To decide which Customer Experience KPI to use for measuring performance and setting targets, it is helpful to use a method that offers a clear and transparent score system. To measure customer experience, we use CSAT, NPS or CES. But what do they measure exactly and when to choose CSAT, when NPS and when CES? You can find which research method is best suited for your goal in this blog with the advantages of each CX KPI explained.
CSAT: the big advantage
If you are curious about the satisfaction concerning a specific product or service, CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) is the right KPI to use. Customers give a score between 1 and 5, where 1 represents ‘very dissatisfied’ and 5 is the highest possible score representing ‘very satisfied’. Organisations may also choose a 10-point scale.
CSAT works best when satisfied customers are the norm or when a recommendation doesn’t make sense or is inappropriate. Governmental, health or other institutions where switching between providers is not easily done are the organisations that can use CSAT for measuring certain situations. Using CSAT as a CX KPI is also a good choice when there is no competition. In comparison to NPS, CSAT measures short-term happiness and focuses on a specific interaction, service, or product, where NPS focuses more on forecasting the future behaviour and customer’s loyalty.
NPS: the big advantage
The Net Promoter System measures customers’ loyalty by asking the recommendation question. Respondents answer on a scale of 0 to 10. Based on their score, respondents can be categorised into three groups: Detractors (0-6), Passives (7-8), and Promoters (9-10).
The NPS score itself does not provide much insight. What to do with it is much more important. NPS is not about the score, but about the system and the stories behind the score. It becomes more engaging when you look at NPS continuously and find out what the drivers of NPS are. This gives you insight into whether customers have become loyal to your brand. You can then focus on the causes of this changing NPS and act accordingly. Using NPS is particularly useful in highly competitive markets where you want to be the organization your customer is loyal to.
Do not use an NPS survey too often in the customer journey! You can measure NPS at fixed moments in the customer journey, but choose these moments wisely. For example: when sending an NPS question after interaction with customer service, the customer will inevitably think about that interaction, and not about the organization in general or the broader relationship with the company. The strength of the Net Promoter System is the ability to measure the customer’s opinion across channels, touchpoints, and experiences.
CES: the big advantage
The Customer Effort Score is all about convenience. Most organizations underestimate the importance of convenience for their customers in accessing services. To find out how your customers experience your service, you can ask how much effort they have to put in to be helped or to get a problem solved. CYS uses a 5-point scale for measuring CES, where 1 stands for ‘very little effort’ and 5 for ‘very high effort’.
The method is simple and it takes your customers little effort (!) to complete the questionnaire. CES has a high predictive value for customer loyalty. As little hassle as possible, that’s what makes the customer happy. The outcome of the method is understandable and insightful, and any developments are easy to interpret.
A CES survey is usually used after an interaction with a customer service or support desk, because CES tells you how your customer experienced the service you provided. CES is very useful for pointing out actionable areas for service improvement. But also if you want to know how much effort it takes to place an order or to measure the convenience your customers experienced in buying the product online, CES is the most suitable metric.
Combine NPS, CES and CSAT for optimized customer experience management
CES, NPS, and CSAT can be applied per Customer Journey, process, department, or employee. You can analyze and discover the underlying reasons for every high-effort customer experience by adding an open question linked to a root cause analysis to the CES, NPS, and CSAT question. These CX KPIs can easily be combined to gain more insight into every step in the customer journey. But beware, the only danger lurking is that customer feedback is not always focused on the process for which the organization has set up the feedback research. Download our e-book below on using Customer Experience KPIs for examples directly from practical cases.
Download our e-book ‘A successful CX program – from measuring to improving’ for free
Which Performance Indicators (KPIs) are used for measuring and managing Customer Experience? The free e-book ‘A successful CX program – from measuring to improving’ offers solutions and practical examples. If you want to gain (more) insight into all the opportunities that CX-related KPIs offer and how these can be made tangible and concrete, download this handy document.
