What is Customer Experience Measurement, and why should you care about it?
The success of your business is reflected in the satisfaction of your customers. Increase of profit is dependent on great customer experience (CX), as the customer’s positive recommendation, digitally or physically, is a vital method of attracting new clients, as well as ensuring customer loyalty.
It can be difficult to know for sure precisely how successful your company was at delighting a client once the transaction has ended; sometimes, the true nature of the client’s experience is not recognised until a negative review appears much later. With reliable customer experience management software in place, your business can properly gauge the customer experience, and use the data to improve and grow.
Esteban Kolsky, CEO of ThinkJar summed this up with: “Only 1 out of 26 unhappy customers complain. The rest churn. A lesson here is that companies should not view absence of feedback as a sign of satisfaction. The true enemy is indifference.”
NPS alone isn’t enough
The most common tool used in customer experience measurement is the Net Promoter Score (NPS). NPS is something you have likely experienced as a customer yourself, in the form of a post-transaction question such as:
‘How likely are you to recommend this company to a friend?’
The problem with NPS can be about timing - questions like these are not always applicable to the customer at the point in their journey that they receive them. For example, a customer that has an unresolved matter that keeps being bounced between departments would not feel an urge to give a glowing review of the company through an NPS given in the midst of the frustration. In some cases, simply receiving the irrelevant prompt can inspire the need to write a negative emotional response.
NPS can be a useful means of collecting valuable feedback from customers about the overall experience they have had with your company. Timing the NPS question at the end of the customer experience is ideal. Including an NPS in your CX measurement is simple, and a great jumping off point for businesses interested in measuring their entire customers’ journey.
In order to pinpoint the specific hindrances your customer might face, a wider arsenal of measurement tools is also needed to supplement the NPS question.
Build a comprehensive overview of the CX
The key to creating an accurate measure of your business’ CX is to ensure all aspects have been recorded and analysed. With a complete overview of the customer journey, you can then establish the ‘pain points’ and begin constructing a focused strategy to fix the areas that need most work. A smooth, frictionless customer journey is the ultimate goal, so it is vital that you have the correct system in place that can properly measure emotion in the customer as they move through your CX.
Know which parts of the CX you want to focus on
CX is a wide umbrella term for a range of different minute experiences a customer faces when interacting with a company. It is important to consider, before embarking on any type of measurement, what exactly you are hoping to find out, and how you will use the information to move forward.
Here are some examples of the metrics you can choose to measure:
Average Resolution Time: This involves making a note of the time a client first makes contact, and another at the end of the conversation that marks the close of the case. The information can be used to measure, on average, how long it takes to solve a problem for your client and help you to set a future goal to improve efficiency.
Customer Churn: This is the number of customers that decide to cease transacting with your business before completion. The purpose of this information is to determine the common areas in your CX where a customer might be persuaded to turn back. The way the churn rate is calculated is like this:
Exceptional Moments: With the rise of near-instant gratification in the customer service industry, customers increasingly expect an exceptional experience when purchasing a product or service. By asking customers for specific examples of your team giving an exceptional CX performance, you can access a wealth of illuminating information about the most enjoyable and successful areas of your CX. This data can also be a great motivator for your staff (e.g. an ‘employee of the month’ reward based on the best customer service).
Example: “During your time with us, were there any standout exceptional experiences? Please let us know!”
Customer Effort Score (CES): This data is usually collected through a scoring system provided to customers, asking questions such as:
“How straightforward was it to get from A to B when you engaged with this part of our interface?”
Customers would then be given a few options to respond with, such as a 1 to 5 rating. The CES can also be recorded using observatory systems like focus groups, where participants can be given a task that exists in your current CX, and the difficulty of their ability to tackle can be used to identify the customer’s feeling at that stage. The purpose of this data is to understand how the layperson interacts with various methods of CX systems, and consequently, how these systems might be altered to make the process smoother.
Mapping Customer Journeys
As we discussed in our previous blog post, insight6 give a great deal of credit to the correct plotting and implementation of a Customer Journey Map. When done correctly, the information gleaned from a map can help you to pinpoint exact areas of improvement that may not be obvious from inside the organisation.
As well as this, the Customer Journey Map can be used to figure out where might be best to prompt customers with survey questions or feedback opportunities. For example, if your map shows that a majority of customers encounter frustrations during phone-related enquiries, you could then ensure that all client calls are followed by an NPS question and track the progression of your efforts to improve the weak spot.
The methods you choose for measuring customer experience will vary depending on your business. It is important to consider the individuality between the ways your customers will engage with your business. Recording every client’s unique approach is known as emotion metrics; the collective build-up of emotion data allows you to create an ample impression of your company’s performance as a whole.
According to a 2018 study, “a consumer is 21 percent more likely to leave a review after a negative experience than a positive one.” This makes procuring a positive response from your client more of a challenge, as frustration and disappointment are more motivating emotions than mere satisfaction. These strong, negative emotions in customer experience can be harnessed through the correct measurement tools. This feedback can then be utilised to further develop the engagement with your clients and create a customer experience transformation.
A real transformation will be evident in your clients feeling happy, cared-for, experiencing a seamless journey from the first discovery of your website to the closing interaction with your team.
We would love to share more about how to measure customer experience with you and your team. Please contact me on 0800 970 8987 to arrange a customer audit call.