How to Measure Your Customer Experience

Think about the best customer experience you’ve ever had. What exactly did that business do to set themselves apart from the rest? How did you come to realize it was one of the best? Chances are it had more to do with the actions the business was taking than the data they gathered. Though customer experience feels more like an idea than a series of numbers, brands can (and should) quantify it. From essential KPIs to a few ways to get the process started, here’s everything you need to know to measure your customer experience.

Five KPIs to Know

All aspects of marketing have KPIs, and customer experience is no different. These five metrics are imperative in helping you understand your audience’s loyalty and satisfaction. Regularly taking a look at each of them allows you to gauge how to better the experience over time.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Net Promoter Score is pretty much the fan favorite of all customer experience metrics. It’s very easy for brands to ask, and even easier for consumers to answer. Plus, it gives you customer loyalty at a glance.

First, you’ll ask customers on a scale of 0-10, how likely they are to recommend your product or service to a friend. Once you’ve got all your responses in, remove the ones in the middle (anyone who rates their likelihood of recommendation as a 7 or 8). Take the percentage of people who gave you a 0-6, and subtract that from the percentage of people who gave you a 9-10. There you have it – your Net Promoter Score.

Those who gave your business high marks can, and probably will, serve your brand as ambassadors. You can also gather feedback from those who gave you a lower rating to learn about what they’d like to see from the customer journey.

Churn Rate

Sometimes, customers don’t come back. Though this is an inevitable part of the lifecycle, it can also indicate deeper issues with your customer experience. This is where your churn rate comes into play.

Churn rate refers to the percentage of consumers who don’t repurchase, renew their subscriptions, or convert within a given time period. Analyzing this cross-section of your audience can help determine if a lack of engagement, poor user experience, or inadequate support is the reason why customers aren’t coming back. Plus, you can use the information to improve customer retention, since it’s much less expensive to keep your existing customers around than to go out and find new ones.

Retention Rate

Now, onto churn rate’s older sibling: retention rate. This metric shows the percentage of customers that a business retains over time. These are your potential ambassadors, the folks who continue to purchase, subscribe, or convert. A higher retention rate means a lower churn rate, and those customers who do stick around are more likely to refer their loved ones. Retention rate is definitely one to focus on boosting any way you can.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

Customer Lifetime Value refers to the total amount of money that a particular customer has brought in over their entire relationship with your brand, including any costs related to acquisition, retention, or service. It can give you a window into the longevity of your relationship a customer and how it’s changed over time. This is your chance to look at the customer experience as a whole, rather than just one interaction at a time.

Your best, most loyal customers will have a higher CLV than those who are buying every now and then. If CLV is decreasing over time, it indicates that something is lacking, and that the customer journey needs to be examined more closely.

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

This is another really easy one for both brands and customers to tackle. Customer Satisfaction Score is a measurement of, well, customer satisfaction. Customers must answer on a scale of 1-5, how they would rate their overall satisfaction with the products or services they received. The average score from this survey then becomes your CSAT. By getting this feedback in real time, you now have a very straightforward look at how customers are feeling in the moment.

Three Ways to Measure Your Customer Experience

Maybe this is the first you’re hearing of NPS, churn rate, retention rate, CLV, or CSAT. Even if you haven’t collected that data just yet, you can still measure your customer experience in other ways. Here are three easy strategies that let you learn what your consumers are really thinking, feeling, and considering.

Analyze the Metrics You Do Have

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again. What good is all the data you’ve gathered if you don’t analyze it? If you have yet to collect the data points we mentioned above, fear not! Your social media insights, ad metrics, website stats, customer loyalty programs, and email marketing data can paint a nice picture for you already. With these numbers, you may be able to identify points of friction, giving you an idea of how your consumers are feeling about the customer journey.

Never Underestimate the Power of a Survey

Consumers like to have a voice, as we’ve seen on social media. Many of them jump at the chance to give feedback directly to businesses. Conducting surveys is a great way to establish a line of communication with your audience. These surveys can and should be sent at various points throughout the customer journey, such as after their first conversion, when they interact with customer care, and after they receive your product. You can even go as far as asking them for requests for future products to give them a more personalized experience. By acknowledging your consumers and what they have to say, you’re helping them feel validated and heard.

Meet With Customer Care

Your customer care team is a great resource to tap into. Who knows your customers better than those who are in the trenches with them daily? This team can provide you with invaluable information about common pain points, long-standing issues, or a particular complaint that had to change hands several times before finally being resolved. They can also provide ideas for how to rectify some of those issues. Be it clearer instructions, how-to videos, or product enhancements, customer service knows exactly what consumers want to see. Implement these changes, and watch your customer experience improve!

Final Thoughts

Ready to measure your customer experience? The data you gather can help you grow your business, all while taking care of the consumers you’ve already got. Metrics like these can help you quantify something as abstract as the customer journey; you’ll soon learn exactly how to make it even better!