How to use customer experience metrics to improve customer satisfaction
Customers are at the heart of every business. To ensure maximum performance, it is of vital importance businesses devote time and attention to understanding customer experience and behaviour.
The more a business understands what a customer wants from their service or product, the more precisely they are able to refine their services. In this blog from Allegro Logistics, we outline how businesses use customer experience metrics to improve customer satisfaction, noting what customer experience metrics are, the different customer service metrics used by businesses and how they help enhance customer experience.
For more informative articles, take a look at our blog – articles include, Inventory Valuation Methods for Stock Management, The Importance of Real-Time Order Tracking for E-Commerce and 5 Top Tips for Organising Stock for E-Commerce.
What are customer experience metrics?
Across all industries, businesses use key performance indicators (KPIs) to help them gain an understanding of how their business is performing in particular areas. Customer experience metrics are the basis of KPIs concerned with customer behaviour and input. To help businesses receive as full a picture as possible, there are a variety of customer performance metrics that zoom in on different elements of customer behaviour and experience. Each of these customer experience metrics will be of differing importance depending on a business’ priorities and targets.
3 Key Customer Experience Metrics to Know
Across the range of customer experience metrics, some take on greater prominence than others – with the most popular customer experience metrics being Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) and Customer Effort Score (CES). Below, we will explore the information accessed through each of these metrics, noting some additional metrics of value.
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Net Promoter Score or ‘NPS’ is the leading customer experience metric across the globe, with about two-thirds of businesses using it to gain a greater understanding of their customer experience. A net promoter score is a number which predicts how likely a customer is to talk favourably about your brand.
NPS forms often consist of two questions maximum, an experience-related score/number and an explanation of this score (sometimes just the number). This short and simple form is quick and easy for customers to answer while also providing invaluable feedback for a business. Depending on the details of your business, the question asked will relate to brand, service or product – the responses to which will provide businesses a foundation upon which to base goals and strategic changes.
NPS provides a simple but powerful metric for target setting by helping businesses identify the proportions of their customer base who are detractors, passives, and promoters of your brand, product or service. These metrics allow businesses to see the larger picture, allowing for more accurate predictions of future revenue gain or loss. NPS scores are also an industry-standard metric, so provide a key unit for comparison.
Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)
As a business, it is important to have an accurate understanding of how satisfied customers are with your product or service. CSAT questions often look something like ‘How would you rate your overall satisfaction with the [products/service] you have received? Customers then have the opportunity to rate their experience between 1 (very unsatisfied) and 5 (very satisfied). Ratings of 4 and 5 (positive ratings) are then used to calculate a percentage score. A score of 100% would indicate that all of those surveyed were satisfied with their product or experience.
Learn more about how to improve the customer experience for your business >
Customer Effort Score (CES)
Customer effort score offers businesses an indication of how challenging it was for a customer to achieve a particular goal with your brand. Depending on your business, this might be getting a product shipped to them, resolving a complaint or simply receiving customer support regarding a prospective order. Customer service scores are especially valuable as they help reduce any friction or blocks between your customer and a conversion (with conversion referring to sale/booking etc.). Any hurdles leading a customer to consider an order to then think otherwise, can be managed and reduced.
CES scores are commonly obtained using 1-5 rating scales. This scale will indicate how easy it was for a customer to accomplish their goal. Customer Effort Score is a newer and lesser-used metric than NPS or CSAT. It does however offer businesses data that is simple and easy to use. Allowing appropriate changes to be made more quickly.
Other Customer Experience Metrics to Consider
Retention Rate and Churn Rate – Retention rates offer your business an indicator of how likely a customer is to stay using your products/services. This metric is highly connected to the ‘churn rate’ which describes the rate at which customers stop using a product or service in comparison to the rate at which new customers are gained.
Customer Lifetime Loyalty – Customer lifetime loyalty looks to predict the net profit attributed to the entirety of the future relationship between the customer and your business. Sometimes, this unit is calculated in 5-year increments depending on the given company.
How Can Customer Experience Metrics be Leveraged to Improve Customer Satisfaction?
Metrics offer businesses a range of valuable information about their customers and their experiences – but how can they be used to level up customer satisfaction? Metrics such as CES and CSAT are central to maximising customer loyalty. By maximising customer experience and limiting any potential inconveniences to be encountered with your business – a greater quantity of repeat customers will become notable. Similarly, focusing in on both positive and negative feedback supplied by NPS and CSAT forms not only tells you where your business is thriving but also where changes need to be made to increase conversions.
Regularly reviewing customer experience metrics allows your business to stay in tune with the customer’s wants, needs and concerns – allowing for strategic changes to be made as and when they are required.
Managed Logistics & Returns from Allegro
Here at Allegro Logistics we offer integrated E-Commerce Fulfilment Solution Based from our warehouses in Bristol. We help growing e-commerce businesses develop their shipping and returns processes to offer a seamless customer journey helping you to improve your customer satisfaction.
If you are interested in a partner for growth to help your business fly, our combined team have an extensive breadth of experience in the logistics field and our range of services cover E-commerce Fulfilment, POS Distribution, Domestic Shipping, International Shipping, Storage and Returns.
For more information about how our services could help your business, request a quote today. To read more articles about wider logistics topics, take a look at our blog.
