With statistics demonstrating that for every customer complaint you receive, there are another 26 who are unhappy but choose to remain silent, the likelihood of these customers leaving you if you don’t take proper resolution actions is very high. In addition, if some of these customer complaints go viral on online, the harm to your brand image and damage to your business could be extremely serious.
Fortunately, if you’re using customer satisfaction tools and collecting critical customer feedback, you’ll identify and make the changes your customers need. And by improving your understanding of your customer experience, you’re more likely to consistently deliver experiences that delight them. Not only is this good for customer retention but attracting more clients too.
So, what are the tools that can help you improve customer satisfaction and deliver a better customer experience?
These tools are commonly known as customer experience (CX) metrics, which we will go on to explore next.
Key customer experience metrics
To improve your customer experience, you need to know how satisfying, easy, and enjoyable customers find interacting with you.
This is where the benefit of these three key CX metrics comes into play. Each helps measure one of these aspects in turn.
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
What does it measure?
The customer satisfaction score metric, typically included as a question in a CSAT survey measures levels of satisfaction among customers.
How to measure it
A customer’s satisfaction levels are typically measured by asking them the following question.
‘How satisfied were you with our (product, service, support interaction)?
Each customer is then asked to rate their experience on a 5-point scale ranging from very dissatisfied to very satisfied.
CSAT is then calculated by dividing all the positive responses you receive by your total number of responses and then multiplying this figure by 100, to leave you with a CSAT percentage.
Scores closest to 100% indicate the highest levels of satisfaction, while those at the other end of the scale the lowest.
Depending on the size of their customer base or how quickly it’s growing, some companies can find themselves having to do these calculations more often than others. Fortunately, we offer a handy, free to use csat score calculator, to quickly do the maths for you.
When to use this metric
The CSAT metric could be used in a variety of scenarios. However, it’s typically used to measure a customer’s satisfaction following the completion of a service or support interaction, or after a key stage of a product journey, such as the end of a free trial.
Customer Effort Score (CES)
What does it measure?
The customer effort score metric works on the belief that customer contentment will be influenced by how easy you make it for them to interact with your business’ products and services.
The idea behind the customer effort survey and associated metric, is if customers are having a hard time performing certain actions when interacting with your brand, you’ll get the insight you need to change and improve this.
How to measure it
There are two main ways that you can measure the amount of effort customers have had to take with you.
Firstly, using the original 1 to 5 scale, customers are invited to answer the question below.
“On a scale of 1 to 5, how much effort did you have to expend to handle your issue? (given that 1 represents very low effort and 5 very high effort)
CES is calculated by dividing the sum of all individual customer effort scores by the number of customers providing responses. This method results in a score from 1 to 5 – the lower the score, the better
Under the second method using the 1 to 7 scale, customers are asked to answer the following question.
“On a scale of 1 to 7, how easy was it to get your issue resolved? (given that 1 represents extremely easy and 7 extremely difficult)
CES is calculated by dividing the sum of all individual customer effort scores by the number of customers who’ve responded. The lowest score is viewed as the most desirable.
If you’re really busy and don’t fancy using these methods, you might like to use our quick, easy to use CES calculator.
When to use this metric
Similarly, to CSAT, the CES metric can be used for a variety of situations. This could include following a support call, or a specific action, that include anything from trying to sign up to attempting to make a purchase on a website.
Net Promoter Score® (NPS)
What does it measure?
The NPS score metric, typically outlined in the form of a question in an NSP survey, assesses customer contentment by measuring customer’s loyalty to your brand, through how willing they are to recommend your company to others.
How to measure it
NPS is measured by asking customers to answer the following question.
‘On a scale of 0 – 10, how likely are you to recommend our company to a friend or a colleague? (given that 0 represents not likely and 10 very likely)
Each score is then grouped using the following classifications.
- 9-10 – Promoters (clients who love your company and are actively promoting it)
- 7-8 – Passives (customers who like your company but don’t love it yet)
- 0-6 – Detractors (clients who are unhappy with your company and could be at risk of churning)
Next, to calculate your NPS score, you simply subtract your number of detractors from your number of promoters. This will leave you with a positive or negative number, which you will need to divide by your total number of survey responses and then multiply by 100. You’ll then be left with a number between 100 and –100. The higher your score the more desirable it will be.
For a simpler and more convenient way of calculating this, you might like to try our NPS calculator.
When to use this metric
The short, easy format of NPS surveys using this metric, means they can be easily distributed via a variety of survey channels, to meet a wide range of customer scenarios, such as.
- Following a customer purchase or product trial
- After a client contacts your support team
- Following a specific user interaction on your website
- Whenever you’re looking to measure how well a relationship with a client is progressing
- A few weeks before a long-term subscription expires
The Pros and Cons of each metric
Having outlined each metric, which are also key metrics for customer satisfaction, we’ll now explore the advantages and disadvantages of each, so you’re better informed when it comes to using them.
CSAT
Advantages
Disadvantages
CES
Advantages
Disadvantages
NPS
Advantages
Disadvantages
What are you doing to improve your customer experience?
From your customer’s initial awareness of you and consideration of your products and services, to their first purchase, retention and advocacy. Keeping your customers engaged and satisfied with great experiences is crucial to turning them into long term brand advocates.
