$8M Expands Satmetrix's Satisfaction Measures

Businesses struggling to improve sagging sales are on the lookout for ways to keep their best customers happy. The tricky part is knowing when customers are satisfied or are about to leave for a competitor, and what to do about it.

Customer-relationship management analytics provider Satmetrix Systems offers software and services to help businesses get those answers. Last week, Satmetrix raised $8 million in third-round funding from Sutter Hill Ventures and Stanford University. The Mountain View, Calif., company, which raised $22.0 million in two earlier rounds of funding, will use the new money to expand its sales and marketing efforts, says Roselie Buonauro, Satmetrix's co-founder and chief customer officer.

Satmetrix surveys its clients' customers by E-mail to determine how happy they are with the clients' products and services. That information is combined with other data provided by the client, such as customer purchase history, and analyzed by Satmetrix to gauge the level of customer loyalty and determine what needs to be done to maintain or improve that loyalty.

"Everything in today's economy is about keeping customers," Buonauro says. "Customer loyalty drives cash flow."

Online auctioneer eBay uses Satmetrix to monitor customer satisfaction with its processes and its customer-service representatives.