If you are concerned about how to have a clear vision of what is happening at the various touch points of your customers, you must have customer experience metrics that help you detect what you need to correct thanks to the data that is generated daily.
Some of the most popular customer experience metrics are Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), and Customer Effort Score (CES). So how does a company choose which one works best within its customer experience program?
While most companies already measure NPS, they also tend to measure an additional customer experience metric—that is, they increasingly rely on customer experience metrics in general, and find that by linking them together, they can gain a more comprehensive vision of your businesses.
What customer experience metrics work best?
There are many advantages to using these metrics together, but also some pitfalls if not done correctly. We’ll explore each of these metrics, and how they can be used independently and together.
1. Net Promoter Score (NPS)
The Net Promoter Score, or NPS, is a metric that asks a single question:
«On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this company (service-brand) to a friend, family member or colleague?» This question is asked through a survey.
Depending on the responses, customers are classified as promoters, passives or detractors. Promoters are customers, they give you a score of 9 or 10, and these are customers who are very happy with their experience, and are willing to recommend you, even without you asking them to.
Customers who get a score of 7 or 8 are the passive ones, we could say that they are not unhappy with their customer experience, but they are not too excited either. Passive customers are more susceptible to offers from competitors, and are unlikely to discuss their experience with others, whether positive or negative.
Detractors are those who typically give a score between 0 and 6. These are people who have had a bad experience with your company, and are likely to complain to others unless you quickly take steps to resolve their concerns.
NPS is the first metric on this list for several reasons: it’s simple, practical, and focused on growth. You can get an overview of customer experience and loyalty, and take steps to resolve issues as they arise.
When a customer is discovered to be a detractor, for example, a front-line employee or automated system can contact them and try to understand their complaints and take steps to correct the problem, increasing customer retention. However, monitoring is key to taking measures, to act, otherwise monitoring this metric would be in vain.
What sets NPS apart from other customer experience metrics is that NPS provides a broader view, an overall summary of a customer’s experience with every aspect of a company.
For many, asking just one NPS question in a survey is not always enough to determine the root cause, so you can add additional questions to find the source of the problem.
2. Customer satisfaction index (CSAT)
The customer satisfaction rating, or CSAT, is another of the most popular customer experience metrics, probably because it is highly customizable and can be applied to a number of situations. It can exist on a scale of 1 to 10 or 1 to 7, or 1 to 5 from “very dissatisfied” to “very satisfied,” or even on a smiley face scale; any way you want to use. Then you can ask the question like; “How satisfied are you with…” and refer to almost any part of the customer journey, depending on what information you want to learn about.
The customer satisfaction index is calculated by finding the percentage of customers who gave the two highest scores. On a scale of 1 to 10, that would be 9 and 10; On a scale of 1 to 5, that would be 4 and 5, or “satisfied” and “very satisfied.” The idea behind using the highest scores is that it provides the most accurate indicator for customer retention, since those who are most likely to stay are the ones who give the highest scores.
One of the great benefits of measuring customer satisfaction is that it is a great way to close the loop with customers. A customer makes a purchase and can automatically be sent a quick survey asking them what they think of the product and the ordering process, giving them the opportunity to submit any complaints or positive comments they wish to make and, in turn, giving your business the opportunity. to respond to you and take steps to handle any complaints.
This metric is designed to understand an individual interaction, not to look at the big picture of customer satisfaction; NPS is a metric for a broader reach as it focuses on customer intent. The customer satisfaction index considers customer satisfaction, which can change much faster.
The secret to using customer satisfaction as a customer experience metric is to know what you want to evaluate, such as your front line, or a new product, and do a survey for that. Leave your company’s overall satisfaction to other metrics.
3. Customer Effort Score (CES)
The customer effort score, or CES, is another customer experience metric whose function is to measure the effort a customer makes to complete their interaction with the company and use a product or service.
Customers typically respond to customer effort rating survey questions on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 meaning low effort and 5 meaning high effort. Some people prefer to use the agree/disagree statement in a question to evaluate whether you have more clients who put in minimal effort than others. The lowest average is your CES average.
The customer effort score, unlike the customer satisfaction index, is a great metric for measuring loyalty. In general, if customers put in a lot of effort every time they interact with your company, they will eventually go somewhere else for your products and services. However, if your company is easy to work with, it is very likely that customers will buy from you.
Customer Effort Scoring can identify problems with the customer support journey, but it does not identify what those problems are. As with the NPS, to fully utilize the data collected in the CES, a company must ask follow-up questions to obtain meaningful data to resolve these issues. Therefore, there is a lot of value in knowing the customer’s effort score, but it applies to particular cases, and still requires monitoring.
How to Use NPS, Customer Satisfaction Score, and Customer Effort Score Together
When considering each of these customer experience metrics, it’s easy to see how they intersect. Each metric seeks to numerically explain a portion of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, allowing companies to create better experiences.
These metrics help give an overview of your company’s strengths and weaknesses, and they all require some type of tracking to define specific, executable tasks based on the data they provide.
Advantages of using customer experience metrics together
Next, we’ll look at why a company may, or may not, choose to use multiple metrics.
There are several benefits of using multiple metrics, including:
- Distinguish a purpose for each metric: The Customer Satisfaction Index seeks to understand customer satisfaction as a metric, while the NPS and Customer Effort Score provide you with data for customer loyalty. NPS and Customer Effort Score are complementary metrics, while Customer Effort Score and Customer Satisfaction Index share the commonality of being good at evaluating specific interactions with customers. We share some of the best NPS practices to measure the profits of your business.
- NPS gives you an overview of how customers feel about your company and if they have any major problems. The customer satisfaction index then assesses how satisfied customers are with specific interactions or processes, as the customer effort score sees how easy it is for customers. Every metric is important. You need to understand customer loyalty in a broader sense, while it is also vital that you begin to see that the customer service process involves various tasks.
Evaluate the customer effort score along with the customer satisfaction index , to know what to prioritize and what processes can be a little more elaborate.
- Closing the loop: NPS increases when businesses complete a sale, as does customers’ overall experience with a business. Customer satisfaction surveys are a great way to close the loop after a sale by giving customers a place to give feedback, resolve any issues, and know what you’re doing right. Customer effort scoring surveys are another way to close the loop, especially in customer service interactions. The Net Promoter Score offers a clear picture of not only dissatisfied customers, but also promoter customers and passive customers. This makes the Net Promoter survey particularly suitable for your customer base monitoring processes.
Recommendations when using multiple customer experience metrics
If you want to use multiple metrics, consider the following:
- Most of the time simple is better. If you are going to use multiple metrics you have to do it with a specific purpose, and above all, make sure that the entire company knows this purpose and takes it as their own. It would be best to select a customer loyalty metric and stick to it.
- Apply surveys that are short: Evaluating too many metrics at once can make a survey long and fewer customers respond.
In the end, applying customer experience metrics like NPS, Customer Satisfaction Index, and Customer Effort Score have huge benefits . If you want to start tracking this type, we recommend starting with a metric and evaluating whether you are obtaining actionable data. After all, it’s not the number that matters, but what you do with them.