Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We’ve gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.
The correlation between loyalty and customer experience is being brought to the forefront of organizations looking to improve their performance. Any organization can achieve nominal improvements to their customers’ experience, but it takes more than superficial changes to create long-term results and overall progression. Customer experience programs that result in concrete changes can give organizations the upper hand by elevating their customer service, expanding their customer base and increasing loyalty of existing customers. These programs are becoming a competitive necessity rather than a superfluous luxury.
According to a survey by Forrester’s State of Retailing, there will be a switch back to the basics for online retailers in 2013, with a focus on strategies and tactics to increase web conversion and improve the customer experience and loyalty across all devices, especially mobile. Recent research from Ovum indicates that retail banks across the globe will see IT spending increase 3.4%, reaching $118.6 billion in 2013, as CIOs spotlight customer satisfaction and revenue growth.
Customer experience management has been identified as a top 10 trend for 2013 for the media and telecoms sectors by Informa Telecoms & Media. Call centers throughout telecom companies are examining how CEM solutions can enhance the customer experience and overall operations. Areas of improvement can be easily distinguished by evaluating the metrics made available through a CEM solution, leading to an increase in first call resolutions and reduced customer churn.
Any organization looking to put a customer experience program in place needs a quantitative method to monitor its customers’ experiences. The right metrics will allow a company to consistently track how it is performing over short- and long-term periods, as well as measure performance across geographies and channels. Selecting the correct set of metrics gives an organization the ability to also accurately measure fluctuations in customer interactions and formulate solutions to rectify them where necessary.
How to choose the ideal mix of metrics
With an abundance of metrics to pick from, organizations can customize their mix based on how want to assess their customers’ interactions. So how does a company decide which metrics are most appropriate for its needs? The six strategies below can aid organizations in sifting through numerous options to find the perfect combination.
1. Industry: Particular metrics are more applicable to some industries than others. These are determined by how the responses will be collected as well as the way in which customers interact with the organization’s services or products. The nature of each industry is the broadest assessment for which particular metrics will generate the most pertinent results.
2. Brand promise: Meeting brand promises is positively correlated with positive customer experience. It is crucial for each company to identify any brand promises and decide on metrics that will correlate with the companies overarching sentiment. In order to easily pinpoint brand promises, identify selling features that a company advertises and determine the basic guarantee within. Once this is established, the organization can find a metric to validate the statement.
3. Survey methodology: The degree of access to customer contact information approved by the industry will dictate which methods can be used to survey consumers. For instance, an SMS survey cannot be sent without a mobile phone number and an e-mail address is necessary for an e-mail invitation-based Web survey. When little contact information is accessible, gateway partners are typically available to help fill this gap.
4. Channel determination: Evaluating which channels will use the program will help with metric selection as well. If an organization is monitoring customer experience within a contact center, Web and retail channel, it should establish if each division offers the same kind of experience and has congruent goals. Different metrics can be used for each channel to best address its needs if experiences are diverse.
5. Organizational visibility: Often, the metrics chosen are influenced by the type of staff reviewing the customer response reports. For example, if the intention were to involve frontline employees to sharpen service, tracking each service interaction would be valuable. If the goal is for corporate executives to determine customer opinions of the brand however, the same metric may not be as advantageous as a more sophisticated analysis.
6. Consistency: While using only one metric may not provide enough information, using too many metrics can dilute the impact of results. In general it is most beneficial to use a combination of metrics. This mix can differ entirely based on channels, or can be homogenous across all service touch points.
Tried and true – six common CEM metrics
Establishing the perfect blend of metrics can be an intimidating task, as there are numerous to consider. Luckily some of the most common metrics may present the ideal solution.
–Customer satisfaction (CSAT): This classic metric measures how happy customers are, giving organizations the ability to improve customers’ happiness and increase their likelihood and frequency of purchasing as a result.
–Customer effort score (CES): CES seeks to evaluate the entire service experience and reduce the number of interaction points required of customers across channels by determining how much work is required for a customer to solve a problem. This metric has gained popularity in recent years as organizations realize that providing easy interactions with the organization as a whole is a valuable service.
–Net promoter score (NPS): NPS measures the percentage of customers who would put their own reputation on the line and recommend the organization to others, which is the highest form of loyalty. It seeks to find those loyal customers who will bring more business to the organization and the less satisfied customers, to find ways to improve their experiences.
–General question index and customer experience index (CXi): Each question in these index options address an aspect of the organization or service channel. General question indexes are typically used to provide insights into intricate elements of a customer experience.
–American customer satisfaction index (ACSI): The ACSI is an economic indicator that measures customer satisfaction of consumers across the United States, with similar national versions available for other countries such as the United Kingdom and Singapore. This metric is now the most recognizable national customer satisfaction index.
–Wallet allocation rule: How much a consumer spends with an organization ultimately determines customer loyalty. Through measuring the amount a customer spends on a particular company within an industry, and ranking this against other companies, an accurate sense of customer loyalty and the wallet share occupied by each can be established.
Summary
The number of available metrics can make developing a customer experience program seem like a daunting task. It is essential to take into account which metrics best correlate with your organization, industry and specific customer experience program when making your selections. These variables will help narrow down the overwhelming options in terms of amount of data, what the data means and the intentions of the program.
The most important thing to remember when choosing metrics is to identify those that will be most actionable. To make the most of your customer experience program, findings must be analyzed and the appropriate changes must be made to improve organizational performance. The perfect mix of metrics can yield substantial outcomes such as increased loyalty, satisfaction and revenue.
As the president and CEO of ResponseTek, Syed Hasan is a proven leader with a wealth of experience in managing success.
