Harald Henn, managing partner of Marketing Resultant GmbH, on key figures for customer experience management
Without key figures for Customer Experience Management, the concept of effectively accompanying customers along their customer journeys cannot be implemented. Simple, effective and empathetic customer experiences are the result of hard work and continuous dialogue with customers. The paradox: According to various studies, almost three-quarters of companies state that customer experience management is their top priority; however, very few have the right indicators for customer experience management or an integrated KPI system that continuously measures the relevant indicators along the customer journey and makes them available to management as a control instrument.
Not only that. Many companies do not know how to measure the results of their customer experience management concepts and projects. This is because there is no simple questionnaire that companies can simply send to all their customers by e-mail to ask them how satisfied they were at each touchpoint of their customer trip. You even have to take a step back. What does Customer Experience Management actually mean and how can the right metrics for Customer Experience Management be derived? Customer Experience Management is the design and implementation of the customer journey at all touchpoints along the customer journey. It includes all customer actions. The customer expectation differs depending on the individual persona who goes through this customer journey. The evaluation of the customer trip is not one-dimensional, but comprises several key figures that have an influence on the overall evaluation.
The classical starting point in many companies for the collection of key figures for Customer Experience Management is the measurement of customer satisfaction. This is a classic measure that is also one of the relevant indicators for Customer Experience Management. By measuring customer satisfaction, companies also hope to find out what satisfies their customers and how they can use this information to improve customer satisfaction. With this information, companies believe they can better meet their customers’ expectations and continuously improve service quality. Many companies believe that measuring customer satisfaction is a good or even sufficient measure of customer satisfaction. But this is no longer the case.
Customer satisfaction per se is not a sufficient factor to ensure that customers are loyal to a company and are happy to come back. To understand customers, it is important to know their most important needs and expectations, what satisfies them and what it takes to keep them. These value drivers for loyalty need to be identified and implemented at all touchpoints along the customer journey. With the help of a Customer Journey Map, it is possible to analyse all touch points, determine pleasure and frustration points, identify the critical moments of truth and measure the fulfilment of expectations.
Key figures for Customer Experience Management
For each of the touchpoints, you can set metrics that feed into the value drivers of customer loyalty. These different metrics then form the metrics for Customer Experience Management.
In addition to the customer satisfaction index already mentioned, there are other metrics that can be used as indicators for customer experience management.
Net Promoter Score: NPS is an index that ranges from -100 to 100 and shows how willing a customer is to recommend a brand’s products/services to others. NPS divides customers into three categories: Promoters (loyal + satisfied), Passive (satisfied + unenthusiastic) and Detractors (dissatisfied + unenthusiastic). In general, companies collect NPS data through surveys and calculate the score by subtracting the percentage of critics from the percentage of promoters. The Net Promotor Score is widely used, easy to determine, but has some weaknesses.
First Call Resolution (FCR): FCR indicates how well agents are able to resolve customer queries at the first attempt – it doesn’t have to be just the call. If customers are not able to resolve their questions on the first contact with the customer, they are usually neither satisfied nor does a low value pay for loyalty. In recent years, all relevant studies on customer behaviour have shown that customer impatience is tending to increase and that a high rate of cases or first-time solutions is becoming more important.
Customer intention
Digital touchpoints are the most measurable sales and service channels. With huge amounts of data already available, they show what visitors are doing on desktops, mobile phones and tablets. Behavioral Web Analytics is a recognized form of performance measurement and provides valuable decision support for optimizing online channel offerings. However, behavioral metrics such as “pages visited”, “time on site” and “conversion rate” provide little insight into the hearts and minds of customers. What is missing is the insight gained by listening to actual visitors, as they can provide the “why” behind the “what”. What is unique is that customers can give feedback within the scope of their intentions; they can also tell you whether or not they can perform their desired tasks.
customer effort score
The Customer Effort Score (CES) is a key figure that indicates how much effort a customer has to put in to solve a specific problem or get an answer to a question. The CES refers to all touch points along the customer journey. Simplicity as a driver of loyalty was first published and identified in 2010 in the Harvard Business Review based on a study. The CES makes it clear whether companies are willing to make interaction with customers as easy as possible and to what extent customers are satisfied with the service solutions offered. The design can refer to menu layout, completion aids, understandable language, structured user guidance and many other aspects.
About Harald Henn
Harald Henn, managing partner of Marketing Resultant GmbH, Mainz, designs and optimizes digital customer service projects, designs and implements customer experience management projects and optimizes call centers based on more than 20 years of project experience. He is the publisher of several e-books on chatbots and AI in customer service, digital customer service and contact centers.
His know-how is based on more than 15 years of experience in leading marketing and sales functions for American companies in the IT industry. Most recently, he was responsible for the successful market entry in Germany as Marketing Director of Dell Computer GmbH. He is a speaker on current customer service and customer experience management topics at numerous events.
Graphic: Measurement and visualization of relevant customer experience indicators along the customer journey – example Aris Connect/Software AG
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