CSAT (customer satisfaction score) benchmarks
CSAT (customer satisfaction score) is the share of customers who rate an interaction, product or company as satisfying. Here is every published figure we can show, side by side, with what each one counts.
72% to 83%
"CSAT" is used for two different statistics that should not be compared directly. A transactional CSAT is the percentage of survey respondents who gave a top rating (e.g. 4 or 5 of 5) after one interaction; Retently's 2026 industry figures on that basis run from 26 (Communication & Media) to 83 (Consulting, Digital Marketing), with 65-80 described as the dominant band. The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) instead publishes a weighted 0-100 composite built from several survey questions per company, not a single top-box percentage; its 2026 industry studies put Financial Advisors and Full-Service Restaurants at 82 and Banks at 80. The headline range below covers ACSI's industry figures only; Nicereply's support-team figures are shown separately for each rating scale (2-, 3-, 5- and 10-point) and are never pooled, and Retently's and Freshdesk's industry figures are cited by name with a link. 22 figures from 2 sources, grouped by what they count (nicereply csat, 2-point scale, nicereply csat, 3-point scale, nicereply csat, 5-point scale, nicereply csat, 10-point scale is charted too, but not part of the headline range). We never average them.
Published CSAT (customer satisfaction score) figures by way of counting, from 72% to 97%. Every figure is listed in the source list below.
Tap or hover a point to see its source.
Source by source
Open any source for its definition, sample and method.
American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI)ACSI industry studies, 2026 (Finance, Automobile, Entertainment, Household Appliance & Electronics) · 2026 rolling industry studies82%acsi national index (0-100) · Financial Advisors82%acsi national index (0-100) · Full-Service Restaurants80%acsi national index (0-100) · Banks (overall)Grade B
- What counts
- A weighted composite of survey questions about satisfaction, expectations met, and perceived quality relative to price, scored 0-100 per company and rolled up per industry. Not a transactional % CSAT.
- Statistic
- Weighted composite index, 0-100 scale, per company and industry
- Sample
- Not independently verified this pass: theacsi.com blocked automated fetching (HTTP 403), so sample size and interview method are not confirmed from a primary page. ACSI is a long-running (since 1994), publicly reported cross-industry index.
- Data window
- 2026 (per-industry study dates through September 2026)
- Method
- Not independently confirmed this pass (see sample note); figures taken from ACSI's own published press-release language surfaced via search.
- Published cuts
- industry (separate named studies, e.g. Finance, Automobile, Entertainment, Household Appliance & Electronics)
- Limitations
- theacsi.com returned HTTP 403 to automated fetch this pass; figures are taken from press-release text surfaced via search rather than a directly re-read primary page
- 0-100 composite index, not a transactional % CSAT — do not compare directly with survey top-box figures
- No study specific to software/SaaS customer support or call centers
- Licence
- ACSI's published use-of-data guidance (found via search, not the full terms page) permits media citation of specific figures if the study and "American Customer Satisfaction Index LLC" are credited, while barring promotional use without written consent. Treated as quote-eligible for named, attributed figures with a link.
- Checked
- Sep 30, 2026 · Read the source
NicereplyCustomer Happiness Benchmark · Live benchmark96%nicereply csat, 2-point scale90%nicereply csat, 3-point scale92%nicereply csat, 5-point scaleGrade B
- What counts
- Transactional CSAT, reported separately for each rating-scale length a support team can use (2, 3, 5 or 10 points) — scores on different scales must not be pooled.
- Statistic
- Benchmark percentage, reported separately by CSAT rating scale (2/3/5/10-point)
- Sample
- 167,242 ratings for the support-team-size cohort reviewed; overall benchmark page states 22.64M+ feedback responses received across all customers.
- Data window
- Not stated
- Method
- Nicereply's own customer feedback data, broken out by support-team size (small/medium/large) and by the CSAT rating scale each team uses.
- Published cuts
- CSAT rating scale (2, 3, 5, 10 points) · support-team size (small/medium/large)
- Limitations
- Vendor-customer population only (Nicereply's own users)
- Exact data window not stated
- Figures are scale-specific and must not be compared across different rating scales without a documented normalization method
- Licence
- Reported here as factual findings in our own wording and presentation, with attribution and a link to the source. This is not a claim that Nicereply has granted a reproduction licence, and we do not copy its prose, charts, tables or page design. The only relevant clause found (Terms section 9.5.13) restricts using Nicereply's own platform for product benchmarking, not citing figures it publishes on its public benchmark page.
- Checked
- Oct 1, 2026 · Read the source
2 more publishers, linked but not quoted
These publishers' terms do not allow their figures to be reproduced without permission (or we could not confirm that they do), so we link to their reports instead of showing the numbers.
- Retently: CSAT: Definition, Calculation & 2026 Benchmarks · 2026 edition
- Freshdesk (Freshworks): Customer Happiness Benchmark Report · 2019 edition
By industry
Selected figures, each with its source. Full tables live in each publisher's report.
Why sources disagree
Each factor moves the number on its own.
Two different statistics share one name
A transactional CSAT is a simple top-box percentage from one survey question about one interaction. The ACSI index is a weighted composite of several questions (satisfaction, expectations met, perceived quality vs. price) rolled into a single 0-100 number per company or industry. Both are commonly called "CSAT" or "customer satisfaction score" in casual usage, but they are built differently and will not match even for the same company.
Top-2-box vs. top-1-box, and out of how many points
Even among transactional-CSAT publishers, the underlying survey scale varies (1-3, 1-5, 1-10) and so does what counts as "satisfied" (top rating only, or top two ratings). Neither Retently's nor Freshdesk's public pages state which convention they use, which is itself a limitation worth flagging rather than assuming.
Industry labels don't line up across publishers
Retently's "Communication & Media" (26) is not the same bucket as any single ACSI study; ACSI runs separate studies for Subscription TV, Social Media, Video Streaming and Telecommunications rather than one combined "media" figure. Match the exact study name, not just the word "media."
What is a good CSAT (customer satisfaction score)?
It depends on how your platform counts and who you send to.
If you're comparing a transactional CSAT percentage
Retently's 2026 benchmarks (methodology and sample size not disclosed on the page) put the "dominant" range at 65-80%, with Consulting and Digital Marketing agencies at 83 and Communication & Media at 26. Freshdesk's Customer Happiness Benchmark Report found a 78% average across roughly 7,000 companies in 38 industries — a well-documented sample, but the data is from 2019, so treat it as a historical reference point rather than a current one. Both figures are cited here by name; we are not reproducing their tables (see Sources).
If you're comparing an ACSI score
ACSI's 2026 industry studies (0-100 scale) put Financial Advisors at 82, Full-Service Restaurants at 82, Banks overall at 80 (Regional and Community Banks 83, Super Regional Banks 77), Televisions at 81, Household Appliances at 80, Personal Computers at 78, and Subscription TV Service at 72. There is no ACSI study specifically for software/SaaS customer support, so a SaaS or e-commerce support team cannot benchmark directly against ACSI — use a transactional-CSAT source for that instead.
Call centers and support teams
None of the sources found this pass publish a call-center-specific CSAT benchmark with a disclosed sample; general transactional-CSAT figures (above) are the closest available comparison.
Before you compare
- Never pool CSAT figures measured on different rating scales (2-point, 3-point, 5-point, 10-point) into one number — a "top rating" means something different depending on how many points the scale has.
- Support-team size can move CSAT independently of industry: when comparing your own score, try to match on team size as well as industry and rating scale, not on industry alone.
- None of the sources on this page publish a single company-wide, cross-industry, cross-scale CSAT figure that would be safe to use as one universal benchmark — always match the specific statistic (transactional vs. ACSI), scale, and segment to your own measurement before comparing.
How to calculate CSAT (customer satisfaction score)
- State which ratings count as "satisfied" (e.g. only the top box on a 5-point scale, or the top two) — most public benchmarks do not say, which is itself a reason not to average them together.
- The ACSI's 0-100 index is not a transactional CSAT and is built from a different, multi-question methodology; don't convert or compare it 1:1 with a survey's top-box percentage.
- A single low-volume survey period can swing a transactional CSAT by several points; compare a rolling average where possible.
Questions about CSATs
Tools to measure and improve it
Chosen for what they do, not ranked.
Sources and licence notes4 sources · 2 quoted · 2 linked only · checked Oct 1, 2026
- American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), ACSI industry studies, 2026 (Finance, Automobile, Entertainment, Household Appliance & Electronics) · 2026 rolling industry studies · last checked Sep 30, 2026ACSI's published use-of-data guidance (found via search, not the full terms page) permits media citation of specific figures if the study and "American Customer Satisfaction Index LLC" are credited, while barring promotional use without written consent. Treated as quote-eligible for named, attributed figures with a link.
- Retently, CSAT: Definition, Calculation & 2026 Benchmarks · 2026 edition · last checked Sep 30, 2026Linked only. Confirmed link_only: Retently's Terms and Conditions (last updated 2018-05-22) bar distributing, reposting or copying site Content — commercial or personal — without express written permission.
- Freshdesk (Freshworks), Customer Happiness Benchmark Report · 2019 edition · last checked Sep 30, 2026Linked only. Confirmed link_only: Freshworks' Website Terms of Use (site-terms) bar copying, reproducing or re-publishing Website or Content without express prior written permission.
- Nicereply, Customer Happiness Benchmark · Live benchmark · last checked Oct 1, 2026Reported here as factual findings in our own wording and presentation, with attribution and a link to the source. This is not a claim that Nicereply has granted a reproduction licence, and we do not copy its prose, charts, tables or page design. The only relevant clause found (Terms section 9.5.13) restricts using Nicereply's own platform for product benchmarking, not citing figures it publishes on its public benchmark page.
These are figures reported by the platforms themselves about their own customers; we do not measure them ourselves. Found an error or a newer edition? Tell us