Revisiting The 3 Most Popular CX Metrics
Customer experience (CX) refers to a customer’s perception of and feelings about an organization or brand. It is the sum of all the interactions between the customer and the organization throughout the lifetime of the customer journey.
While making a conscious effort to improve your customer’s experience is very important, monitoring these efforts is just as important. As the saying goes “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” Customer loyalty and retention are incredibly important to a business. In this post, we will explore the 3 most popular and widely used metrics – CSAT, NPS, and CES. From a customer standpoint, the questions attributable to these metrics are very simple to understand and quick to answer resulting in higher response rates. From a business perspective, these metrics are easy to measure and track and can be varied depending on the context and what it is you are trying to achieve.
1. Customer Satisfaction
CSAT is probably the most used transactional metric out there. It is very easy and fast for customers to answer. Furthermore, the rating scale is highly customizable, giving you the flexibility to vary it for each transaction or touchpoint throughout the customer journey. A CSAT question can be as simple as:
“On a scale of 1-10, how happy were you with the service you received today?”
This rating scale is often teamed up with an open-ended follow-up question to allow the customer to expand on why they were or were not satisfied. Gaining insight into why a customer was displeased with the service will allow you to improve on this and turn a negative experience into a more positive one. Having this knowledge will determine where extra resources need to be put and so on to reduce customer turnover and boost retention rates.
CSAT surveys often get higher response rates as they ask fewer, simpler questions. However, CSAT reflects a short-term sentiment and therefore should be used in conjunction with other metrics to provide a more holistic view of the customer experience throughout their journey with your company.
2. Customer Effort Score
Customer Effort Score is a transactional metric used to measure the amount of effort expended by customers to have an issue resolved, a request fulfilled, and so on. It is recommended to survey your customer after each new interaction to determine how you are performing across the various touchpoints within the customer journey. Customers want their issues resolved quickly without delay and hassle. Making interactions as easy and efficient as possible will keep your customers coming back.
CES differs from other metrics in the sense that a low score indicates low effort, a positive indicator of company performance, whereas a low score on other metrics indicates a poor performance on the company’s part.
An example of a CES Survey question would be:
“On a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being the easiest, how easy was it for you to interact with us today?”
It is important to note that a satisfied customer may have had a once-off difficult interaction and therefore CES should be used in conjunction with other metrics such as NPS to provide a more comprehensive view of how your company is performing.
3. Net Promoter Score
NPS measures both customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. It paints a picture of customer loyalty and relationship over a long-term period. It is an index ranging from 0- 10 which measures a customer’s willingness to recommend your product or service to others. Survey questions regarding NPS usually take the form of the following:
“On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend [Company Name] to a friend or colleague?”
There are 3 types of respondents when it comes to NPS:
First, we have ‘Promoters’. These are customers who are enthusiastic about your brand and will aid growth. Promoters are those who score either 9 or 10 on NPS questions.
Next up, we have ‘Passives’ who score either 7 or 8 on NPS questions. Passive customers, although satisfied with your company, are not as enthusiastic as Promoters and risk switching to competitors in the future.
Finally, you have your ‘Detractors’ who score anywhere between 0 to 6 on NPS questions. Detractors are a group of unhappy customers who can hinder company growth and even go as far as damaging brand reputation.
While NPS surveys are a great way to gauge customer loyalty and their willingness to promote your product, it is important to implement a follow-up plan to see results. For example, companies have seen massive benefits in providing a link to review sites at the end of surveys which denote high NPS ratings. Having the link in front of them will encourage the customer to leave a review and recommend your product like they said they would.
Gathering feedback from your customers is key for gaining insight into how your company is really performing. Combining the three above metrics with the qualitative data in the open-ended questions will better your understanding of why you may be scoring low at certain touchpoints. Once you have this knowledge you can actively implement the necessary steps to provide the best experience possible for your customers.
