Working purposefully towards higher customer satisfaction, a better customer experience and higher profits. That is what everyone wants. You can take this a very long way, but where do you start? And what should you do with Customer Experience (CX), the customer journey and the Net Promoter Score (NPS)? It may sound complicated, but it is much simpler than you might think. Just start at the beginning.
Customer Experience (CX) and your revenue
Everyone knows how important customers are. Their experience of your service (CX) is shaped by every interaction your organisation has with a customer: in every possible way and through every channel. From your newsletter, website and a consultation to telephone service calls or the music someone hears while briefly on hold. Pleasant interactions create a better customer experience and influence customer loyalty. And your revenue.
Important moments in the customer journey
The path a potential or existing customer takes towards an action, such as making a purchase (in other words, the customer journey), is essential to helping them more effectively at the right moment. The result: better CX! Smart online survey software makes it possible to measure customer satisfaction continuously, with minimal effort for customers. You can use the results to make continuous, targeted improvements. This allows you to have a direct, positive influence on the customer experience.
To gain a clear picture of the customer journey and its important moments, it is important to discuss the ‘journey’ with different departments. Important moments include, for example: the sales conversation, the quotation process, after an order has been placed, when a product is delivered, during service interactions, interim evaluations, or when a contract is renewed or terminated.
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
To influence the customer experience as effectively as possible, you need to ask customers the right smart question at the right moment. A widely used method for measuring customer satisfaction is NPS. This internationally proven methodology correlates with revenue growth and is very brief (a maximum of 2 minutes). More than two out of three companies in the Fortune 500 use NPS. It all revolves around the ultimate question: How likely are you to recommend us to friends, family and colleagues? Or a variation on it. NPS can be used for many different business processes, such as ordering, delivery or customer service.
Customer Effort Score (CES)
Sometimes it is not possible to ask the NPS question. These are often situations in which a customer goes through a mandatory process. For example, when placing a first order. The customer has to provide certain information to do so. A better question in that case is: How easy have we made it for you to become a customer with us? You can measure the ease your customer experiences, and their associated loyalty, using the Customer Effort Score (CES). Consider carefully which method best suits your information needs and work processes. You may also need both the NPS and CES questions, sometimes even within the same survey. That is possible too.
Benefits of continuous measurement
To continuously take the ‘temperature’ of your customers, it is important to keep conducting short surveys at important touchpoints. This gives you ‘top-of-mind feedback’ and allows you to respond immediately to dissatisfied customers. It can also provide better insight into, for example, rational and emotional arguments, priorities from the customer’s perspective, or feedback from all respondents at a single customer organisation. Customers are often highly willing to participate in short surveys. Especially when customers know that something is actually being done with the results.
Following up on feedback and what you need
Ultimately, of course, the improvements you make are crucial to your customers’ experience and satisfaction. Following up on negative feedback is particularly essential. Responding quickly or providing an explanation is enough to create a more positive experience and assessment for 50 percent of these respondents.
To continuously measure customer responses, you need an online platform that continuously monitors responses to your questionnaires. At GrowPromoter, we help organisations ask their customers the best questions at important moments. Our platform displays the results immediately, continuously and in real time, so you can take action straight away. GrowPromoter also offers the option, potentially at a later stage, to measure employee satisfaction (Exployee Experience) as well. And its influence on your CX. But my advice is: start simply and take it step by step.
