CX Metrics That Matter

As Experience has replaced differentiating product features as the competitive landscape that organisations battle today, we see more and more companies shift their attention to try and quantify that experience. While in the past decades, we have seen organisations of all sizes utilise different sets of data to do this. Most are still trying to grasp the right statistic for their needs.

Let’s touch on the CX metrics utilised today and discover how it fits your organisation:

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Net Promoter Score has been one of the most popular since its inception from Fred Reichheld and Bain & Co. The score is a determinant of business growth based on the loyalty of customers and advocacy.

NPS surveys are designed first by asking the ultimate question “How likely are you to recommend [Company] to a friend or colleague?” and asking the customer to respond on a scale of 0 to 10.

This allows the respondents to be segmented into detractors (0-6), neutral (7-8) and promoters (9-10). The Net Promoter Score is calculated as the percentage of Promoters less the percentage of Detractors and is expressed as a percentage score. The higher the number the better.

NPS can be used to measure an individual transaction, episode or overall relationship to the brand. In terms of CX Metrics that Matter, this is the most commonly adopted approach today.

Learn more about NPS

Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)

The Customer Satisfaction Score is the methodology for measuring satisfaction directly. Whereas NPS and CES are measuring advocacy and loyalty respectively. CSAT can be a comprehensive yet simple way to measure specific transactions, episodes and overall relationships with the brand. However, unlike NPS, it cannot be used as a predictor of revenue growth, but as a way to highlight to future potential clients a positive rating or review.

The questions of a CSAT survey are based on the likely outcome you’re looking for with a rating system that scales often from:

• Highly Satisfied
• Satisfied
• Neither Satisfied nor Dissatisfied
• Dissatisfied
• Highly Dissatisfied
• Not Applicable

To capture the best outcome and specific results to direct the questions to either the transaction, episode or overall brand relationship.

How satisfied were you with your most recent purchase? – Last transaction

How satisfied were you with the completion of the job overall? – Episode

How satisfied are you with [brand]? – Overall relationship with the brand

In terms of CX Metrics that Matter, this is still being utilised as a method to dig deeper into the drivers of why behind the score.

Customer Effort Score (CES)

Customer Effort Score is relatively new in comparison to the other measurement tools. This score focuses on the effort that a customer is required to put into each interaction with the company. The idea is the less effort it requires a customer to find your products and information about it, also the less effort it is for support, will create loyal customers.

The survey design revolves around a specific question that can be adjusted again for transaction, episode or overall brand relationship. “How much effort did you personally have to put forth to handle your request?” with the answer on a 5-point scale from Very High Effort to Very Low Effort.

In recent years, however, due to the difficulties in translating “effort” into other languages, the question has been changed to “The company has made it easy for me to handle my issue” with 7 point scale that ranges from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree.

According to CEB, Customer Effort Score (CES 2.0) is 1.8x more predictive of customer loyalty than CSAT and two times more than NPS. They do mention it is best for a multi-facet approach which does include NPS as a predictor as well.

In terms of CX Metrics that Matter, this is being adopted, however, still not have had the adoption like NPS. However, it does go hand in hand with the other Metrics that Matter.

Recently organisations have started utilising the Overall Satisfaction score (OSAT) within their surveys as an added measure to gauge loyalty. Other statistics range from industry to industry including speed and quality of service, average time to respond, and customer churn rate as measures to gauge where the organisation can drive loyalty and improve overall customer experience.

It is common to see CES used complementary to NPS as a predictor for organisational growth and advocacy but also a measure for loyalty. Whereas, CSAT is used individually on occasion to understand a specific transaction or episode. However, in the current state of the market where all of these practices are put into play by a number of companies, it is critical to ensure you’re managing survey fatigue and creating a unique experience whilst garnering survey responses.

This should give you a grasp of what CX metrics matter. How you adopt the metrics depends on the outcome you’re trying to achieve.