Also known as: Client Satisfaction Index, User Satisfaction, CSAT Score
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) is a metric that captures how happy a client is with a specific interaction or service by asking them to rate it, usually on a 1-to-5 or 1-to-10 scale. The score is the percentage of respondents who answer positively. It measures satisfaction at a moment in time, not long-term loyalty.
In retail brokerage, CSAT is collected right after a touchpoint that matters: a live-chat session about a withdrawal, a KYC verification, a deposit that cleared, or a training webinar an Introducing Broker (IB) hosted. Because it is tied to one event, CSAT is the fastest early-warning system a partner has for a broker or service going wrong.
The standard calculation counts "satisfied" as the top responses only. If 400 traders rate their support experience and 340 pick 4 or 5 out of 5, CSAT is 340 / 400 = 85%. A world-class support desk sits above 85%; anything under 70% signals a structural problem you will feel as churn within weeks.
CSAT differs from Net Promoter Score (NPS), which asks about likelihood to recommend, and from Customer Effort Score (CES), which asks how hard a task was. CSAT is the narrowest and most immediate of the three, which is exactly why partners use it to audit the brokers they promote.
A survey fires automatically after a defined trigger — ticket closed, withdrawal completed, webinar ended. The client scores the experience on a fixed scale, and responses in the top band (e.g. 4–5 on a 5-point scale) count as "satisfied."
The raw scores are aggregated into a single percentage and usually segmented by channel, agent, issue type, and time period. For an IB, the two segments that predict revenue are funding/withdrawal satisfaction and platform-stability satisfaction, because those are the two reasons a funded trader quits fastest.
Most brokers surface CSAT internally through their help-desk software; partners rarely see the broker's number directly. That is why savvy IBs run their own lightweight CSAT survey across their community to build an independent read on the broker they promote.
Attach the survey to one specific interaction — a support ticket, a first withdrawal, or a webinar — so the score maps to a known experience.
"How satisfied were you with X?" on a 1–5 scale. Keep it single-question to protect response rate.
Treat only the top one or two ratings as satisfied; log every response including non-answers so the denominator is honest.
Divide positive responses by total responses and multiply by 100.
Break the score down by issue type and channel, then escalate the weakest segment to your broker or IB manager.
Why it matters for partnership: A broker's CSAT is a leading indicator of your churn and lifetime revenue: partners sending traders to a low-CSAT broker spend their time fielding complaints instead of marketing. Track it to pick partners, negotiate conditions, and protect rebates.
An IB promoting IC Markets runs a 5-point survey across a 1,200-member Telegram channel after a wave of deposit delays. Only 62% rate withdrawals 4 or 5 — a CSAT of 62%. The IB brings the data to their partner manager, the payment-gateway issue is fixed, and the next quarter's survey rebounds to 88%, coinciding with a drop in account closures.
| Metric | Question asked | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| CSAT | How satisfied were you with this interaction? | Auditing a specific touchpoint |
| NPS | How likely are you to recommend us? | Long-term loyalty and advocacy |
| CES | How easy was it to get this done? | Reducing friction in a process |
Run a one-question CSAT poll in your community after any broker incident — the timestamped data is your strongest leverage when negotiating better conditions or justifying a switch.
Ignoring negative CSAT feedback from your downline; when several clients flag the same withdrawal problem and you sit on it, they quietly churn and your rebate stream dries up before you notice.
Tie interaction-level CSAT to events as they happen, and run a broader anonymous survey to your community quarterly to gauge overall sentiment without survey fatigue.
In brokerage support, 80–90% top-box is strong. Below 70% usually points to a structural problem in funding, platform reliability, or response times.
No. CSAT measures satisfaction with a single interaction, while NPS measures how likely a client is to recommend the broker overall. They answer different questions and are best used together.
For a small community, aim for at least 100 responses before you trust the number. A handful of ratings can swing the percentage wildly.
Yes. Unhappy or very happy clients respond more often, so a low response rate biases the result. Report the response rate alongside the score.
Yes, when it is negative and specific. Timestamped, segmented feedback is credible evidence that helps your partner manager prioritise a fix.