Famed management consultant Peter Drucker once noted that “if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” One of the key tenets in life is that customer experience cannot be measured directly, but keeping track of the factors that influence CX can serve as relevant proxies. These metrics are usually a good indicator of the quality of CX and can be used to identify the types of improvements or refinements that should be applied to each functional area of the customer/company relationship or process.
There is no single reliable metric used to assess CX; instead, a variety of metrics that influence CX can be deployed and analyzed both separately and together to identify points of friction, dissatisfaction, inefficiency, or other conditions that may negatively or positively impact a customer’s overall experience with the brand, product, service, or organization.
Net Promoter Score
One of the most commonly used metrics today is the Net Promoter Score (NPS), which measures customer loyalty based on a single question: “How likely is it that you would recommend the organization/product/service to a friend or colleague?”
Respondents provide a rating between 0 (not at all likely) and 10 (extremely likely). To calculate the NPS, only promoters (ratings of 9 or 10) and detractors (ratings of 0 through 6) are considered. Neutral ratings (ratings of 6 or 7)) are removed, and then the percentage of detractors is subtracted from the percentage of promoters to provide an NPS score.
The NPS is generally considered as a proxy for advocacy, combining the customer’s overall satisfaction with a company’s product or services and the customer’s loyalty to the brand. However, it is only a single metric based upon a single question and can mask several smaller issues that may impact loyalty, satisfaction, or advocacy. Most importantly, the NPS does not provide any insight into why a score was given by the customer, which portends the need for additional metrics.
Customer satisfaction
Another metric that can provide directional insight into a customer’s overall experience is customer satisfaction (CSAT), which measures customer satisfaction based on the question: “How would you rate your overall satisfaction with the products/service you received?” Responses are provided along a scale, ranging from 1 (very unsatisfied) to 5 (very satisfied). To calculate CSAT, the number of satisfied customers that provided scores of 4 or 5 is then divided by the total number of responses. So, if 100 people responded, and 75 people responded with a 4 or 5, the CSAT score would be 75%.
Customer effort score
Another key driver of a positive CX is how easy it is to interact with the company, product, or service. The customer effort score (CES) asks a question like: “How easy was it to deal with our company today?” This allows the respondent to rank their experience on a scale of 1 (difficult) to 7 (extremely easy); for this metric, higher scores are better. However, like other metrics, the CES only addresses a specific interaction at one point in time and does not track overall satisfaction or customer loyalty.
Brand sentiment score
A metric that can be used in conjunction with any of the others is the brand sentiment score (BSS), which addresses whether an interaction has materially impacted the customer’s perception of the brand. It can be measured on a scale from very negative to very positive, and can be phrased as “How has your opinion of the brand changed as a result of your interaction with the agent/app/website/store associate?” Tracked across a number of customers over time, this metric can provide a big-picture assessment of how well CX efforts are working.
Employee satisfaction
An oft-overlooked aspect of CX is periodically checking in with employees to measure their satisfaction. If employees are unhappy with their work environment, company processes and policies, or their compensation, it is likely that they will be less motivated to provide comprehensive, excellent service all of the time. Tracking employee satisfaction can be as simple as asking employees if they are satisfied with their jobs or having them rate their satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 10, followed by an opportunity to provide open-ended feedback or comments. There is a wide range of additional CX metrics, but each one selected should form part of an overall evaluation system that can pinpoint areas that need improvement. It is also wise to incorporate unstructured data analysis of customer verbatims, as well as call and chat logs. These logs can validate results and provide greater insights beyond Likert scales ratings and can often provide specific details about interactions that can be used to educate employees, improve processes, and refine technologies or systems in use. And to really improve CX and loyalty, ensure that customers know the company’s CX improvements are based on their experiences and the customers’ feedback .
Author Information
Keith Kirkpatrick is Research Director, Enterprise Software & Digital Workflows for The Futurum Group. Keith has over 25 years of experience in research, marketing, and consulting-based fields.
He has authored in-depth reports and market forecast studies covering artificial intelligence, biometrics, data analytics, robotics, high performance computing, and quantum computing, with a specific focus on the use of these technologies within large enterprise organizations and SMBs. He has also established strong working relationships with the international technology vendor community and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and events.
In his career as a financial and technology journalist he has written for national and trade publications, including BusinessWeek, CNBC.com, Investment Dealers’ Digest, The Red Herring, The Communications of the ACM, and Mobile Computing & Communications, among others.
He is a member of the Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP).
Keith holds dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in Magazine Journalism and Sociology from Syracuse University.
