While customer experience, service, and care might be seen as interchangeable, there is a distinct difference in the way they are implemented. One thing is certain, companies are investing more resources in creating a seamless experience, resulting in a significant shift in business from profit-centric to customer-centric. The competition is also shifting away from price and toward experience. There is no doubt that companies are beginning to prioritize Customer Experience. What about Customer Service and Customer Care?
The difference between Customer Experience, Customer Service, and Customer care
There is a considerable difference between Customer Experience, Customer Service, and Customer Care. It’s essential to define these terms, be aware of the areas they cover, and distinguish between the means of interaction they use.
What is Customer Service
The primary responsibility of Customer Service is to advise customers and provide them with help and assistance. The main focus of Customer Service is customer satisfaction, with the ultimate goal of increasing the Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT). So, what exactly does Customer Service include?
Responding to product/service inquiries
Assisting customers in making the best purchasing decision
After-purchase assistance for customers
Advising the customer on the best way to use the product/service
Troubleshooting a problem
Providing a superior purchasing experience for customers
6 simple yet powerful strategies to improve customer retention
Can you remember the last time you re-engaged with your customers and tried to win them back?
Customer Care is exactly what it sounds like: caring for customers while interacting with the brand. Genuine care entails listening to customers’ needs and desires and developing appropriate solutions. Customer Care, while similar to Customer Service, entails deeper interactions and the development of personal and emotional connections with customers. While both contribute to customer satisfaction, another significant difference is that Customer Care cannot be easily quantified. Each company’s Customer Service strategy will be unique (even within the same industry). Common examples include:
Targeted and unique messaging (like sending suggestions based on their behavior)
Customer convenience benefits (like a money-back guarantee or free delivery)
What is Customer Experience
Customer Experience encompasses the entire customer journey, including all brand interactions along the way. CX refers to the entire customer lifecycle and every touchpoint a customer has with a product or service. It also considers how customers feel about a company, including their emotional, physical, and psychological attachments to the brand. The purchasing process can be lengthy, from discovering the brand to researching a product or service, making a purchase decision, purchasing, using, and following up with the brand. All of this contributes to the overall Customer Experience.
We wouldn’t be surprised if the three concepts of Customer Service, Customer Care, and Customer Experience sound familiar. They help a company keep its commitments while creating loyal, satisfied, and returning customers. While Customer Experience is the sum of all interactions, Customer Service and Customer Care are also critical components of the equation.
Customer Service and Care are equally essential, and businesses can not overlook them in favor of a better Customer Experience. Customer Service and Customer Care are necessary because no matter how hard a brand works to provide a flawless experience, not every customer will be delighted at all times. This is precisely why all three segments should be equally incorporated and always collaborate closely. Only then will a company be able to maintain a large, satisfied, loyal customer base. And, as we’ve previously stated, loyal customers are return customers and will refer and recommend others.
So, while Customer Experience should be at the heart of everything a business does, incorporating Customer Service and Customer Care will result in exceeding expectations and keeping customers delighted. However, if you are having difficulty with any of these services, FrontLogix can undoubtedly assist you. We provide Customer Service and Customer Care outsourcing services and improve all touchpoints of the Customer Journey for a better overall Customer Experience — just Get In Touch!
An overload of digital tools has led to skyrocketing customer demand for a unified customer experience! To meet customers’ growing expectations and needs, the digital customer experience has to continue to grow and expand in ways that were unimaginable just a few years ago.
The digital transformation and the digital landscape
We live in a digital era characterized by ubiquitous digital devices, immersive digital innovations, and above all, around-the-clock change. Trying to keep up with customer expectations has led companies to reshape their digital solutions continually.
The digital transformation created instant communication, seamless omnichannel support, and unique customer journeys. And all of these are now standard, so today’s digital customer expects them. Customers cannot be served without digital channels, especially when the boundaries between online and offline are becoming almost invisible.
Today, it’s crucial for companies to thoroughly understand their “digital customer” and how they interact with the digital landscape. Using that insight will allow providers to innovate new approaches to the customer experience.
The impact of digital transformation on customer experience
Digital transformation is not a “good-to-have” but a “necessary-to-implement” in all business operations worldwide. Digitalization is critical to adding business value and providing a solid customer experience. For customers, having online demos and interactive onboarding is essential to see products or services virtually. Ideally, they would like to subscribe, purchase, or renew any contract via their smartphones on the go. “Is there an app for that?” “Can I have it delivered tomorrow?” or “Can I use this out of the box?” are some of the most frequently asked questions. In other words, being digital drives reshapes and enhances customer experience.
Meeting the expectations of the “digital customer.”
There are a few key points: you need to be instantaneously accessible – anywhere, anytime. You need an easy purchase process; a single click is preferable. High transparency is consistently among the preferred items on the customer checklist. But most important is dedicated customer experience and support.
You need to excel at providing top-notch CX. Being omnichannel or using as many channels as possible will help. To meet the expectations of your digital customer, you need to be present whenever and wherever they are and give them everything they think they want, even before they want it.
What is Digital Customer Experience (DCX)
All customer journey interactions are part of the Digital Customer Experience. This includes using digital channels, including smartphone and tablet devices, online experiences, AI, machine learning, automation, chatbots, and more. Naturally, as digital possibilities grow, so makes the demand for a seamless digital experience. The only logical solution – companies, should embrace DCX at every level of their business strategies.
Digital customer experience management
But how can you successfully manage the digital customer experience? It’s a highly complex process that should be thoughtfully designed.
A company must carefully plan and create pleasant customer interactions over all digital channels and at every step of the digital customer journey. But, this also means that a company must have an excellent User Interface (UI), a fantastic User Experience (UX), and a friction-free Customer Experience (CX). The CX should provide exceptional Agent Experience (AX) and the latest and best Technology Experience (TX). These will help create a superior Business Experience which is also part of the Digital Customer Experience Equation.
The world is increasingly shifting to digital business experiences, interactions, and operations. The transformation of customer interactions started with personal visits to a store that ended with a handshake but evolved to doing business over the phone, with customers rarely directly interacting with a salesperson.
And the digital customer journey has become even less personal. Customers are now used to interacting with products via TV or the internet and doing their own research.
A company must present as much information about its services or products as possible online. Browsing is effortless, so offers need to be highly engaging and eye-catching to hold the customer’s attention. All of this means that the impression you leave online is entirely based on the digital experience you provide for the customers. Customers will go to your competitors if you’re not present or difficult to interact with. The web is your store, and your shelves must give your customers what they want. With good DCX, you’ll grab them and, more importantly, keep them on board.
Things that matter the most
While the entire DCX is essential, the most important for today’s digital customers are fast website load times, exceptional mobile responsiveness, intuitive UX, updated information and price availability, 24/7 customer support, single-click purchase, and good apps.
Digital customer experience (DCX) vs. Customer experience (CX)
The difference between DCX and CX is one of medium and scope. The digital customer experience is part of the overall customer experience, but both go far beyond customer service! They’re both about the experience the customers have on their customer journey. While the customer experience is a sum of all possible interactions the customer has with your company, the digital customer experience plays a crucial role. It focuses solely on the digital customer journey and touchpoints. So, your business might include interactions in a store, on TV, over the phone, etc., but the focus of DCX is entirely on online (digital) interactions.
6 simple yet powerful strategies to improve customer retention
Can you remember the last time you re-engaged with your customers and tried to win them back?
With the transformed digital landscape, digital customer experience is essential to the overall customer experience. It focuses solely on the customer journey’s digital experience and touchpoints. However, as easy and as accessible as it sounds, creating an exceptional digital experience is a hard job. It must be perfectly designed, and it won’t happen by chance.
A company must carefully consider its efforts to create satisfying customer interactions over all digital channels at every step of the customer journey. It is a significant investment in time and resources to create superior UI, UX, and CX. Many companies cannot do this all by themselves, so outsourcing digital customer service is always a good idea. Finding a good partner that provides exceptional DCX services, like Frontlogix, will help you onboard and keep your existing customers, providing everything they want and need in their digital customer experience.
This is the ultimate guide on how to measure and improve CLV, CRR and CCR. Here, you’ll find everything you need to know about the most important customer success metrics and what to do to achieve CX greatness.
This article will teach you how to measure and improve CLV, CRR and CCR, but first – what is Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)? CLV is a metric that represents the total net profit a company is expected to have from a customer over the course of their entire relationship. In simpler terms, CLV is the average amount of money a customer is likely to spend on a company’s products or services during their lifetime.
So basically, the longer customers buy from a company, the bigger their lifetime value. The customers with a high CLV are the ones who make frequent, high-value purchases.
5 reasons why Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is important
CLV is a key measure for determining a customer’s long-term worth. Calculating Customer Lifetime Value will indicate how much revenue they are likely to generate over their lifetime. You can then use this data to determine how much you should invest in customer acquisition and retention.
Still not convinced? Here are the top 5 reasons why to measure CLV:
Knowing your customers’ CLV helps you discover which customer segments are the most valuable and spend your marketing and sales resources accordingly.
If you know the CLV of different customer segments, you can make more informed decisions about budget allocation. For example, if you know that acquiring a new customer is more expensive than retaining an existing one, you may naturally choose to invest more in customer retention programs.
Once you measure customers’ CLV acquired through different channels, you can make calculated decisions about which customer acquisition channels to focus on.
CLV offers insight into a customer’s long-term value, which can drive strategic decisions about product development, expansion, and revenue projection.
Knowing customer CLV means knowing who your most profitable customers are. With that information in your pocket, you can focus on retaining them and providing an exceptional customer experience.
How to measure Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) ‒ 5 step formula
So, at this point, you are wondering how to measure and improve CLV, CRR and CCR. According to research, just 42% of businesses can effectively measure their CLV. Follow this 5-step formula to successfully calculate CLV:
First calculate the Average Purchase Frequency Rate (APFR) ‒ the number of times a customer makes a purchase over a specific period of time.
Then calculate the Average Purchase Value (APV) ‒ the average amount of money spent by a customer during a single purchase.
Having the APFR and APV, you can now calculate the Customer Value (CV) ‒ the overall value that a customer brings to your business over a specific period of time.
Then calculate the Average Customer Lifespan (ACL) ‒ the average number of years a customer continues purchasing from your company.
And finally, you can now calculate the Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).
How to improve Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) in 8 ways
Offer personalized incentives, such as discounts or rewards based on customer behavior or purchase history.
Use customer data to make personalized product recommendations. 75% of consumers are more likely to buy following personalized recommendations.
Personalize your marketing. More than 70% of consumers respond to marketing only when it’s customized to their interest, with around 75% of them being outright frustrated by generic adverts.
Send emails with personalized subject lines. They are 50% more likely to be opened.
Create customized landing pages for different customer segments or for specific campaigns.
Personalize the communication by using the customer’s name, location, and other personal information.
Use A/B testing to test different personalized messages and offers to see which ones perform best with different customer segments.
2. Active listening
63% of consumers expect businesses to recognize their individual needs and expectations.
Evaluate your customer’s needs through surveys such as the NPS (Net Promoter Score), CSAT (Customer Satisfaction), and CES (Customer Effort Score). These will help you understand how customers perceive your brand and identify areas for development:
You may find information and formulas for measuring NPS, CSAT, and CES in the Measuring Customer Experience article.
Make the most of your data by offering optional short comments on the rating.Allow consumers to explain their ratings and make suggestions on how to improve your customer service.Customers will appreciate the effort and remain loyal to your business if you ask for feedback and act on it.
3. Monitor and analyze customer data
Use data and analytics to understand customer behavior, preferences, and spending patterns. This can help you identify opportunities for improvement and make more informed decisions about how to increase CLV.
4. Omnichannel personalization
From personalized marketing to personalized support, the omnichannel approach can greatly improve CLV. Delivering a consistent and seamless experience across all channels makes it easy for customers to receive the support they need, reducing customer effort and boosting their satisfaction.
Omnichannel integration will give your business a complete view of customer interactions and purchase history, helping you identify opportunities for personalized marketing, cross-selling and upselling.
Your most loyal customers are your greatest brand advocates. Use customer data to create personalized offers or discounts that are tailored to their interests and purchasing habits.
Reward loyalty through discounts, freebies, or exclusive offers for frequent purchases. Give your loyal customers special access to events, sales, or early access to new products. Recognize their loyalty publicly on social media.
The key is understanding your customers’ value and creating a loyalty program that aligns with their needs and preferences.
6. Increase the frequency of communication
Regularly communicate with your customers about new products, services, and promotions. This will help to keep your business top of mind and increase the likelihood that customers will return.
7. Increase customer spending
Encourage customers to purchase more often and to purchase higher-priced items through upselling and cross-selling by offering incentives for larger purchases. Create product bundles and packages that make it easy for customers to purchase multiple products or services at once. For example, a customer buying a new laptop may also be encouraged to purchase a laptop bag, a warranty, and a mouse.
Always keep in mind the golden rule of upselling: customers should feel that the recommendations are tailored to them and not just a sales pitch.
8. Increase customer referral
Encourage happy clients to refer you to their friends and family. Referral schemes and incentives can help with this. Offering a referral program increases your CLV while also exposing you to new potential consumers, who can later be turned into loyal clients. Customers who have been referred have a 16% greater lifetime value and 18% lower turnover. In addition, 81% of consumers trust suggestions from people they know, and 55% discuss their new purchases on social media.
What is Customer Retention Rate (CRR)
The Customer Retention Rate (CRR) is a metric that calculates the percentage of customers who continue to do business with a company over time.
Customer retention refers to the process of keeping customers. It can be used to uncover trends and patterns in consumer behavior and is used to track how successfully a company retains its customers.
12 reasons why Customer Retention Rate (CRR) is important
Calculating CRR will help you understand how many customers continue doing business with you. Read on to find out why client retention is crucial for the success of your business:
Acquiring new customers involves marketing and advertising costs, which is why it is 5 to 25 times more expensive than keeping existing ones.
The likelihood of selling to an existing customer is 60-70%, as opposed to 5-20% to a new customer.
Existing customers spend 31% more.
Existing customers are 50% more inclined to try new products.
Even a 5% improvement in client retention improves profitability by 25-95%.
Existing customers contribute to word-of-mouth marketing.
Existing customers are five times more likely to purchase and four times more likely to refer than new visitors.
Long-standing relationships make for easier data-gathering about customer behavior. This helps development, marketing, and sales efforts.
CRR helps identify issues, suggestions, and opportunities to increase customer loyalty and retention.
CRR provides insights into how many users value your product over time.
Enables targeting ideal customers.
New customers come and go, but an established customer base can provide a more stable source of revenue.
Despite this, 44% of businesses prioritize client acquisition versus 18% that favor retention.
How to measure Customer Retention Rate (CRR) ‒ 3 formulas
CRR formula #1
Add the total number of customers at the end of the month, subtract the number of new customers added during the month, and divide by the total number of customers at the start.
It looks like this:
For example, if you have 1000 customers at the end of the month, started the month with 1100, and added 50 customers, you could calculate retention as follows: [(1000 – 50) / 1100] * 100 = 99%
CRR formula #2
Subtract the number of customers who churn over time from those who remain loyal: 90% retention – 10% churn = 80% retention rate
CRR formula #3
Consider how many customers remain loyal for one period of time versus another. % of loyal customers in period one / % of loyal customers in period two = retention rate
How to improveCustomer Retention Rate (CRR)
Customer Retention Rate and Customer Lifetime Value are strongly linked. In other words, they are both a result of a successful and profitable relationship with your customers.
The higher the CLV, the higher the CRR is likely to be. If you take the initiative to raise your Customers’ Lifetime Value, retention will most likely follow suit. This is not pure cause-and-effect, but the two values are both driven by the exact origin: customer satisfaction.
As a result, to increase the CRR, follow the above 8 steps for improving Customer Lifetime Value.
What is Customer Churn Rate (CCR)
Customer Churn Rate, or Customer Attrition Rate, is the percentage of customers that stop doing business with your company.
In a subscription model, it is the percentage of subscribers who cancel their subscriptions within a given time period.
6 reasons why Customer Churn Rate (CCR) is important
A high percentage of customer churn is a red flag for businesses as it suggests that they are losing clients at an alarming rate, and there must be a reason behind it.
Regularly measuring your CCR rate will allow you to react to negative trends and prevent other customers from leaving.
32%of customers would stop doing business with a brand or company they’d previously loved after just one negative experience.
Getting new customers ‒ or winning over churned ones ‒ is far more expensive than keeping existing ones. In particular, between 4 and 10 times more.
The lower the churn rate, the larger the number of loyal customers.
CCR measures the impact of various products/services/projects or company initiatives.
CCR determines the company’s progress and provides benchmarks to measure against.
Some industries are more affected by churn than others: in the United States, online retail has a churn rate of about 22%. However, SaaS companies aim for a yearly 5% or less churn rate.
How to measure Customer Churn Rate (CCR) ‒ 2 formulas
CCR formula #1
First define a specific period to calculate your churn rate.
Then divide the number of customers who churned by the total number of customers you had at the start of the time period.
The formula is: CCR = total number of customers lost divided by total customers started with.
So, if you started with 200 customers and lost 20, your churn rate would be 10%. That is, only 10% of your customers churned during that period. The formula would be as follows: (20/200)x100 = 10
CCR formula #2
Another possible way to calculate the churn rate is to do a reverse sum of the retention rate. Churn Rate = % lost customers in period X / % lost customers in period Y
How to improve Customer Churn Rate (CCR) in 6 steps
Aside from following the eight steps to boost CLV and CRR ‒ which will also positively influence the CCR rate ‒ there are other measures to take to avoid a high customer churn rate (CCR):
1. Identify customers at risk of churning
Use data analytics to identify customers at risk of churning and reach out to them ahead of time to address any difficulties or concerns they may have.
2. Investigate why customers are leaving
Determine why customers are leaving through surveys, calls, focus groups, or other feedback channels. Then take steps to solve the core problems.
3. Provide incentives
Offer incentives for staying, such as loyalty programs, exclusive deals, or other perks.
4. Work on improvement
Continuously work on improving the quality and features of your product or service. The needs of your customers are constantly evolving, and so should you.
5. Be proactive
Monitor customer engagement and be ready to address any concerns that may arise. Be proactive in finding and solving potential issues.
6. Invest in retention marketing
Use targeted marketing efforts to retain existing customers, and make sure they are aware of the value they are receiving from your company.
There are many metrics for measuring the customer experience, but should you track all of them? Well, the answer is no. BUT, you should carefully review your business goals, set the indicators relevant to your business, and measure those. Before you send out surveys and ask for customer feedback, you should know precisely how to measure and improve CLV CRR and CCR.
However, we think it’s important to understand the appropriate customer experience metrics for your company’s growth. Moreover, it’s important to know how to measure and improve CLV, CRR and CCR. But, if you have difficulty identifying, tracking, and measuring all those metrics, you can always reach out to us. FrontLogix provides strategies for improving your overall customer experience and improving the CLV, CRR, CCR, and other important KPIs.
6 simple yet powerful strategies to improve customer retention
Can you remember the last time you re-engaged with your customers and tried to win them back?
Providing a positive customer experience is critical to keeping your customers happy and satisfied. They’ll stay longer, and you’ll have better business results. As a result, investing time and money in measuring customer experience metrics is essential. These metrics will not only help you understand how simple your customers find it to use your product or service, but they will also provide you with actionable insights into improving many aspects of your business. This can significantly impact your company by lowering churn or increasing retention.
Simultaneously, these metrics can help you see where your CX team excels and where they can improve. Collecting and analyzing these metrics can also improve your products, services, and procedures. The better you understand how your customers use your offer, the more enjoyable you can make the entire CX for them. Finally, we hope this article helped you learn how to measure and improve CLV, CRR and CCR and you’ll finally reach the success you long for!
This guide explains how to measure Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty using KPIs such as NPS, CSAT, and CES.
Knowing how to measure customer satisfaction and loyalty metrics is the most critical factor in making your customers happy and keeping them coming back.
The good news is that measuring these is pretty straightforward. There are three key metrics you should know about: NPS, CSAT, and CES.
NPS tracks your customers’ loyalty over time. CSAT helps you understand how satisfied customers are after those special moments in their journey with you, and CES lets you know how easy it is for customers to get the answers they need.
With data gathered from all three metrics, you’ll have a complete picture of how you’re serving your customers ‒ and where there is room for improvement.
One way to measure customer satisfaction and loyalty is by calculating the Net Promoter Score. NPS measures the likelihood of your customers recommending your product or service to their friends. It is the most widely used CX metric, with nearly two-thirds of businesses using it. Why is it so popular?
NPS is a powerful metric for measuring customer loyalty with just two questions. It is short and simple for companies to implement and track and for customers to answer. The first question is some variation of: How likely are you to recommend [product or service] to others? And the second question is: What is the reason for the score?
Why use NPS?
It’s quick, simple, and easy for both companies and customers
It calculates how loyal your customers are likely to be
It shows the big picture
It’s an industry-standard metric: it is widely and well understood, and there are available benchmarks
An increase or decrease in NPS helps forecast future revenue gains or losses
It’s also used to evaluate word-of-mouth marketing campaigns
How to calculate NPS
Calculating NPS is quite simple:
Send an email or a store survey with only two questions
Have a scale from 1 to 10 for the customers to rate
Sort the respondents into three groups: Detractors, Neutrals/Passives, and Promoters
Those who answered 1–6 are Detractors, 7–8 are Neutrals/Passives
Sort the respondents into three groups: Detractors, Neutrals/Passives, and those who answered 9-10 are Promoters.
Subtract the total number of detractors from the total number of promoters. The formula is: NPS = % Promoters – % Detractors If the results show that 70% of your customers are promoters and 10% are detractors, your NPS score will be 60%.
What is Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
CSAT, along with NPS, is one of the most commonly used CX metrics. It comes in various shapes and sizes, but the most common is using a 1 to 5 scale. An excellent example of CSAT is Google or Facebook ratings. CSAT is a perfect tool for determining whether a customer is satisfied with a one-time interaction. CSAT is also easily adaptable to any specific needs of an organization.
Why use CSAT?
CSAT is simple and efficient to implement
Customers’ responses are typically straightforward and quick
It’s targeted, and responses help determine which aspects of the product/service customers are most satisfied with or dissatisfied with
It can be tailored to any specific area or need
It is frequently requested of a customer following a transaction or support ticket to assess the efficiency of the customer service department
CSAT is an excellent way to learn what customers think of a brand at the moment
How to measure and calculate CSAT?
Send a short survey immediately after customers’ interaction with your brand or their interaction with a specific area of your service or product
Usually, the survey contains only one question: “How satisfied were you with your experience/our product/service today?”
Provide a scaling system (on a scale of 1-5 or 1-10) from very satisfied to very dissatisfied
Calculating the CSAT can be done differently, depending on what works best for the business.
Use Happy-Neutral-Unhappy Ratings
Use 5-star ratings
Use one of the Two different formulas:
With these formulas, you can:
Take an average of all the results. In this case, the CSAT formula is to add all scores and divide the total by the number of respondents. Then, multiply the result by 10 to get the CSAT score %.
To calculate an average customer satisfaction score, take the number of “Very Satisfied/Satisfied” responses, divide by the total number of respondents, and multiply by 100.
Here are examples for both:
Your CSAT survey had 20 respondents. If the total of their scores is 100, you have a 50% CSAT score.
If you had 20 respondents and ten said “Very Satisfied/Satisfied,” the CSAT score would be 50%. (0,5 times 100).
6 simple yet powerful strategies to improve customer retention
Can you remember the last time you re-engaged with your customers and tried to win them back?
CES analyzes the amount of time and number of steps taken before the customer reaches an answer or solution. Lower effort means a higher level of client satisfaction with the service. It is the third most popular customer experience metric that involves the customer’s input.
The more accessible (and more effortless) you make the customer experience, the more likely your customers will buy from you again.
According to research, 94% of customers who had an easy experience are more likely to buy again. Also, 81% of the customers who felt like buying was too much effort are more likely to share their negative experiences, compared to 1% of those who had an easy time.
The CES is typically calculated by asking customers, “How easy was it to solve your problem today?” on a scale of 1 to 5 or 1 to 7.
Why use CES?
CES is simple and efficient to implement
It assists you in analyzing the product/service’s complexity
It evaluates the ability to improve usability. Furthermore, reducing effort may increase customer loyalty. As a result, CES may be the best metric for predicting loyalty
How to measure and calculate CES?
Send the survey immediately after the customer interaction. Ask your customers to rate the interaction from low to high in the survey. To calculate the score, see the average and distribution of scores.
The formula is: CES = Sum of all customer efforts score / Total number of responses.
Key Takeaways
We’ve covered the three most popular metrics on how to measure customer satisfaction and loyalty: Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), and Customer Effort Score (CES). These metrics will provide you with important insights on how to enhance various elements of your business and will give you a sense of how easy your customers find it to use your product or service. This can result in satisfied consumers who stick around longer and spread positive word-of-mouth marketing.
If you have difficulty identifying, tracking, and measuring Customer Experience metrics, you can always reach out to us. FrontLogix provides strategies for improving your overall customer experience and improving the NPS, CSAT, and CES scores.
This is a super-comprehensive guide on how to measure the Customer Journey as a whole, by phases, and by specific touchpoints.
By measuring the Customer Journey, you can get actionable insights into your customers’ motives, emotions, and behavior. This can reveal areas where customers may be dropping off or facing friction, allowing you to then use that knowledge and improve your Customer Experience.
The Customer Journey can be analyzed in a variety of ways, including measuring the entire journey as a whole or breaking it down into individual stages and touchpoints.
What is the difference between Customer Journey and Customer Experience?
The Customer Journey is the process a customer goes through when engaging with a brand to purchase its product or service. It covers the specific progression of the customer across every touchpoint, starting from when they first discover the brand (awareness stage), to the final purchase and turning into a brand advocate.
Consumer Experience, on the other hand, refers to a customer’s overall impression of a brand based on interactions throughout the customer journey, including aspects such as product quality, customer service, and any other factors that influence their opinion.
The Customer Journey plays a great part in the overall Customer Experience. CX is, however, more holistic and includes a wider range of factors than just the Customer Journey.
What gets measured, gets done.
Why measure Customer Journey?
Measuring the Customer Journey will help you understand how you are seen by your customers. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are a great way to track and measure CX, but understanding WHICH ones to measure, WHEN measurements should be taken, and HOW to interpret the results can be tricky.
To start measuring your Customer Journey, you need a plan. You could measure the journey as a whole, measure the stages of the journey, or measure individual touchpoints.
But first, it would be helpful to have a Customer Journey map. This map will identify all the journey phases and touchpoints for a more straightforward measurement.
What is a Customer Journey Map?
A Customer Journey Map is a visual storyline of the Customer Journey. It depicts the individual touchpoints and steps a customer goes through while engaging with a brand ‒ from customers’ initial awareness of the product or service to post-purchase review.
Its purpose is to help businesses better understand the customer experience, identify pain points and areas for improvement, and align business goals with customer requirements and expectations.
How to measure the Customer Journey as a whole
Measuring the customer journey means measuring customer success during all phases and via all journey touchpoints. The essential metrics for overall success are:
Net Promoter Score (NPS): Measures customer loyalty and advocacy, or how many of your customers are likely to recommend your products/services to a friend. This is usually done on a scale of 1 to 10. It can help you understand how the overall experience works in the journey, including customer sentiment towards products, pricing, onboarding, retail experience, marketing, touchpoints, brand, and customer service.
Customer Satisfaction (CSAT): Determines how satisfied your customers are with your products/services and the customer experience you provide. This measures how happy or unhappy they are with an overall product/service or specific features (for example, returning a product).
Customer Effort Score (CES): Measures the effort customers require to achieve what they want, including placing an order, getting a question answered, resolving an issue, or returning a product. Usually, the higher the customer effort, the lower the customer loyalty.
How to measure Customer Journey by phases
Measuring customer journey phases means measuring each stage your customers will go into when becoming part of your journey.
There are 5 most common customer journey phases (for both SaaS and B2B).
Are your customers aware of your brand, products/services, and features?
The essential metrics to measure in this phase are:
Share of Voice (SOV) in the market: Measures your brand’s market share compared to your competitors. SOV measures your brand’s visibility and how much you control the conversation within your industry.
Website visits/website users: Measures the number of visits or users created on your website over time.
2nd phase: Consideration or Onboarding
Are customers looking for your brand when they want to buy the type of product/service you offer?
The essential metrics to measure in this phase are:
Organic keyword traffic: Measures the volume of a keyword used in search engines to attract free website traffic over time.
Direct website traffic: Measures the volume of visitors that arrive at your website directly, without first clicking on a link on another website.
Monthly Active Users (MAU): Measures how many users actively engage with your product or service over a specific time. In this case, the number of active users in a month.
Store visits (if physical store available): Provides the number of people who have visited your physical store over time.
3rd phase: Purchase or Adoption
Are customers completing their purchases once they begin the purchasing process?
The essential metrics to measure in this phase are:
Abandoned cart rate: Determines the total number of completed purchases divided by the number of carts created.
Store visits vs. Purchases (if physical store available): Measures how many people have visited your store and purchased a product/service you are selling.
4th phase: Retention or Renewal
Do your customers return to your brand for a second purchase after the initial one?
The essential metrics to measure in this phase are:
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Determines the total value of a customer to a company throughout their relationship.
Customer Retention Rate: Measures the number of customers who return to your business or continue to pay for your product/services after a certain period.
Customer Churn Rate: Measures how many customers have left your company over time or are no longer paying for your product/services.
Customer service ticket volume: Measures the number of tickets customers submit over a period of time.
The number of return visitors: Measures the number of customers that return for a possible second or third purchase after their initial one or after they have visited your store within a determined time frame.
5th phase: Loyalty or Advocacy
How likely is it for your customers to recommend your brand after shopping with you?
The essential metrics to measure in this phase are:
Customer Referral Rate: Measures how many people refer and recommend your brand to their friends or colleagues. It is the ratio between referred purchases and total purchases.
Net Promoter Score (NPS): Measures the likelihood of your customers recommending your product/service to others.
Sentiment via social listening: Measures what is being said about your brand on social networks and if it is negative, positive, or neutral.
How to measure Customer Journey specific touchpoints
Measuring specific Customer Journey touchpoints means defining all possible touchpoints (how customers act with your brand) and setting specific measures to see how each touchpoint performs.
Here are some examples:
Example #1: Digital touchpoint metrics (in case of an online store or web-based service placement):
Chat/call/ticket volume: Measures the number of chats, calls, or tickets received over a certain time period. This shows precisely how many of your customers need help.
First contact resolution: Measures how many of your customers resolved their problems in a single interaction.
Average resolution time: Measures how long it takes to resolve a customer’s problem, on average.
Average response time: Measures how long it takes for the customer experience rep (CXR) to respond to a customer query.
The number of tickets reopened: Measures the number of tickets reopened over a specific period because the customer was dissatisfied with the initial support and must return for the correct solution.
Average handle time (AHT): measures the total amount of time spent in conversation with each customer by each contact center agent – including hold time and time spent completing forms or other tasks as a result of the conversation – and the length of the conversation itself.
Customer satisfaction survey: Determines how satisfied your customers are with your customer support, services, or products.
Frequency of up-sells & cross-sells: The number and frequency of up-sells/cross-sells made.
Example #2: Physical touchpoint metrics (in the case of a retail store):
Store visits vs. number of purchases
Total order value/cart size
Overall sales in retail
The number of queries for the staff
Overall cross-sell & up-sell
6 simple yet powerful strategies to improve customer retention
Can you remember the last time you re-engaged with your customers and tried to win them back?
Measuring your customer experience is more than necessary. It’s crucial. There are so many factors to consider and so many metrics to follow. Those metrics will tell you different aspects of your customer’s journey with your brand.
If you have difficulty identifying, tracking, and measuring all those metrics, you can always reach out to us. FrontLogix provides strategies for improving your overall Customer Experience and KPIs.
If you’ve read previous entries of this blog, you already know the importance of exceptional Customer Experience and its impact on business growth. But reaching Next-Gen Customer Experience is not an easy job! This guide reveals what to do to improve your customer experience.
It’s all about the people
No matter what the tech companies say about chatbots and AI, you still have to have the right people! No software will help customers as much as talking to a real human will. So, to improve Customer Experience, you need to have a dedicated team of Customer Experience Representatives (CXRs) who will always be there to take proper care of your customers.
This team of skillful, knowledgeable, resourceful, creative, educated, well-trained, and helpful people will be accessible whenever your potential or existing customers need them. They’ll listen to your customers, understand their questions, and keep them happy. Your team needs to prioritize learning everything about your business, its products, competition, strengths, and weaknesses, and knowing how to provide solutions best to help your business grow.
Customers hate being on hold, no matter how nice the music is. A report by TalkTo shows that customers spend, on average, 43 days of their lifetime being on hold, which is equivalent to 13 hours per year. That is 43 days (and nights!) that one can spend doing something – less frustrating.
Reduce call wait times and improve the scheduling and coverage of your contact center. Have flexible support personnel available during peak times. Add extra call queue settings like Queue Call Back, which provides callers with a call-back service as soon as possible. The queue to Voicemail, which allows callers to leave a message rather than wait in line, and Queue Size Limit, which sends callers directly to voicemail when the maximum queue limit has been reached.
Your customers just want their questions answered or their issues resolved. Not in minutes, seconds. And at any time, day or night. So, no matter the time zone, business hours, or communications channels – You. Have. To. Be. There.
The Omnichannel experience
The omnichannel experience combines interactions from several channels into a single, seamless experience. As a result, if a customer abandons an item in their shopping cart on one platform, they will see an advertisement for the identical item on another. This ensures a personalized customer experience, which leads to improved conversion rates, more sales, and increased customer loyalty.
Furthermore, omnichannel support links to every customer service channel. As a result, data is centralized, and customer effort and time are reduced across all interactions. Customers can carry on a conversation with customer care from chat to email, an app to phone call, without having to describe their problem from the beginning.
That’s exactly what customers expect from brands—seamless communication and exceptional care.
Delivering the omnichannel experience is challenging but will improve your customer experience and business growth. Make sure you put effort into everything you do.
Seven tips on how to improve the Omnichannel experience
1. Mobile-Friendly
Aside from being informative, stable, and speedy, it is critical that your website be mobile-friendly, given that over 63% of Google queries are mobile-related. There are two ways to optimize the website for mobile devices. The first is through a responsive web design, and the second is a “mobile-first” approach.
A responsive web design automatically resizes the elements in the website to make it look good on all devices. Mobile-first refers to initially developing a website for the more restricted mobile phone version and then expanding its functionality to build a tablet or desktop version.
While responsive website resizes – but keeps – all the content to make it physically possible to read, mobile-first websites have proactive changes in the overall design. Mobile-first design reduces bulky content and considers factors such as white space, font size, and load time, resulting in a better overall user experience.
When designing the mobile version of the website, avoid including too many animations and other elements, as these will make loading the page’s content more challenging. Remember that visitors will leave your website if pages don’t load quickly enough.
Thanks to a mobile-friendly website, anyone who attempts to access your website on a mobile device will have a positive experience, encouraging people to view you as a reliable source of information, goods, and services.
2. Live chat support
Many of us fret about making phone calls and choose to message instead. At the same time, we seek immediate solutions. With live chat, you give your customers a method for immediate contact and fast problem resolution.
In an ongoing chat, agents can evaluate the customer’s tone and create rapport by mimicking style or changing formality to match the customer’s. Aside from providing a more genuine method to demonstrate your agents’ personality, chat tools facilitate query resolution by allowing the agent to share a screen with the customer or provide links and screenshots.
Even if your customers don’t need to talk immediately, being ready to assist them creates trust.
Have a chat prepared with quick and instant replies, or for connecting with a CXR. Live chats are an excellent tool for immediate response and an appropriate bridge for linking with a CXR.
3. Social support
According to Statista, the average daily social media usage of internet users globally was 147 minutes per day in 2022, with 86% of users following a brand on social media and 25.1% doing so to communicate with them, according to a report from Sprout Social.
Whether the experience was pleasant or negative, many customers use social media to share their thoughts and communicate with brands. Social media is a wealth of opportunity for developing a meaningful relationship with your target audience.
Customers need to find you via social media. If you have the proper communication and support on social, it will massively add to your CX equation.
4. Self-service solutions
While some customers may contact you for an immediate answer, some customers would rather self-serve to find a solution by reading a FAQ or watching a video. In fact, more than 60% of consumers prefer digital self-service over alternative service choices. The reality is that customer self-service, in actuality, serves a distinct need; it delivers faster fulfillment.
Apart from contributing to improved customer experience, self-service reduces costs by allowing you to assist a huge number of consumers simultaneously. It also improves customer service by decreasing duplicate requests in your queue, making support work pleasurable, and contributing to more engaged and happier agents.
Bear in mind that not all self-service is effective at assisting consumers. Complicated technology and poorly configured chatbots that make it challenging to find a quick answer keep customers in endless loops can only add to customer frustration.
Good self-service provides flexible automation features, FAQ knowledge base, video tutorials and product training, and chatbot escalation options.
When effectively implemented, good self-service solutions increase business productivity while decreasing customer-service expenses.
5. Email support:
Customers prefer to communicate via email since it leaves a solid paper trail, is easier to track and preserve, and is essential for some more official exchanges.
Have an email dedicated to your customer’s queries, and check it frequently. Reply to their emails immediately, and provide solutions right into their mailboxes.
Email support is excellent for lengthy discussions and sending large files. It also comes in handy for boosting sales. The advantage of using mail is that it allows you to incorporate promotional materials and recommendations while replying to consumer inquiries. Email is an efficient, quick, low-cost communication and marketing tool that adds to the funnel.
6. Phone & SMS support
Phone support – the essence of customer service – is still the preferred method for customer issue resolution. In an age of automation and device-mediated interactions, phone assistance gives your business a human and personalized touch.
As the human voice has a significantly stronger influence on the brain than written text, phone support allows you to make a pleasant and lasting impression on customers. The phone is still the number one contact method when customer experience complicated issues.
Always have a dedicated support number available for your customers. A line that they’ll be able to reach at any time. And if they prefer to text instead of call, give them that too. They will appreciate the effort.
7. In-app support
Finally, have a prepared solution for all your customers who don’t text or call and don’t prefer email or live chat. Find out the channel or the app they use and be there. Customers who are used to communicating via messaging apps will find in-app assistance a familiar experience. Provide support via Messenger, WhatsApp, and any other platform your customers use and find valuable. Adjust to their communication habits and show up in the right places. You will not believe the satisfaction you’ll get with such a simple step.
Customers will have all sorts of questions. While you can’t predict everyone, you can foresee how customers will try and get in touch to ask them. Make sure you make it easy to contact you in the ways they prefer. They need to feel appreciated and heard because served customers are satisfied customers!
We at FrontLogix firmly believe in this cycle. Every situation has a solution, and we are here to provide one. Get a quote today.
6 simple yet powerful strategies to improve customer retention
Can you remember the last time you re-engaged with your customers and tried to win them back?
Good Customer Experience and customer satisfaction go hand in hand. The better the Customer Experience, the higher the customer satisfaction. Therefore, companies focused on providing seamless, outstanding, and consistent Customer Experience across all customer journey touchpoints are more likely to increase overall customer satisfaction. And what does it mean to have satisfied customers? It means they will buy more!
2. CX enhances customer retention
Getting new customers is hard. But keeping customers and persuading them to come back is even more challenging. This challenge is called customer retention.
Retaining a customer means that your company’s brand, product, or service is more valuable than your competitors’. This is precisely why customer retention is a critical key performance indicator (KPI) to be tracked, observed, and improved over time. An excellent Customer Experience shows your buyers how valuable they are, which helps retain them and drives business growth. If you want to learn more about how CX enhances customer retention, download our guide.
3. CX improves Customer Lifetime Value
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is one of the most important metrics for a company. Essentially, CLV measures the total income a company may expect from a typical customer as long as they remain on board.
And how do you keep them on board? By keeping them happy, valued, and heard by providing an outstanding Customer Experience. Improved CLV also means improving customer retention and avoiding customer attrition (churn). It drives repeat buys and encourages high-value sales, increasing profitability and growth.
4. CX reduces customer churn
Customer churn is inevitable. At some point, your buyers will stop using certain products or services. And there can be many reasons for this, like fierce competition, price, product quality, and most pertinent to this post, poor support and customer service.
More than 80% of customers are likely to churn if not given a good CX. While you may be unable to control what your competitors are doing, you have complete control over how your customers are treated. Lowering churn is the same as increasing revenue.
5. CX improves CSAT scores
CSAT is one of the most important KPIs for you to watch. Short for Customer Satisfaction Score, CSAT determines if a customer believes a company’s products or services have met their expectations.
And how do you improve that percentage? By making more of your customers happy and satisfied. You can do this by improving the Customer Experience through care and support of customer needs.
6. CX boosts sales
Great CX and improved sales are linked. Delighting your customers during their journey results in higher sales and more revenue.
The cycle is quite simple. Customers that feel heard, understood, and valued will be happy. Happy customers will always ask for more and, even better, will spread the word to new customers.
7. CX increases brand loyalty
We would argue that brand loyalty is among the most important (and hardest to achieve) aspects of your business. Why? It reflects the image your customers have of your business. It’s the reason they have chosen you in the first place and why they’ve stayed with you.
Loyal customers are the ones who keep purchasing. Loyal customers are repeat customers, even when the competition offers something cheaper or better.
Loyalty is gained through amazing CX. Personal communication, dedicated onboarding, assistance during purchase, post-purchase care, and attention make your customers feel like they belong.
Once you have all those happy, loyal, returning customers – you have your brand advocates! Satisfied customers stand behind their brand of choice, refer it to others, and recommend it constantly. And not surprisingly, most of the customers recommend a brand based on their Customer Experience.
Word of mouth is one of the most trustworthy kinds of advertising. To be precise, 92% trust the word-of-mouth recommendations. So, by having an exceptional CX, you’ll quickly gain the promoters that will bring you the growth you want and need.
9. CX creates a competitive advantage
You can have an advantage in many business areas and stand out from your competitors. Providing a superior CX is one of the most critical competitive advantages. Customers care that you care. To show you value your customers more than the competitors do is something every company is now fighting for.
6 simple yet powerful strategies to improve customer retention
Can you remember the last time you re-engaged with your customers and tried to win them back?
Business growth comes from various areas. But Customer Experience is always at the core of it.
Outstanding Customer Experience will help you attract customers, introduce them to your brand, hook them, and keep them in your ecosystem.
Satisfied customers will become your advocates, make you stand taller than the competition, and help your business grow. So it’s not a question of whether Customer Experience supports business growth.
The biggest question is: When will you start improving your Customer Experience and, more importantly, how?
Everybody is talking about customer experience nowadays, but what is CX, and why is it so important?
The customer’s interactions with your company, brand, product, or service are known as the customer journey. How they feel about all those interactions is Customer Experience. As the customer moves from discovering the brand and receiving information about products or services, pricing models, and purchasing options to post-purchase handling, troubleshooting, and support, it shapes the Customer Experience. Whether their interactions are offline (in a physical store) or online (e-commerce or social media, email, etc.), doesn’t matter.
Customer Experience = Brand Experience.
Each brand is unique, as is every single one of its customers. Therefore, today it’s all about knowing your customers, asking them the right questions, listening to their responses, and acting on their feedback. All of this adds up to a fantastic Customer Experience. Making your customers feel heard is the key to success, as healthy customer relationships create stable and long-lasting businesses. Excellent customer experience improves Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), customer retention, and CSAT score, increasing loyalty and brand advocacy. And this is precisely why Customer Experience is so important.
The power is in the customers, not in the brands.
If you and your company fail to meet a customer’s need – you’re doomed. They sit on the throne today. Customers have the power to shape how business is done like never before. Because at the end of the day, every business exists to serve its customers.
Customer Experience has become a top priority for almost every company today. If you want your brand to remain in good standing in the eyes of your customers, you ought to thoroughly evaluate CX. If your customers like your brand and the experience, they WILL tell people. They will share on social media, spread word of mouth, review, refer and bring new customers in. BUT they will do the same if they’re unsatisfied. Likely even louder and more aggressively. Few forces in nature equal an unsatisfied customer.
The shift from a profit-centric to a customer-centric business model
As Customer Experience has become a real game-changer, businesses have become obsessed with delivering mind-blowing customer experiences. The latest trends show a shift from a profit-centric to a customer-centric business model. However, building a customer-centric business and excellent Customer Experience requires company-wide commitment and trustworthy partners. Many times this is easier said than done. And as much as companies want to make this shift, many fail to deliver. [Read more about] Customer Experience: What to do better
6 simple yet powerful strategies to improve customer retention
Can you remember the last time you re-engaged with your customers and tried to win them back?
Today, an average customer uses at least three devices for communication. In their ideal world, they want a seamless transition from tablet to smartphone to desktop to person. This should be the foundation for Next-Generation Customer Experience. But all of this is an exhausting and overwhelming process, and not all companies can do it well. Especially when “well” is not good enough anymore. CX needs to be amazing! That’s why many businesses decide to outsource Customer Experience to BPO providers and contact centers. By outsourcing CX, you ensure your customers are handled professionally and promptly. Create satisfied customers, keep them coming back, and elevate your brand to another level.
Frontlogix takes your success and customers seriously. We provide dedicated CX and many other outsourced business solutions. Contact us today.
Does the size of Contact Center Business Process Outsourcing providers really matter?
Well, this can be quite a difficult question. When choosing a BPO provider, there is a lot to know and be aware of, just like when choosing any other business partner. In this guide, you will learn whether you should go with a mid-sized (or smaller) Contact Center BPO over a larger one, and if and why the BPO’s size matters.
How big is your company and what are your outsourcing needs?
The size of the contact center BPO provider depends on the size of the organization looking for those services. Companies often choose the wrong-sized outsourcing partners as they fail to anticipate their outsourcing needs. If you held a party for 100 people and only planned for 50 you would have a lot of hungry guests and overworked waiters. If you planned for 500, you would have food going to waste and staff being paid to stand around. Either way, your party would be a flop.
It’s more or less the same in Business Process Outsourcing. You need to have a clear idea of the >>what<<, the >>how<< and the >>how much/how many<< so you can successfully choose a BPO partner that will be able to deliver appropriately.
The major decision: bigger or smaller contact center BPO?
There’s one common misconception: the larger the contact center BPO, the better the quality of the service. On the contrary, compared to larger BPO contact centers, mid-sized or even smaller contact center BPOs can provide exceptional and cost-effective services. These smaller players are also more likely to offer tailored, dedicated, and detailed solutions to meet specific requirements. Smaller contact centers usually deliver better outcomes because of the higher levels of staff engagement and offer more customized attention and service to clients.
Excellent service comes from outstanding teamwork
There’s one common misconception: the larger the contact center BPO, the better the quality of the service. On the contrary, compared to larger BPO-contact centers, mid-sized or even smaller BPOs can provide exceptional and cost-effective services. These smaller players are also more likely to offer tailored, dedicated, and detailed solutions to meet specific requirements. Smaller contact centers usually deliver better outcomes because of the higher levels of staff engagement and offer more customized attention and service to clients.
6 simple yet powerful strategies to improve customer retention
Can you remember the last time you re-engaged with your customers and tried to win them back?
Slightly smaller team, but immense customer satisfaction
Customer happiness is, ultimately, the most crucial aspect of your business. To achieve this, you must thoroughly research the BPO pool before choosing one to partner with. At the end of the day, regardless of the size, it must produce satisfactory outcomes and deliver the best solutions.
So, does the size of the Contact-Center BPO provider really matter? It most certainly does! It’s one of the most crucial considerations to make at the start of your BPO partner hunt. You are the only one who can say if “bigger is better” or “less is more” is the right approach for your business.
