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Why Customer Experience Data Should Be an Integral Part of Your KPI Scorecard

How do you evaluate and prioritize the return on investing in your customer experience? According to a recent Forbes article, if your main business objective is anything other than improving the customer experience, then you are in the minority.

In a rapidly changing world where entire industries are being gobbled up by Amazon, owners and operators are being forced to put themselves in their customers’ shoes to ensure that their value proposition is strong enough to compete, let alone grow! From Forbes:

“If you aren’t in the business of saving your customers their precious time, making their lives easier and better, you risk being disrupted by a newbie who will.”

What is it about your product or service that makes you different? Assuming you have a compelling answer to this question, then begs the next: What tools do you have in place to ensure that each and every customer has this same experience consistently? After all, what gets measured, gets done. “The companies that have better customer experiences all have CEOs that care about customer experience and sew it into the fabric of the company.” These leaders understand that it is not a choice – If they were to assume that everything was happening ‘as planned’ company-wide would be simply irresponsible.

We believe strongly that customer experience data should be an integral part of every organization’s KPI scorecard. Not merely looking at overall survey score averages or Yelp scores once in a while (or when things aren’t going so well), but by focusing on each customer touchpoint and breaking them down into pieces, it becomes much easier to see what’s really going on behind the scenes. Leveraging this data on an ongoing basis to make key customer experience decisions – That is where you will find the ROI.

We have developed a tool set to properly and consistently evaluate these touchpoints. Each provide value on their own, but bundled together begins to give you a 360-view of your customer experience.

  • Mystery shopping – providing unbiased, third party data based on tailored questionnaires specific to the company’s focus.
  • Guest surveys – gives direct feedback from customers and employees.
  • Brand reputation management – monitors social media sentiment, as well as manages online reviews and ratings.
  • Internal field audits – provides data on how well staff is internally executing operational procedures.

If everyone in the organization understands what part they play in the customer experience as well as how they will be ‘graded’ on a consistent basis, then these key indicators begin to take on a life of their own. This approach creates an evolution internally where the numbers aren’t just talked about or posted somewhere, but rather begin to integrate themselves into the culture.

What are your expectations for your customer experience today? How will those expectations change in a year? 5 years? How do they compare to your competitors? The only way to move the needle is to start by measuring against those expectations on an ongoing basis in a very detailed way, in order to uncover areas of opportunity and make the necessary improvements. We’re here to partner with you in this endeavor.