In a recent article, we outlined the pros and cons of the most commonly used CX metrics – namely NPS, CSAT and CES. We shared the best practices for each metric but summarised that the metric is just the number, what you do with it is more important.

In this article, I wanted to share some best practices around the design of your programme. If you are just starting on your CX journey or your current programme isn’t delivering the returns you expected, hopefully this gives you some food for thought.

Goal and Objectives

Before you start with your survey design, think about what you are trying to achieve. The most successful and long-lasting programmes are tied back to business goals. Normally, these include a mix of the following: The business is trying to grow, trying to retain customers, trying to increase lifetime value or the business is trying to reduce cost. Ask yourself, how will understanding our customers enable us to make changes to achieve these goals? Which ones can we really align to and quantify?

Targeted Listening Strategy

Once you have defined the business problem you are trying to solve, then you can start to think about what type of feedback you should capture.

Customer journeys are complex. Customers also communicate and interact with brands in many different ways. There is a balance for every business to decide which journeys and feedback methods to apply to your programme. Not enough and your feedback may not represent all of your customers. Too much and you may struggle to really understand what action to take. This is why the goals and objectives are so important. Are your listening strategies really helping you answer the business challenges?

Related: 10 Tips for Creating a Great Customer Experience Programme

If customer retention is really a problem, are you asking those customers who leave you for feedback? If conversion is the issue, are you asking those that do convert, was there anything that nearly stopped you?

How do you Prioritise what is important?

Your programme is up and running and feedback is flowing. But how do you know what to focus on? Unfortunately, it is not always as simple as focussing on the most frequently mentioned thing or lowest scoring metric. For example, price and value often score low, but that doesn’t mean you should drop your prices!

Best in Class CX programmes will apply some science to their feedback to ensure that they understand what really drives the outcomes. A good CX platform will apply some science to the feedback automatically and show users the impact on the outcomes. It is also recommended to get some Data Science advice before you start to take action. Engage with your Insight or research team, or Reputation’s Data Science team would be more than happy to help ensure your decisions are valid.

Creating a Culture of Action

Just measuring customer experience doesn’t automatically help you improve or reach your goals. It’s the action and decisions we make on the back of feedback that makes the real difference.

Operationally, closing the loop on disappointed customers is an easy way to start taking action. Make sure your teams are ready to respond and resolve any issues, failure to follow up with customers who you have promised a follow-up, will lead to double disappointment. Once the loop is closed, can you ask for new feedback? Have you recovered them as a customer and can you measure the impact and link back to goals?

As we discussed in our first article, most CX metrics don’t drive action. They act as a speedometer to tell businesses how fast they are travelling. At Reputation.com we have developed an industry-leading metric that not only shows how fast your business is going, but compares it to the industry average and prescribes the action you need to take! If you are trying to acquire new customers, keep current customers or just get better as a business than I highly recommend you have a look at our highly actionable CX metric – Reputation Score X.

Creating the right culture in the business is one of the most important factors of a successful CX programme. The wrong culture leads to the wrong behaviour and little business value. Here are some tips to ensure you are promoting the right culture:

If you are targeting the business on feedback, make sure those targeted can actually influence the measurement so they feel invested. For example, targeting stores and restaurants on NPS is not as impactful as targeting them on their teams quality interactions with customers.

Related: 12 Tips for Customer Experience Survey Design

If the focus of the programme is too metric originated, then ask yourself, does everyone in the business need to see all the metics or do they just need to see the things they need to action?

Governance and ownership is also criteria for a successful programme, are your key stakeholders meeting regularly (quarterly) to discuss insights and actions that should be taken? Start each meeting with a summary of what action was taken since the last meeting, this will help create real ownership and accountability.

Next Steps for Enterprise CX

First things first, have a read of my previous article if you haven’t already. It provides a good jumping-off point for the most commonly used metrics in use today.

One of my key takeaways when writing this article was about the actions you can take AFTER you’ve got the feedback from the customer. Think about how you can turn the experiences of previous customers into a better — or even better — experience for future customers. My key takeaway is just that: really take the time to analyse and understand the feedback of your customers, and what they’re really telling you within their feedback.

If all else fails, get in touch with me on LinkedIn and I’ll point you in the right direction.