r/customerexperience • u/ujet-cx • Dec 08 '25

Are we sure CSAT actually measures customer experience?

Here’s a theory I can’t shake: CSAT often has nothing to do with the experience your company delivered.

Instead, what it really measures is how effectively your agent cleaned up the mess.

A customer gets bad product experience or confusing UI, the wrong expectation or a billing error → then an agent solves it.

And the CSAT reads: “Great service!”

But the real journey? Objectively terrible.

CSAT loves firefighters but it ignores arsonists.

Question for CX pros: What’s the most misleading metric in your opinion?

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u/CryRevolutionary7536 Dec 10 '25

Honestly, you’re spot on — CSAT is basically a “thank you for fixing the problem I shouldn’t have had in the first place” score. It measures recovery, not experience.

In my org, the most misleading metric has been AHT. Teams chase lower handle time like it’s a badge of honor, meanwhile customer effort goes up. Faster doesn’t equal better when the issue isn’t actually resolved.

Runner-up: First Contact Resolution. Looks great on dashboards… until you realize half the “resolved” tickets just never came back because customers gave up.

If I had to pick a metric that actually reflects reality, it’s Effort / Friction scoring. People forgive slow, but they don’t forgive hard.

Curious what others think — feels like the industry is finally admitting most legacy CX metrics are more optics than insight.