As customer experience management (CEM) continues to gain importance in the minds of today’s CEOs, more and more companies are taking on customer experience management projects to improve customer satisfaction, develop better customer insights, nurture customer loyalty and advocacy, and improve customer lifetime value. The rapid rise to the top echelons of strategic priority has brought an unfortunate side affect; numerous customer experience management myths have begun to form due to a flood of conflicting definitions, perspectives and over-hyped promises.
For any company seeking to establish or improve its CEM capabilities, it’s important to dispel these myths once and for all.
Myth #1: Net Promoter Score (NPS) is the Only Metric You Need
The customer experience can be broad, long running, it can span channels, and is influenced by any combination of internal and external factors. Attempting to measure it effectively with a single metric such as customer satisfaction or net promoter score is overly simplistic and risky. Effectively managing the customer experience requires effective measurement and management of a portfolio of metrics that will provide a true measure of what is – or is not – working.
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a measure of customer advocacy that was the centerpiece of Fred Reichheld’s 2006 book titled ‘The Ultimate Question.’ The net promoter score is calculated by taking the percent of customers who are promoters less the percent of customer who are detractors. Obviously, the higher the resulting number – the better.
While the net promoter score is an effective measure of overall customer advocacy, it will not address all of your potential CEM questions. Here’s why:
1. Customer advocacy – or net promoter score – measures only one dimension of the customer experience. Focusing only on a single metric such as net promoter score means ignoring equally important dimensions such as customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. An effective and comprehensive CEM program must take all of these dimensions into consideration.
2. The net promoter score is only an aggregated measure of the total customer experience. However, the number of factors and touch points that contribute to the overall experience can be numerous. Focusing only on an aggregate metric without understanding or managing the contributing factors can yield unpredictable results. Companies seeking to improve their overall customer experience must focus on managing and measuring the underlying events that contribute to an exceptional experience.
3. The net promoter score does not necessarily equate to customer action. For example, for every customer that says they would “definitely recommend” the company in a customer survey may not make any actual recommendations. Companies seeking to realize tangible results will need to correlate their NPS ratings with other key business metrics such as new customer additions, increase in profitability, or changes in market share.
While NPS is an important CEM metric, companies that are looking to establish or improve their CEM capabilities will need to identify a more robust set of metrics that will measure all dimensions of the customer lifecycle.
Myth #2: Customer Experience is Just a New Term for Customer Service
Customer service just doesn’t measure up to the customer experience. Make no mistake, customer service is as important as ever; delivering great customer service is one of the most tangible and visible methods for improving customer satisfaction. Customer service, however, represents only a small fraction of the overall customer experience. Companies that talk themselves into a false sense of accomplishment by focusing only on customer service are missing the bigger picture; customer experience encompasses much more that just customer service.
While customer service is important, focusing solely on customer service misses the mark on the bigger picture. Here’s why:
1. Customer service often represents only a subset of potential touch points: a receptionist, a call center representative, or a restaurant waiter or waitress. Each touch point does provide a significant contribution to how each customer is treated. Even the best customer service, however, won’t rectify an otherwise flawed customer experience. In contrast, the customer experience is broad and encompasses all touch points that can extend from the customer’s first impression to their ultimate defection. מערכת אומניצנל
2. Customer service often refers to human interaction with the customer. While human interaction is critical, consumers are increasingly utilizing self-service alternatives via the internet, automated telephone response systems, and kiosks. According to a study by Pew Internet Study, 73% of adult Americans use the internet, a touch point dimension that continues to grow steadily. Customer experience initiatives must consider all touch points and channels in order to grasp the end-to-end scope of the customer experience process.
While customer service is an important component of the overall experience, companies that are looking to establish or improve their CEM capabilities should define their customer experience more broadly; the experience should be defined as an end-to-end process that begins with customer attraction, flows through interaction, and ends with cultivation – where the process starts over
