In the realm of customer service, contact centers serve as the frontline hubs where businesses interact directly with customers. These interactions present invaluable opportunities not only to resolve issues and address inquiries but also to drive sales.
By infusing sales innovation into contact center operations, businesses can transform these interactions into revenue-generating engines while enhancing customer satisfaction.
In this blog post, we’ll dive deeper into actionable strategies explicitly tailored for contact centers, enabling them to elevate service interactions and drive revenue through sales innovation.
Understanding the Intersection of Contact Centers and Sales Innovation
Contact centers play a pivotal role in shaping customer experiences and perceptions of a brand. Traditionally viewed solely as service hubs, these centers are increasingly recognized as strategic assets for driving sales growth.
Sales innovation within contact centers involves the strategic integration of inventive approaches, technologies, and customer-centric strategies to enhance the selling process during service interactions. By leveraging the inherent customer engagement opportunities within contact center interactions, businesses can unlock new revenue streams while fostering long-term customer loyalty.
9 Key Strategies for Enhancing Contact Center Interactions and Driving Sales Innovation
1. Efficient Workforce management
Implement robust workforce management solutions to optimize agent scheduling, staffing levels, and resource allocation based on anticipated call volumes and sales peaks.
Utilize workforce optimization tools and services to monitor agent performance, identify training needs, and allocate resources effectively to maximize sales opportunities during peak periods.
Foster a supportive work environment that prioritizes employee well-being and engagement, recognizing the critical role of motivated and empowered agents in driving sales innovation within contact center interactions.
2. Comprehensive Training and Empowerment:
Equip contact center agents with comprehensive product knowledge, sales training, and empowerment to make informed decisions during customer interactions.
Provide agents with the autonomy to offer personalized recommendations and upsell/cross-sell relevant products or services based on customer needs.
3. Seamless Integration of CRM and Sales Tools:
Implement Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems integrated with sales tools within contact center platforms to provide agents with real-time access to customer data, purchase history, and preferences.
Utilize predictive analytics to anticipate customer needs and tailor sales pitches accordingly, enhancing the effectiveness of service interactions.
4. Personalized and Proactive Engagement:
Leverage customer data and insights to personalize interactions and anticipate customer needs, enabling agents to offer relevant solutions or products proactively.
Utilize automated outbound calling or messaging campaigns to reach out to customers with targeted promotions or offers, driving sales opportunities.
5. Omnichannel Consistency and Accessibility:
Ensure seamless integration and consistency across all communication channels, including phone, email, chat, and social media, to provide customers with a unified experience.
Enable customers to transition effortlessly between channels during interactions, facilitating continuity and enhancing engagement.
6. Rigorous Quality Assurance Processes:
Implement rigorous quality assurance processes to ensure consistency, compliance, and excellence in customer interactions across all channels.
Utilize call monitoring, speech analytics, and feedback mechanisms to evaluate agent performance, identify areas for improvement, and maintain service quality standards.
Continuously refine sales scripts, training materials, and standard operating procedures based on insights gleaned from quality assurance evaluations, fostering continuous improvement and innovation within contact center interactions.
7. Adopt a Customer-Centric Mindset:
Understand customer pain points, preferences, and behaviors to tailor service interactions accordingly.
Personalize recommendations and solutions based on customer data and insights.
Anticipate needs and proactively offer relevant products or services during interactions.
8. Performance Incentives and Recognition:
Implement performance-based incentives and recognition programs to motivate contact center agents to excel in sales-driven interactions.
Leverage gamification techniques to introduce competitive elements and foster a culture of continuous improvement and achievement.
9. Leveraging Advanced Analytics and AI for Sales Innovation:
These technologies provide deep insights into customer behaviors and preferences, enabling personalized and efficient service delivery.
Advanced analytics can unveil patterns in customer interactions, guiding more effective sales and marketing strategies, while AI tools like chatbots enhance customer engagement and operational efficiency.
Case Studies: Real-World Examples of Sales Innovation in Contact Centers
American Express: Employs predictive analytics and CRM integration within its contact centers to anticipate customer needs and recommend tailored financial products and services, resulting in increased cross-selling opportunities.
TeleTech: Utilizes AI-powered chatbots integrated with CRM systems to provide personalized recommendations and assistance during customer interactions, driving upsell and cross-sell initiatives.
Delta Airlines: Implement proactive outreach campaigns via email and phone to offer customers targeted promotions and upgrades, resulting in enhanced revenue generation and customer loyalty.
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?
Contact centers represent a strategic nexus where service interactions converge with sales opportunities. By embracing sales innovation within contact center operations, businesses can unlock the full potential of these interactions to drive revenue growth while delivering exceptional customer experiences.
Through comprehensive training, seamless integration of CRM and sales tools, personalized engagement, omnichannel consistency, and performance incentives, FrontLogix can evolve your contact center into a dynamic hub of sales excellence, driving sustainable business success in today’s competitive landscape.
In this post, we’ll delve into why some companies still haven’t placed CX at the top of their priorities and provide seven (proven) strategies to improve CX.
But first things first:
What is Customer Experience (CX)
Customer Experience (CX) = customer’s overall perception of a brand.
CX is the sum of all of a customer’s experiences, acquired at each stage of their customer journey – beginning with the identification of a need and ending with choosing a service or product to meet it.
The advancement of digital technologies has had a significant impact on customer expectations. Over the last decade, technology pioneers offering novel services and disruptive solutions have significantly raised the bar for customer expectations. Products are no longer the primary differentiator for today’s customers – the experience a brand provides is. The latest research shows that the perceived quality of the experience is the most critical factor in influencing whether a customer makes a purchase.
As a result, businesses are no longer only competing against other businesses that offer products or services similar to theirs. They also compete with brands that provide exceptional customer experience.
Today’s customers are no longer buying a product or service. They are buying an experience.
Ensuring a positive experience with the business at every stage of the customer journey can drive long-term customer satisfaction, retention, brand loyalty, and advocacy.
And the payoff for great experiences is substantial. According to a PWC study, there is a direct relationship between customer experience and increased revenue. They discovered that customer satisfaction can be quantified, as 86% of buyers claimed they are willing to pay more for valuable experiences, with a price premium of up to 16% on items and services.
Why CX is not a priority for some companies
Given the significant benefits of improved CX, why aren’t more companies putting CX at the top of their priority list?
The answer can be found in one (or all) of the following reasons:
It is costly
They lack the necessary expertise
They lack the necessary technology
They are focusing on their core competencies
These are all fair arguments for putting CX on the back burner, but each of them has one easy and common solution: partner with a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company to manage all of your customer interactions and communications.
Outsourcing to a BPO partner can improve both your bottom line and your CX at the same time. BPOs provide workforce flexibility, cost savings through labor arbitrage, and access to technology otherwise not accessible in-house. Another reason to outsource is that BPO providers often have substantial knowledge and experience in the fields in which they deliver services. They can give a higher level of quality and efficiency than your company could accomplish internally.
FrontLogix is here to help you develop customer loyalty strategies, make the most of your customer data, create new customer experiences, and streamline your business procedures. We provide a next-generation customer experience to strengthen customer relationships and boost Customer Lifetime Value.
Below, we list seven areas of improvement for a better customer experience.
1. Redesigning customer journeys around CX
The customer journey is more than just a sum of individual touchpoints. You won’t reap the full rewards of your development efforts if you concentrate on improving individual interactions. Make sure that you treat the customer experience as a journey spanning several touchpoints and make use of all available channels.
Start by mapping out the journey for each type of customer. Bear in mind that customers will navigate your website for different reasons ‒ some of them will browse your products, while others will want to learn more about what you do or download your assets. Also, different customers prefer different methods of communication. Level up your CX by offering various methods of contact, such as live chat, email, and in-person customer service.
FrontLogix can assist you in improving your customer experiences at each touchpoint by mapping the customer journey, helping you determine your pain points, identifying your ideal customer, and offering preferable solutions.
2. Assessing real CX sentiment by listening and collecting feedback
The second step is to conduct visitor testing on your digital channels and solicit feedback on your customer service. Customer suggestions, ideas, and complaints will help you identify areas for improvement and create better experiences. Surveys like the NPS (Net Promoter Score), CSAT (Customer Satisfaction), and CES (Customer Effort Score) can help you gauge customer satisfaction with your brand. The results of these surveys will demonstrate whether you provide poor, good, or excellent customer service. If you want to improve your CX, you must first understand how well you serve your customers.
FrontLogix provides expert Customer Success Managers (CSMs) to monitor your key success metrics. We will assist you in maintaining your subscriber base, monitoring important customer KPIs, and determining the likelihood of churn. Industry professionals will measure the net promoter score (NPS), customer effort score (CES), and customer satisfaction (CSAT) in addition to other metrics such as platform usage and engagement.
3. Omnichannel Personalization
Omnichannel personalization refers to the integration of marketing, sales, and communication channels into a single customer database. So, when customers interact with a brand on one platform and then choose to continue on another, they will be able to pick up where they left off.
Customers want brands to understand them and provide personalized solutions to their problems. Your customers are now everywhere, thanks to the rapid expansion of available communications channels. However, simply being present on all channels is not enough. To deliver a truly exceptional CX, all of these channels should be integrated and share customer data, allowing marketers to personalize each message, product suggestion, and experience based on the unique profile of each customer.
Here’s where omnichannel personalization comes in.
With omnichannel personalization, customers may browse for an item on an app and finalize the purchase on a desktop computer. And after completing the purchase on the app, they won’t be receiving the same product suggestion when browsing on the website. Subsequently, if a buyer abandons an item in their shopping cart on one platform, they will see an advertisement for the same item on another.
An omnichannel strategy also offers many communication channels, which boosts customer service efficiency. The customer service agent can instantly refer to a customer’s prior purchases and interactions with customer services – reducing customer effort across interactions.
The omnichannel approach also offers additional flexibility. As a result of the back-end integration of channels, customers can seamlessly switch in the middle of an interaction.
What customers want is friction-free communication and personalized solutions, which is exactly what the omnichannel experience offers.
FrontLogix will assist you in achieving seamless omnichannel engagements via voice, text, email, messaging, or video. Our agents are highly trained in multi-channel communication, resulting in faster responses, higher rates of first query resolution, and happier customers.
4. Implementing self-service and AI
While some customers will turn to agent assistance, others prefer the freedom of self-service. Self-service is an approach in which customers access resources to solve problems on their own. Empower them with self-service tools such as FAQ knowledge bases, AI chatbots, how-to video tutorials, and optimized IVR platforms.
Successfully implemented self-service pays for itself twofold. It not only improves the customer experience and satisfaction score, but it also boosts revenue. By enabling your customers to solve their problems, you will considerably minimize customer care call volume and the quantity of support needed.
Keep in mind that not every self-service solution is helpful. Complicated technologies and poorly configured chatbots that trap customers in endless loops can only contribute to increased dissatisfaction. While rule-based chatbots are limited to simple, linear conversations, next-generation AI may gauge the customer’s sentiment and communicate more naturally using Natural Language Processing (NLP). Continue investing in virtual assistance and chatbot technology, and make ongoing improvements to the website’s content findability.
5. Preserving the human touch
When it comes to driving customer happiness (which can lead to more sales and improved loyalty), human connection outperforms operational metrics. In addition, the drive to ruthless operational efficiency has left many organizations vulnerable to customer attrition.
Although chatbots can resolve simple queries in seconds, they lack an agent’s empathy and problem-solving abilities. The ideal CX strikes a fine balance between human and digital.
With AI resolving simple requests, agents are left with more complex issues to handle. That necessitates well-trained and knowledgeable agents, capable of first-call query resolution.
To satisfy the full range of customer expectations, next-generation customer service requires ongoing investments in agent training and technology, as well as a successful marriage of the two.
Digitally powered but personally driven, FrontLogix is a firm believer that humans help humans best. Our educated and highly trained human support professionals are well-equipped with cutting-edge automated solutions to ensure that help is provided quickly, efficiently, and at no additional expense. Get a quote.
6. Offering customer support 24/7
Customers want you to respond to their problems at all hours, including holidays and weekends. Outsourcing work to BPOs in different time zones allows you to be always online, allowing your organization to provide customer support around the clock, 365 days a year.
FrontLogix can coach your staff on how to deliver a meaningful CX. Our CX Specialists will learn everything about your company, products, customers, competitors, strengths, and challenges, and pass that knowledge on to customer service reps.
With our core business being delighting customers, FrontLogix invests extensively in agent training. After being screened through a 6-stage process for language and communication skills, candidates are trained on proper etiquette, current technology, single-call resolution for inbound and outbound calls, and the specifics of each client’s product or service.
7. Optimizing workforce with Workforce Management (WFM)
Workforce management (WFM) plays a significant role in running a contact center, with WFM teams handling a variety of tasks to optimize staffing levels.
WFM can help you manage every part of your employee’s tasks. It plays a significant role in enhancing operational efficiency, from tracking time and attendance to distributing work, scheduling shifts, budgeting, and forecasting demand.
WFM is critical to attaining optimal business, customer, and agent outcomes. As a result, most CCaaS solutions incorporate a WFM module, and expert workforce managers are in high demand.
FrontLogix provides 24/7 access to a team of WFM experts, industry veterans, and integration specialists.
FrontLogix’s WFM-managed services include:
Strategic WFM support and consultation
Precise data integration with your WFM system
Help in labor forecasting and scheduling
Optimization of workforce resources
Cost-effective access to skilled and experienced WFM resources
Comprehensive reporting
Management analytics
Efficiency enhancement
Cost management improvements
Performance monitoring
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?
No matter what industry you’re in, providing a high-quality CX could drastically improve your customer loyalty and retention, leading to more sales and increased profits.
Customers today have the power to influence how a business operates. The customer experience you provide plays an important role in the future success of your company, regardless of whether you offer superior goods. Ultimately, every business exists to serve its customers. As a result, customer experience has inevitably become a major focus for companies.
Customers expect customer support to be available around the clock, and traditional solutions can be costly in terms of labor and training. However, if you need professional assistance at a low cost, a high-quality BPO is always available. By prioritizing your CX, your brand’s reputation will be solidified as exceptional, giving you a competitive advantage over other brands in your niche.
FrontLogix is a boutique CX BPO that offers personalized customer care solutions that are particularly suited to the demands of the client, resulting in great results at a lower cost.
As Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions become increasingly popular, so does the competition among its providers. And as it is much cheaper to retain existing customers than to acquire new ones, ensuring scalable and efficient customer service becomes crucial for business success.
However, meeting the growing demand while maintaining high customer satisfaction levels can be challenging. As your user base grows and your SaaS solution matures, you’ll likely receive more requests for new features, or witness changes in customer behavior. While new functionalities aim to improve the user experience, they can also lead to confusion or uncertainty among your users. Consequently, they may have more questions or seek clarification to fully understand the updated features and their implications.
Addressing these challenges requires a proactive approach to customer service. Your team should be prepared to handle the increased volume of feature requests, ensuring that these suggestions are carefully evaluated and considered for future development.
This article will discuss strategies to effectively manage scalability challenges in SaaS solutions when it comes to customer service excellence.
Strategies for scaling Customer Service in SaaS
1. Introduce a Customer Success Manager
SaaS brands must balance providing functional software and exceptional service to satisfy their customers. According to Vendr, the average medium-sized company spends $2.81 million annually or $9.762 per employee on SaaS. Despite this sizeable investment, many companies need help implementing and measuring their acquired tools’ ROI effectively.
When users do not fully adopt a product or experience UX issues, they become frustrated and will likely cancel their subscription. This, in turn, leads to customer churn and lost revenue for SaaS companies, which must invest money in customer acquisition to replace that lost revenue.
Introducing a Customer Success Manager whose main focus is to build strong relationships with customers, ensure their success, and drive customer retention, is an effective way for companies to reduce churn, increase customer satisfaction and retention, and ultimately boost revenue.
2. Understand and anticipate demand
To successfully manage scalability challenges, it is vital to understand and anticipate customer demand. By analyzing historical usage patterns and conducting market research, businesses can estimate future growth and plan accordingly. This includes forecasting peak usage periods, identifying potential bottlenecks, and ensuring adequate resources to handle increased demand.
A workforce management (WFM) tool combined with WFM experts that can be set up correctly and interpret essential metrics can be incredibly helpful in understanding and anticipating customer demand.
These tools can provide real-time data on staffing levels, call volume, and other critical metrics, allowing businesses to adjust their resources accordingly. With the help of experts who can interpret and analyze this data, your business can make informed decisions about staffing levels, scheduling, and other essential factors that impact scalability.
3.Automate Processes and Support
Implementing automation in customer service processes can significantly improve scalability. Businesses can handle more customer queries with the same efficiency level by automating routine tasks, such as ticket routing, response acknowledgments, and frequently asked questions. This saves time, reduces manual errors, and allows customer service teams to focus on more complex issues.
4. Invest in a robust Knowledge Base and Self-Service options
Offering self-service options can empower customers and reduce the burden on your customer support teams. By providing a comprehensive knowledge base, interactive tutorials, and easily accessible support resources, customers can find answers to their questions quickly and easily.
5. Leverage AI and Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies can significantly scale customer service operations. Chatbots and virtual assistants powered by AI can handle many customer queries simultaneously, providing instant responses and assistance. ML algorithms can also analyze customer data to identify trends, anticipate customer needs, and personalize support experiences.
6. Don’t forget the importance of Human Customer Service
While there is no doubt that AI-powered assistants have revolutionized the way businesses interact with their customers, it’s important to remember the value of human customer service. In certain situations, customers may require a more personalized and empathetic approach that can only be provided by a human representative.
Human customer service can also help build a stronger customer connection, increasing loyalty and retention. So while AI-powered assistants can be a valuable tool, businesses should be aware of the importance of human interaction for creating a truly great Customer Experience.
For more on Why chatbots will not replace human agents, head over here.
7. Provide excellent training for your Customer Support Team
Your customer support team is the face of your company, so it’s crucial to provide them with excellent training. Overall, training enhances customer satisfaction, improves interactions, and maintains a positive brand image through:
providing product and service knowledge
equipping representatives with conflict resolution skills
ensuring representatives understand the brand and company
improving efficiency and productivity
helping representatives adapt to changing needs
fostering continuous improvement
8. Regularly monitor KPIs
For optimum scalability, it’s important to consistently keep an eye on real-time analytics and performance metrics, like system efficiency and support ticket resolution metrics.
It’s also essential to track important customer success metrics, including:
Customer Retention Rate: Percentage of retained customers over a period.
Customer Churn Rate: Percentage of lost customers in a timeframe.
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): Quick Customer Satisfaction survey using a rating scale.
Product Adoption: Usage frequency and milestone achievements.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Estimated total revenue from a customer’s lifecycle.
Net Revenue Retention (NRR): Percentage of revenue retained considering cancellations, upgrades, and downgrades.
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?
Managing scalability challenges in SaaS solutions is crucial for achieving customer service excellence. Introducing a Customer Success Manager, understanding and anticipating customer demand, automating processes and support, investing in a robust knowledge base and self-service options, leveraging AI and machine learning, valuing human customer service, providing excellent training for the customer support team, and regularly monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) are all essential steps in achieving scalability and delivering exceptional customer service in the SaaS industry. By prioritizing these strategies, businesses can position themselves for success in the highly competitive SaaS market while retaining and satisfying their valuable customer base.
FrontLogix is a next-gen Customer Experience (CX) BPO that skillfully merges technology with human assistance. Our use of automated experiences reflects our commitment to staying ahead of the curve while never losing sight of the importance of human interaction. We believe that this balance is key to fostering authenticity and brand loyalty among our customers. Contact us today to discuss how we can help you ace your Customer Support.
What is the next-generation customer experience, and how to get there?
Just keeping up with customer expectations is no longer enough. Companies today need to exceed expectations and provide exceptional CX to keep their customers happy, loyal, and coming back. Today is about company loyalty, not customer loyalty. Implementing Next-Gen CX solutions will drive value, reduce costs, and increase revenue.
The high-expectations era
We’ve reached a time where people are no longer buying products; they’re buying experiences. And they expect those experiences to be seamless. Expectations are rising primarily due to customer technology development. Today, the new generation of customers want and expect instant solutions, 24/7 availability, omnichannel support (access to both desktop and mobile), online and offline support, flexibility, and efficiency. They quickly adapt to new channels and devices and expect the companies they buy from to do the same. They want multiple touchpoints in their customer journey, making their interaction smooth, effortless, and more accessible. And most of all, they value omnichannel presence, speed, trustworthiness, and responsiveness. Today, it doesn’t matter what you sell. First and foremost, you’re selling an experience!
High-quality over high-quantity
It is common practice in the customer service department to measure success using several KPIs (key performance indicators) such as: call handling time, the number of calls handled, first response time, first contact resolution, and level of customer satisfaction. However, today these KPIs are only a tiny part of the customer service department’s overall success. Previously, agents would send a customer to another department for issue resolution and close the ticket with the shortest handle time, whether the issue was resolved or not. Customers now regard this as an unsatisfactory “bouncing-ball” experience. As a result, today’s customers prefer a longer initial call where they receive high-quality service rather than being transferred between departments. And this is also a part of Next-Gen CX.
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?
Without a doubt, the next generation means cutting-edge technology. We can say the same for customer service departments. Companies must leverage well-trained and well-intentioned employees alongside the latest technologies, software superintelligence, and AI to provide a Next Generation Customer Experience. It should ideally be a hybrid of the best of both worlds – human and machine.
The customer-centric strategy
In both life and business, not all experiences are positive and bad experiences are unavoidable. But imagine you’re a customer who had a bad experience with a company. You’ll most likely be frustrated and leave the company without explaining what went wrong. Customers today take immediate actions that harm businesses after a single negative experience (without considering all the previous good ones).
This only emphasizes the importance of companies focusing on becoming customer-centric. Essentially, this means putting customers at the center of the business and organizing around them. Teams, processes, and technologies should be focused on creating a next-generation customer-centric company. That is the only way to provide your customers with the Next-Gen Customer Experience they require.
Boost your sales and success with FrontLogix’s top-notch Workforce Management and Customer Experience outsourcing services, designed to strengthen customer relationships. Contact us to elevate your business growth.
We’ve already discussed the importance ofgood customer experience and how to measure it for the best results. This guide will teach you the essential elements of customer experience that businesses must include in their CX strategy.
1. Reliability
Reliability is a critical factor that significantly impacts the customer’s experience. The perception of reliability helps to build your company’s brand image and generate positive word of mouth. So, what exactly qualifies?
Providing support for both critical and non-critical business issues;
System and network reliability and providing appropriate resolutions in the shortest time possible;
Reliably integrating different channels to communicate with the customer
Consistently delivering an outstanding customer experience.
2. Availability
In today’s fast-paced world, customers expect to be able to contact a company whenever and however they want. They interact with companies on their terms via email, chat, voice calls, messaging, or social media. But, they also expect to have all inquiries answered quickly (if not immediately). They especially do not want to spend (or waste) their time waiting for answers or repeating their questions. And that’s precisely why availability is among the essential elements of a good customer experience.
3. Convenience
Customers, in addition to availability, expect convenience. They do not want to waste their precious time waiting in phone queues or repeating their questions to different representatives. The ability to reduce customers’ non-monetary costs, such as time, energy, and effort when purchasing/using services or products, significantly impacts CX.
4. Personalised Communication
Receiving personalized messages from a company, whether related to previous interaction with the company, offers linked to purchase history, or simply an interactive voice response (IVR) message personalized with a first name, provides the customer with a feeling of being valued. As a result, personalized communication is one of the most important aspects of a customer’s experience and expectations.
5. Simplicity
Customers expect all business interactions to be simple and seamless at every step of the customer journey. They anticipate being heard while also having their interactions simplified. This means a company should keep the number of jumps from one touchpoint or stage to another at a minimum. Providing and implementing a one-step resolution or access to information through all available channels would be the ideal approach. But even that is insufficient. Besides simplifying the process, businesses must ensure that as much data as possible is collected and stored at each step so that customers do not have to share the same information repeatedly. All of this will make customers’ lives easier at each stage of their customer journey, enhancing their experience significantly.
6. Accountability
Accountability is yet another vital factor in providing a positive customer experience. Customers always assess whether a company has delivered on its promises. This evaluation occurs at every stage, often before they make a purchase. Once the customer makes a purchase, the review does not end. Whether the solution or product is delivered on time and whether the provided experience, solution, or resolution is straightforward and honest is essential. Of course, doing business can sometimes be unpredictable, and situations may arise where the promised resolution is challenging to deliver. Customers must be informed of why and adequately compensated if such scenarios occur.
7. Adaptability
Because the digital world is rapidly changing, customers (particularly younger generations) are likelier to experiment with newer technologies and commit to newer engagement channels. This simply means that companies must consider the changing consumer environment and be ready to adapt and change quickly and smoothly. Adaptability in a technological environment is critical for a company to provide exceptional customer services in speed, data security, data accuracy, and so on. Because each customer is unique, a company’s solutions should be adaptable, scalable, and tailored to the customer’s specific needs.
8. Anticipation
Anticipation is also closely related to the rapidly changing technological environment. To be able to adapt quickly and smoothly, companies must be able to anticipate changes before they occur to stay ahead of both their customers and the competition. To provide an exceptional customer experience, every company must be a digital innovator in their respective fields and industries.
9. Feedback
Allowing customers to provide feedback is another essential aspect of providing a good customer experience. Customer feedback can be advantageous to both parties:
Customers will appreciate it because it demonstrates that the company cares about what they think
It shows the company which aspects of their business are most valuable to customers and which could benefit from improvement
10. Responsiveness
Responding to customer complaints or inquiries consistently and promptly is crucial to providing excellent customer experience. A responsive CX team can contribute to success by assisting as many customers as possible and finding solutions quickly.
When customers provide positive feedback, responsiveness is also critical. Customers will be satisfied with their experience if their suggestions prompt change.
11. Communication
Excellent internal and external communication is another critical component of the customer experience. All customer experience interactions revolve around communication. Knowing how to communicate, regardless of the situation, can assist the CX team in being ready for any type of interaction.
Being an effective listener is an integral part of communication. Employees and managers must try to hear what customers say, respond with relevant information, and contribute to a satisfactory solution.
12. Transparency
Customers appreciate it when brands and companies they purchase from are transparent, open, and honest. Transparency is demonstrated through honesty. Even in cases when employees do not have all the necessary information or all the required answers, customers will appreciate a transparent and honest response rather than a generic one.
Another crucial aspect of transparency is the service/product descriptions and prices. Customers appreciate it when they can find sufficient and accurate information.
13. Exceeding expectations
Exceeding expectations simply means going above and beyond for your customers! This is another essential aspect of the customer experience because it increases customer satisfaction and contributes to credibility. Going the extra mile will undoubtedly result in long-term, positive customer relationships. It will also encourage customers to return, renew, or re-subscribe. Return customers are more likely to recommend the brand to their peers, which leads to acquiring new customers. As a result, a company must not pass up any opportunity to go above and beyond to engage and delight existing customers.
14. Balancing CX and Profitability
Creating a great customer experience is much easier if you’re willing to spend a lot of money and effort. Many companies cannot afford this in the long run. That is why balance is so important. The best customer experiences provide customers with recognizable and prominent value at a low cost to the organization. This is precisely why companies choose to outsource their customer experience.
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?
We’ve identified 14 key triggers that we believe are crucial to delivering a superior customer experience. Building a successful customer experience strategy requires balancing these factors. Most are codependent and need to be implemented as a whole to provide better results.
A company should carefully consider all the above aspects to provide an exceptional customer experience. Furthermore, businesses should evaluate all touchpoints in the customer journey, carefully design content for each channel, and personalize it for each customer.
Finally, to provide a truly memorable experience, the team in charge of the customer experience must be well-trained, enthusiastic, and compassionate. FrontLogix has highly trained, experienced, and skilled employees that are reliable, accountable, available, responsive, and provide exceptional, transparent, straightforward, and highly personalized communication. Get in touch today!
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!
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
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.
