

If you're using Fixify, you can take it even further. We use sentiment analysis to understand how all of your users actually felt during the interaction with IT based on the language they used. It's a more complete picture of how your help desk is doing, without relying on one-liners or low response rates.

Why CSAT matters for IT teams

If you’re not measuring satisfaction, it’s easy to miss the signs that something’s off.

A healthy CSAT score means your team is solving problems in a way that works for users. But a dip in CSAT? That’s often a symptom of slow response times, confusing comms, or nagging issues that just keep resurfacing.

When CSAT drops, so does trust. People start bypassing the help desk altogether — leading to more shadow IT, more mistakes, and more mess.

Fixify helps head that off. We automate the Tier 1 and Tier 2 tickets that drain your team (including password resets, access requests and more complex troubleshooting), so your people can stay focused on the projects that really need their brainpower.

That balance of automation plus human support — moves the needle on CSAT in ways a new script never could.

How to improve your CSAT scores

A CSAT score above 80% is generally considered solid. But the goal isn’t just hitting a number — it’s understanding what’s driving it and improving the user experience.

Here’s where to start.

Get regular feedback

One annual survey won’t cut it. Build CSAT surveys into your support rhythm so you’re always learning:

• Post-ticket CSAT surveys
• Follow-up questions about how the issue was handled
• Trends from sentiment analysis

And then — act on what you hear. Fixify’s customers often tell us that reviewing sentiment analysis across specific use cases, timeframes or departments creates “aha’ moments that identify root causes of recurring issues.

Focus on consistency

One of the biggest CSAT killers? Inconsistency.

If some users get instant help and others wait for days, your average score won’t tell the full story. 

Look at:

• How long different types of tickets sit in the queue
• Which types of requests drag down your resolution time
• Where your team gets stuck most often

Fixify’s built-in analytics surface these patterns fast so you can fix the blockers, without any guessing.

Use automation (but keep the human touch)

Automation makes things faster — but speed without clarity or empathy won’t help your CSAT.

Use automation to handle the tasks that don’t require human involvement — provisioning software, resetting passwords, unlocking accounts — and then let your people work on the tickets where care and context matter most.

Fixify brings both. AI Sidekicks handle the repetitive tasks, while real analysts — who understand your systems and your users — handle the rest.

CSAT is your guide — not just a number

CSAT isn’t just a checkbox metric. It’s a window into how your users experience IT support day to day.

Done right, it helps you spot what’s working, what’s breaking, and what where your team has room to grow. 

With the right tools and the right visibility, you’ll improve more than just CSAT. You’ll improve how people experience IT.

Want to see what Fixify could do for your help desk?

Book a demo, and let’s take a look together.