Ever since I was a boy growing up in Colorado, I have loved exploring the mountains. By now I have run, hiked, and skied thousands of miles through this magnificent wonderland and have learned some great life lessons from it—one of which is, “More does not necessarily mean better.”
When I was young, I carried everything I thought I might need. My legs might have gotten stronger, but my experience was hindered with the weight of my pack. Now, before I go out I ask myself, “Do I need this, or can I make do with what I have?”
When it comes to data, businesses are in a similar situation. They have all the data they can handle, but often are asked for more to answer specific questions for other areas of the organization. The rise of DIY surveys have made it fast and easy to survey customers. On one hand, this is a positive: It illustrates that organizations are understanding that customer feedback can inform every facet of their business.
On the other hand, if businesses are not careful, they risk unnecessarily overburdening their customers and contributing to survey fatigue.
We know that if customers care about something, they will tell you—so why not take a closer look at the data you already have?
For example, one InMoment client I recently spoke with was asked to report to executives on a specific seasonal event. Instead of sending out a survey to ask customers for feedback, he used Explore to search comments that had already been provided. He quickly learned that what customers were expecting did not match their actual experience, leaving them with a negative perception of the brand. Customer comments illuminated a clear discrepancy between the marketers who advertised the event, and the store managers who actually carried it out, which can now easily be avoided next time this event takes place.
So, just as I’ve learned to do when hiking, before you send out yet another survey, try asking yourself, “Do I need to do this or does my data already provide the answer?”
If an employee offers a suggestion on how to improve your business and no one is there to hear it, does it even make a sound? It may make noise, but one thing is for certain—it won’t make a positive impact on your customer experience.
First, a quick primer on terms. Employee engagement and related feedback primarily refer to employees’ experiences with their jobs, colleagues, pay, benefits, etc. Voice of Employee (VoE) refers to feedback employees give a company regarding the customer experience. Sometimes VoE feedback is mingled with employee engagement feedback. Some companies even ask employees about their ideas on how to improve the customer experience. Unfortunately, those cases are rare.
With the introduction of the service-profit chain theory more than a decade ago, companies began to understand the strong connection employee engagement levels have on the success of their business. Today, 71 percent of businesses rank employee engagement as “very important” in achieving overall organizational success. Sixty-six percent of CX professionals also say employees are the top source of actionable insights about their organization’s customer experience.
It’s not that businesses do not see the value of employees’ perspectives feedback. It’s that, in a time when brands will do almost anything to please customers, it’s surprising how many companies fail to solicit, value and act on Voice of Employee feedback.
Brands have stepped up their customer listening, or Voice of Customer (VoC) efforts significantly. And while incredibly valuable, even essential, VoC programs only collect one perspective of customer-to-brand interactions. Employees have an insider-view of the business as well as direct connections to the customer.
The next opportunity for companies is to more closely link these two essential stakeholders and their feedback.
Why Does VoE Matter?
Employees are on the front lines daily, which means they can offer companies rich intell into customer opinions about the existing CX. Likewise, employees can connect those perceptions to what’s not working inside the businesses, or which elements generate strong loyalty and advocacy with customers.
Some companies solicit VoC feedback as part of employee engagement surveys, which normally happen about once a year. A small minority of brands have invested in both technology and practices that build a culture of continual employee participation in shaping and improving the customer experience. Armed with both insider company knowledge and a unique understanding of customers, most employees have useful ideas for how to create a differentiated CX. Often, these insights are otherwise unavailable to decision makers higher up within the company.
Inviting employees to become co-creators of the customer experience fosters a sense of shared responsibility for company success. Benefits of this approach include the ability to design and execute truly differentiated experiences for customers that return more value to companies, increased efficiencies and improved employee investment and retention.
For VoE to make a positive impact on company processes and decisions, businesses must purposefully connect employee engagement and Voice of Employee, employee feedback with customer experience efforts.
Here are a few tips on how to do this well:
1. Educate Employees on Key CX Areas
Customer feedback is too often used to focus employees solely on improving negative customer experiences. Companies must focus at least as much time to helping employees understand the ideal customer experience they want to create, their role in making that happen, and how customers feel when the have great experiences.
Organizational leaders must quickly and constantly communicate any changes to brand promises or customer experience goals so employees can offer feedback on key CX components and identify where there are disconnects and disasters, as well as successes. Every piece of customer feedback is valuable, and withholding information from employees creates gaps in understanding, and therefore problem-solving abilities.
Knowledge of future CX plans should also be readily shared to ensure employees are engaged and understand their role in improving CX long term. Employees who understand a company’s CX vision can better address customer concerns and prioritize customer feedback that aligns with pending CX blueprints. Likewise, employees in the loop with future CX plans can better monitor when plans do not adequately address common customer concerns, which helps companies avoid misguided investments.
2. Make Smart VoE Technology Investments
Never missing a moment of feedback demands the appropriate VoE technology. However, not just any technology can keep pace with the high volume of employee feedback needed to generate actionable CX improvements.
For example, the best VoE technologies allow employees to offer feedback in the manner and time that’s easiest for them. This may include open online forums, ad hoc email and video surveys or more in-depth annual explorations. Likewise, VoE platforms should be able to handle a variety of feedback types, including unstructured comments. While structured questions can point companies in the right direction, employee verbatims about the customer experience are by far the richest source of actionability.
Companies should look for technology vendors that can handle this type of data at scale with purpose-built text analytics. And accuracy rates matter. A company can’t act on information that isn’t analyzed. A high degree of variety also gives businesses the flexibility to institute VoE programs that best fit their specific needs. Companies should seek out technology vendors that offer mix-and-match capabilities to best fit and meet all employee feedback preferences.
3. Express Gratitude for Employee Feedback in Word and Deed
Employers should get in the habit of clearly communicating the critical nature of VoE feedback to overall company success. Reinforcing the value of employees’ voices encourages a steady stream of feedback and reinforces employees’ role as indispensable agents of change.
Employers must also find ways to clearly communicate they have heard and appreciate employee feedback, as well as the actions they intend to take. As with customers, when employees give feedback and then hear nothing but crickets, the effect on the relationship can be more negative than not asking for feedback at all.
Employees must express genuine appreciation. Gratitude comes in many shapes and sizes. For example, companies can reach out to individual employees and personally thank them for their feedback, or even reward them. Blanket company praise is good, but not sufficient. Top VoE technologies streamline feedback to help companies identify vocal employees and extend one-to-one thanks.
Companies should pursue operational decisions with employees in mind to support appreciate with investments. For instance, picking VoE technologies that are easy to use demonstrates respect for employees’ time and input.
Every organization has unique CX needs, and each should pursue the right technology investments to capitalize on its specific feedback sources. However, despite differences, all companies must make VoE technology purchasing decisions that focus on one goal—constantly collecting, analyzing and acting on feedback from customers and employees.
There are basically two categories of vehicles currently driving the greatest profits for automakers and their retailers, trucks and SUVs. A majority of truck sales come from men while SUV/Crossover sales are driven mostly by women. Some even go as far as to say that SUV sales are being driven particularly by single women.
It is easy for the mostly male retailer front line to connect with male customers. The matching of the two similar “natures” is obvious. But what about engaging with women? Women and men have different wants, needs and desires when it comes to vehicle purchasing and service. And they generally communicate those wants differently.
Perceptions are the Problem
In my first post for the Maritz CX Cafe, I spoke of the historic disconnect between women customers and the auto industry. In the same post, I made the case for a more gender-personalized CX experience. Automakers are paying a lot more attention to women customers these days, but mainly via their marketing. So why are we still reading articles, both past and present, stating that a substantial number of women still feel disrespected and misunderstood when buying and servicing vehicles at the dealership? Many of those “perceptions” result from past “experiences”. But OEMs, including auto retailers, know that women customers are critical to the future of the industry. Drew Harwell makes an excellent case for this in his Washington Post piece titled, “A Tension for America’s Auto World: Winning Women Behind the Wheel”.
Too many women still enter the dealership with the perception, or maybe even the misconception, that she is in dangerous territory. Is it deserved? Who cares? Because perceptions eventually evolve to reality if they are not diffused by a “memorable customer experience”. As Customer Experience Manager for a large Buick GMC service center, I believe that most retailers are doing a better job of delivering satisfaction to all customers, including women. But, in my opinion, it really doesn’t matter how we are doing with women these days with “satisfaction”. We have to do better with women in order to combat those nagging perceptions from the industry’s past. Besides, in the future, delivering “satisfaction” will only provide a “chance at bat”. The hits and home runs will come from memorable experiences.
A Change in Behavior is Required
How do we deliver more memorable “experiences” for women customers? First, I believe we need to assume that women and men usually communicate on different channels. Therefore, it might benefit the (mostly male) retail front line to begin to differentiate the way they communicate with women customers from their male customers.
I made the case for a more Gender-Personalized CX Design in my first CXCafe post. But design is easy compared to changing the behavior of the mostly male retailer front line. However, when it comes to modifying behavior, 12-step programs have a solid track record. Here are my suggestions, after almost 2 decades of monitoring this challenge.
“Traditional” Decision Steps
Step 1– Assume that men and women communicate differently, until you learn differently on a customer by customer basis. Learn to accept** that a substantial number of women assume that they are not going to be treated as fairly as men, even before they enter the dealership. And that perception/misconception will evolve into a reality unless she has a memorable experience.
** they say that if you can’t accept the first step…the rest of the steps are much less effective
Step 2– Make a commitment to learn more about how women communicate differently from men. Most experts agree that they do.
Step 3– This one is for management. If you don’t believe that the differences between how men and women communicate are real, your crew won’t either.
Action Steps
Step 4– Eye contact always.
Step 5– Interruption guarantee. Count to 3 before responding to women customers. (my wife & daughters say I need some help here)
Step 6– Suggestions…not solutions. By nature, most men tend to rush to the bottom line. Staying in a “suggestion” mode will differentiate you dramatically with women.
Step 7– Explain to them how it works…explain the process in their terms…break down the steps…mange the expectations.
Step 8– Nod your head to affirm you are listening. And remember, when women nod their heads positively…. it’s not necessarily a closing signal. Quite often it means “tell me more”.
Step 9– Make an extra effort to seek referrals from women. It’s a proven fact that women refer more than men, when they have a great “consumer experience”.
Maintenance Steps
Step 10– Continue to practice steps 4-9.
Step 11– Assume difference with women customers until you find out otherwise. In addition to a more gender differentiated communication style, safety, personal security and practicality are generally of more interest. And be prepared to provide expanded information.
Step 12– Having worked all of these steps, you’ll come to realize that when you meet the expectations of women customers, you exceed the expectations of every other customer group…men, multi-cultural, millennials, etc.
Now is the Time
There has never been a more critical time for the retail front line to connect better with women on their channel. Why? Because women, in addition to millennials, are the world’s fastest growing audience. Whether it’s a reality or a perception from the past that women perceive a disconnect with auto retailers really doesn’t matter. If retailers are going to be successful with SUV/Crossover owners, they better change their behavior with women customers.
“Our conclusion: superior CX drives superior revenue growth.”
– Harley Manning, Forrester
“Customers who had the best past experiences spend 140% more compared to those who had the poorest past experiences”
– Peter Kriss, Harvard Business Review
There is a lot of chatter happening in business circles about customer experience (CX) as a growth engine. It’s almost intuitive – you and I both understand how having a great experience affects us as customers. We all have businesses we love, products we’ll follow to the ends of the earth (in hopes they’ll finally go on sale), and websites we follow with almost religious fervor.
As CMO, VP of Success, or Head of Customer Support, you are constantly advocating for customer experience within your company. After all, from the very first moment the second blacksmith’s shop appeared in the village, creating competition for the first blacksmith’s shop, customer experience has been a deciding vote for who gets the business – just as much as price and quality. But as a business owner, or a professional marketer, you can’t afford to go with your gut. To win resources you need data to back up your argument that CX is the future (you know it is).
There is a correlation between CX and revenue growth, and we’ve compiled the research to back it up.
Why the effects of CX have been tricky to track
Customer experience has been treated as a ‘soft’ discipline, and I have a theory as to why.
We’ve grown up with it. Whether watching Santa send Macy’s store shoppers to competitors in Miracle on 34th Street, or walking into Nordstrom’s shoe department to be followed around by suited young men carrying piles of boxes to the nearest padded chair. We recognize great CX when we experience it ourselves.
However, it’s inherently subjective. Subjective issues – anything based on opinion or emotion – tend to be hard to track. One person’s “helpful” is another person’s “pushy.” Your “attentive,” might be my “stalker.”
Modern tools now quantify CX
But online buyers’ journeys are different than the sales experiences most of us grew up with. With modern tracking and customer surveys, you can tell (often in real-time) whether your efforts are coming off as too much, or too little. You can identify problems and preferences, which allows you to fine tune the end experience for your target customer.
Most importantly, for the first time in human history, we have the tools to track the actual, absolute effect that positive customer experience has on a business’s bottom line. This is transforming the discipline of customer service into the science of CX.
The science of CX starts with measurement. Read the article, A Primer on the 3 Most Important CX Metrics – NPS, CSAT and CES, and start measuring CX today.
It’s no longer just “the right thing to do,” it’s an engine for measurable growth.
“What we found: not only is it possible to quantify the impact of customer experience – but the effects are huge.” – “The Value of Customer Experience, Quantified,” Harvard Business Review
Harvard Business Review looked at the revenue data from two global $1B+ businesses – one was a transaction-based business, the other was a relationship-based subscription business.
“We looked at two companies with different revenue models — one transactional, the other subscription-based — using two common elements that are relevant to all industries: customer feedback, and future spending by individual customers. To see the effect of experience on future spending, we looked at experience data from individual customers at a point in time, and then looked at those individual customers’ spending behaviors over the subsequent year.”
Transactional business models rely on frequency of customer return and how much they spend per visit. Modcloth would be a good example – they want you to come back every day and buy (or at least Save to Wishlist), and come up with ingenious ways to incentivize that behavior.
Subscription-based businesses include Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), or even those recipe kits from Blue Apron. No matter what they’re selling, the model is the same. It relies on retention, cross-sells and upsells.
The results?
After controlling for other factors that drive repeat purchases…
Transaction-based: Customers with the best past experiences spend140% more than those with the poorest past experiences.
Subscription-based: Customers with the best past experiences have a 74% chance of remaining a member for at least another year; customers with the worst experiences have a 43% chance of being a member one year later. In fact, those who gave the highest CX scores were likely to remain members for another six years.
CX Effects Across Multiple Industries
On Harley Manning’s Blog at Forrester, Manning (Forrester VP and research director) discusses two studies, conducted one year apart, that compared five pairs of publicly traded companies “where one company in each of the pairs had a significantly higher score than the other in Forrester’s Customer Experience Index during the period 2010 to 2015.”
The Customer Experience Index measures each brand on a scale from “Very Poor” to “Excellent” in these six categories:
Effectiveness
Ease of use
Emotion
Retention
Enrichment
Advocacy
Then, Forrester looked at the businesses’ revenue data and built models to calculate the compound annual growth rates for each of the ten companies over those five years.
The results:
The publicly traded companies studied ran the gamut of industry types, from cable to retail to airlines. But in terms of the CX effect, industry didn’t seem to matter as much as the reported CX scores each company received.
“In two industries, cable and retail, leaders outperformed laggards by 24 percentage and 26 percentage points, respectively. Even in the industry with the smallest spread, airlines, the CX leader enjoyed a healthy 5 percentage point advantage in global revenue. And when we compared the total growth rate of all CX leaders to that of all CX laggards we saw that the leaders collectively had a 14 percentage point advantage.” – Harley Manning, Forrester
Unlike the Harvard Business Review’s study, Forrester did not control for outside influences that could have driven revenue growth. But, they did conclusively determine that “customers who have a better experience with a company say they’re less likely to stop doing business with the company and more likely to recommend it.” They also observed that companies with superior CX saw increased growth in customers.
And, as Harley Manning points out, “Both of those factors should drive increased growth in customers and, in turn, increased growth of customer revenue.”
Essentially, as CX rises, so does revenue growth.
But there’s another interesting correlation that Forrester’s Customer Experience Index research uncovered. The top performing brands, including USAA, Barnes & Noble, Etsy, QVC and Zappos.com, “achieved a 17% compound average growth between 2010 and 2015 – which is no small feat with many of them already in the top revenue percentiles in their respective industries.” (Salemove.com)
Compared with the brands at the bottom, who only saw a compound average growth of 3%, that is a very wide gap.
To put a possible dollar amount on this, consider: “a one-point score improvement in the CX Index can lead to an increase of $65 million in revenue in the upscale hotel industry,” according to Forrester’s Harley Manning.
CX spending is on the rise
You may think companies still seem to feel more comfortable spending money on things that do not have a direct impact on customer experience, or that Support and Customer Success teams can still be the last area to receive investment. Think again. Per Forrester research, 71% of business and technology decision-makers reported that improving CX will be a high priority for spending in the next year.
Ready to join the CX revolution?
Now with modern survey platforms, companies of all sizes can measure and improve customer experience at scale. Forrester’s CX Index measured six attributes of experience and probably took months to collect, analyze and report. However, a lightweight approach to CX improvement using metrics such as Net Promoter Score (NPS) can get you 90% of the way there and not break the bank.
The key is to start small. Determine your “north star” metric. Get customer feedback, take action, repeat. Consistently repeat this process. As your company’s customer experience improves, so will your bottomline.
Start measuring Net Promoter Score for free with InMoment
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Emotion is coming to the forefront of Customer Experience (CX) management, not because it’s warm and fuzzy, and not because leveraging feelings is devilishly manipulative, but because when you use emotion to drive your CX efforts, it becomes a powerful differentiator.
More companies are getting better at the functional basics of customer experience, like responding in a timely manner to questions, streamlining the purchase process, and smoothing out onboarding (not to mention creating a decent product) – which means they need something unique to offer that separates them from their competition.
What is the most unique, even unforgettable thing you can offer? The way you make your customers feel. It’s for this reason the bar for CX is inching up.
The fact that understanding and influencing emotion is a vital ingredient for business success is not surprising — it has been the heart and soul of brand efforts. It is also the foundation of the emotion-recognition techniques (measuring physiological responses) currently in pilot for some retailers and old-school ethnographic research. – Forrester 2017 Predictions: Dynamics That Will Shape The Future In The Age Of The Customer
Emotion not only carries the ability to define your company in a sea of competitors, it can also inspire viral word of mouth marketing from people who love you and want to express that to a large audience, whether because they’re influencers with their own followers, or reviewers.
Bad things are worse than good things are better
We are hardwired as human beings to be more sensitive to negative events than positive events. And this sensitivity only increases when we’re in a heightened emotional state – focusing on the negative becomes even easier.
As odd as it may sound, this is good news for those of us in the business of relieving pain points. You’ll get more appreciation from your customer by removing pain than creating delight. So, if a customer comes to you with a problem, you can expect them to be in a heightened emotional state, which means not only should you tread carefully, you’ll do well to relieve their most urgent pain points as soon as possible!
As a species, negative consequences take an enormous toll on us. In fact, we’ll go farther out of our way to avoid negative consequences than we’d go for positive results of equal measure (it’s called “Loss Aversion”). This behavior is predicated on the emotional truth that something bad feels worse than something good feels better. Losing $20 might wreck your day. Finding $20 may make you happier for an hour.
How does this translate to CX?
Vanguard, one of the world’s largest investment companies, was getting ready to redo its site, and rather than just considering customer acquisition, or lead-generating instruction, they studied how people felt about investing. They looked at whether their target audience was new to investing, had been investing for a while, and what their emotional baggage might be around the topic of investing in general. They discovered that, new or experienced, most people feel overwhelmed. Now, if you visit Vanguard’s site, their design is very simple, even sparse. They knew that visual clutter would only enhance the feeling of overwhelm. Their new design reduces it.
Delta airlines also makes a point to reduce customer pains. They set up their phone systems so that if you call in response to getting a text message saying your flight was canceled, their automated phone system will put you straight through to the appropriate person rather than route you through a dozen exhausting options.
United Airlines has been working diligently to improve its public image by tackling some of its thorniest customer experience pitfalls, like lost luggage. The airline recently introduced a service that lets fliers follow their luggage on the United smartphone app, and get text message alerts if their bags miss their destination. Instead of being angry and frustrated by lost bags, passengers are calling this “Amazing” customer service. As one passenger told the Huffington Post:
After I arrived, I received a text message alert that one of my two bags did not make it and would be delivered to my address within 24 hours,” she says. “I also received an email where I could track my bag, see who was delivering it and at what time. At no time did I have to wait in line or on hold for them to rectify their mistake. They simply took care of it and kept me informed every step of the way. To me, that was amazing customer service.
Amazon offers one of the most loved customer experiences, some argue, because it provides “an unparalleled sense of emotional satisfaction.” How do they do that? Not through being especially warm and fuzzy, but by reducing pain points with features like multiple wishlists, a save-for-later area, an easily accessible cart, and even more easily accessible price comparisons, along with shipping cost reduction and the nearly instant gratification of Prime. If and when a customer does have a problem, returns are easy and customer service gets top marks.
A lot of bad customer experiences are ‘death by a thousand cuts’ annoyances. Avoid exacerbating pain in an already painful situation, and the better the customer’s perception of their experience will be.
Emotions lead to loyalty – the key to growing SaaS businesses
Emotion is linked to loyalty (and CX is linked to emotion). In the hotel industry, which has the largest percentage of customers that reported feeling “valued” one study reported, 88% of the “valued” people will advocate for the hotel brand, and more than 75% will stay with the hotel brand.
The TV service provider industry, unsurprisingly, has the largest percentage of customers who report feeling annoyed. Only 8% of these annoyed people express willingness to advocate for the TV service provider, and just over 1 in 10 intend to keep their existing relationships with the provider.
For the SaaS industry, retention is a key metric for profit and growth – you can’t afford to annoy, disappoint, or frustrate your customers. Essentially, customers are 5 times more loyal when they feel valued, than when they feel annoyed.
For example, there’s something about Slack that makes you feel confident (and a bit cool) that you’re part of something that’s on the leading edge. That’s not just because Slack is relatively new – they engender this feeling on purpose with Slack release notes (which are hilarious, self-deprecating, and charmingly relatable) that make updating the app a pleasure. Not only do they manage to keep everyone up-to-date, they remove the significant pain of updating an app and replace it with a positive emotion.
Note: Positive emotions that drive behavior like repurchases and advocacy differ by country and culture, even by customer base. In the UK, Germany and France, for example, the top three loyalty-inspiring emotions are slightly (yet significantly) different.
Source: Forrester
Loyalty weakening emotions differ by country and culture too. U.S. customers share their loyalty-weakening emotions with their U.K. friends.
Source: Forrester
Be sure to understand the emotions of your specific customer base rather than make assumptions.
Interestingly, customer loyalty itself comes in multiple flavors. Loyalty can mean retention (the customer will maintain existing business), enrichment (a customer will buy additional products and services), advocacy (the customer will recommend the company).
Do you know how your customers feel about their experiences with your business?
How to Measure Emotion in Customer Experience
Most CX measurement programs don’t quantify customer emotions – they focus more on metrics that reflect a rational or cognitive evaluation of experiences. Maxie Schmidt-Subramanian, senior analyst at Forrester, says businesses can begin measuring emotion in CX by first defining metrics that measure critical emotions in influential experiences (the ones with the highest impact on customer relationships).
Yes, that means you’re making it up as you go along. You have to figure out for yourself which metrics effectively measure emotion for your customers, in your context. One way to do this is by tracking sentiment in Voice of Customer data – people convey a wide range of emotions with the words they use. Some companies, like Lenovo, use text analysis software to measure changes in sentiment scores, alerting when sentiment falls below a certain threshold.
Using a sentiment analysis tool, you can track positive or negative themes and dig into specific words most often used by your customers to describe how they feel. You can also mine customer feedback and questions, or any other written message from your customer to you. Of course, the most straightforward way to get Voice of Customer data is through surveys, and if you time your surveys right (and ask in the right channel), you can begin to tell what events trigger which emotions.
Whichever method you choose to get your emotion metrics, the goal is the same: to define the emotional context customers have around your product, industry, and specific touch points in your sales funnel, onboarding process, and usage. From there, you can identify and alleviate pain points, gain loyalty, and win brand advocates.
Prove the value of emotion to yourself first
Emotion is a relatively ‘wooey’ topic. It’s still considered soft. It’s not taken seriously by many. So make it your mission to prove the value of emotion early on in your program by first targeting the highest-emotion touch points, and developing experiments for how to improve customers’ emotions around those experiences. Then track your success rates.
But remember, emotion is contextual, and you don’t have control over the entire context of a customer’s experience. That said, companies who value customer loyalty are willing to go to creative lengths to keep customers feeling good about their brand. Join them.
Win customers for life. Start getting Net Promoter feedback today with InMoment.
You know your business inside and out. You know that listening to customers and responding to their needs is the key to staying competitive. Still, you might be struggling with where and when to survey your customers. A pop-up survey in your web app? Send them an email? What about a text message on their mobile phone? Figuring out the most effective channel to ask for feedback can be confusing.
The good news is that you have more options than ever before. We’d like to help by giving an overview of where companies are engaging their customers, and how multiple channels can work together. Then, you’ll be better equipped to develop a plan that best meets your company’s unique needs.
Why take advantage of multiple feedback channels
Start with a customer-focused approach: when, where and how do your customers want to give you feedback? This inquiry can quickly lead to a multi-channel approach.
Fight survey fatigue
An improved survey experience helps you maintain high response rates. Not every customer wants to fill out an in-app survey, not every customer opens email in their inbox. However, a lot of people do want to give feedback, and appreciate the opportunity to do so. So your goal is to get more and more sophisticated about the “where and when” over time.
Reach more stakeholders, in the right context
When you leverage more than one survey channel you can expand the pool of users you’re hearing from. You may have an email relationship with some customers, and in-product engagement with others. A multichannel approach also lets you choose the right channel for a given interaction, and to customize your Voice of the Customer program for your business model.
Which Customer Feedback Survey Channel is “Best”?
Is one survey channel more brand-oriented or more transaction-oriented? Which is the best? This is a very common question. We think the most important factor here is when you survey, rather than which channel.
Here’s why. If you send an NPS survey right after purchase, you can expect that response to be more influenced by that last transaction. However, keep in mind, an NPS survey triggered by a transaction is still colored by the brand experience.
To help you think this through, here is some information about the different channels:
Email: Lower response rates, but higher rates of qualitative feedback. Think about it: How often do you take the time to open emails from businesses, let alone respond? However, those customers who do take the time to answer a customer feedback survey via email are more likely to be invested in your brand and take the time to write comments that provide more detail to the “why” behind their score.
In-app (Web or Mobile): Higher response rates, lower rates of qualitative feedback. In-app surveys can deliver contextual feedback, and we find that customers will answer the question they are asked. They are absolutely willing to provide higher level feedback when prompted in a web or mobile app. This is why customer experience management platforms offer feedback tagging, sentiment analysis, and other means of gleaning insight from the fire hose of data that many companies receive via in-app surveys. Nonetheless, fewer in-app respondents will take the time to give qualitative feedback.
The high response rate that in-app NPS surveys deliver can be a positive trade off, especially for SaaS businesses focused on reducing churn. You may prefer to get a gut impression that you can follow up on rather than radio silence from a passive or unhappy user that ignores an email survey.
SMS:With transactions, deliveries, and services, sometimes texting is the most effective and immediate way for you to interact with customers. It also allows you to grab customers in the place they tend to spend more and more of their time – on their mobile phones.
So, really, it’s not about which is better. The question is, “Which channel or channels are the best fit for my business and my customers?”
Scenarios Where Using More than One Customer Feedback Channel Makes Sense
1. Targeting Distinct Stakeholder Groups with Different Survey Channels.
Consider the enterprise sales model as one that can benefit from both in-app and email surveys. Here we are talking about a SaaS company or other business with a very strong digital presence. In this example, your company is using the Net Promoter Score system to measure customer loyalty.
If your brand is an online product, we’ve seen huge success when you choose in-app surveys as your primary channel. This is because end users of a SaaS product relate to your company through your digital platform. They probably don’t open your marketing emails because they aren’t looking to be sold to. They just want to do their thing in your product everyday. For them, it makes sense to give NPS feedback in-app, and they are mostly likely to respond there.
Now consider some executive stakeholders or buyers of your platform. They don’t spend as much time in your product (if any), but you definitely want to know their opinion. For this group, delivering an NPS survey via email is likely the way to go, and email gives you a higher chance of getting qualitative feedback in their response.
So, in this case, it’s the combination of in-app and email surveys that gets you the info you need.
2. Reaching Customers Throughout their Journey
E-commerce is an interesting use case here. The e-commerce business often has a couple of different customer survey touchpoints: online and offline. Every customer needs to place an order–typically on a website or mobile app. It can be valuable to learn how a customer feels after the ordering process, and that survey can often happen in the web application.
Once the product is delivered, the customer may register delight or dissatisfaction. For e-commerce businesses, it really makes sense to capture that sentiment via email or SMS because, honestly, if the customer had a bad experience, they’re probably not going to come back to your site to give you feedback.
The power of those two surveys together—one in-app and one via email—can give you an insightful story of the customer journey, and it can only happen by tapping into multiple feedback channels.
3. Surveying Customers Across All Lines of Business
As companies evolve and develop new forms of business for growth, customers of those different products might require distinct feedback channels. A good example is a technology company that hasn’t fully migrated to the cloud and still has legacy software offerings. These types of businesses in transition have a software user base “on premise,” where the only option is to do an email survey. Newer, cloud-based offerings from the same company can opt instead for in-app surveys.
Here is another example. A media company might get in-app survey feedback from subscribers or readers who visit their website. However, the same company may find that email surveys are a better channel to reach customers that receive subscription services via home delivery.
4. Improving Response Rates among Low Engagement Customers
Supplementing one channel with another may help you get a higher response rate. For example, if you start your feedback program with in-app surveys and you find that certain customers just aren’t using your application that frequently, or aren’t receptive to an in-app survey, then you have the flexibility to try another channel. See what those customers prefer to respond to–try an email survey, try SMS, or try surveying in a mobile app if you have one. That way, every customer’s voice is being heard on their terms.
5. Evolve to Reach Your Customers Where They Are
There are times when companies communicate with customers primarily through SMS. Think about your mobile provider, bank, airline, or ride share service. You expect to hear from them through that channel and count on the immediacy that texting provides. This is when it makes good sense to survey through SMS in addition to other channels, particularly for transaction-related feedback.
You’ve Got Choices
There are times when “it just depends.” Multi-channel customer feedback gives you the flexibility to survey customers based on the way they prefer to communication with your business. It lets you engage a broader segment of users across multiple touch points and lines of business. You can get the big picture, each step in your customer’s journey.
And, it lets you meet your customers on their terms. Don’t risk filling your customer’s devices with unwanted messages. The sensitivity that multi-channel feedback offers can help you avoid survey fatigue. That means higher quality feedback to help you grow your company.
Start measuring Net Promoter Score in multiple channels with InMoment
You know your business inside and out. You know that listening to customers and responding to their needs is the key to staying competitive. Still, you might be struggling with where and when to survey your customers. A pop-up survey in your web app? Send them an email? What about a text message on their mobile phone? Figuring out the most effective channel to ask for feedback can be confusing.
The good news is that you have more options than ever before. We’d like to help by giving an overview of where companies are engaging their customers, and how multiple channels can work together. Then, you’ll be better equipped to develop a plan that best meets your company’s unique needs.
Why take advantage of multiple feedback channels
Start with a customer-focused approach: when, where and how do your customers want to give you feedback? This inquiry can quickly lead to a multi-channel approach.
Fight survey fatigue
An improved survey experience helps you maintain high response rates. Not every customer wants to fill out an in-app survey, not every customer opens email in their inbox. However, a lot of people do want to give feedback, and appreciate the opportunity to do so. So your goal is to get more and more sophisticated about the “where and when” over time.
Reach more stakeholders, in the right context
When you leverage more than one survey channel you can expand the pool of users you’re hearing from. You may have an email relationship with some customers, and in-product engagement with others. A multichannel approach also lets you choose the right channel for a given interaction, and to customize your Voice of the Customer program for your business model.
Which Customer Feedback Survey Channel is “Best”?
Is one survey channel more brand-oriented or more transaction-oriented? Which is the best? This is a very common question. We think the most important factor here is when you survey, rather than which channel.
Here’s why. If you send an NPS survey right after purchase, you can expect that response to be more influenced by that last transaction. However, keep in mind, an NPS survey triggered by a transaction is still colored by the brand experience.
To help you think this through, here is some information about the different channels:
Email: Lower response rates, but higher rates of qualitative feedback. Think about it: How often do you take the time to open emails from businesses, let alone respond? However, those customers who do take the time to answer a customer feedback survey via email are more likely to be invested in your brand and take the time to write comments that provide more detail to the “why” behind their score.
In-app (Web or Mobile): Higher response rates, lower rates of qualitative feedback. In-app surveys can deliver contextual feedback, and we find that customers will answer the question they are asked. They are absolutely willing to provide higher level feedback when prompted in a web or mobile app. This is why customer experience management platforms offer feedback tagging, sentiment analysis, and other means of gleaning insight from the fire hose of data that many companies receive via in-app surveys. Nonetheless, fewer in-app respondents will take the time to give qualitative feedback.
The high response rate that in-app NPS surveys deliver can be a positive trade off, especially for SaaS businesses focused on reducing churn. You may prefer to get a gut impression that you can follow up on rather than radio silence from a passive or unhappy user that ignores an email survey.
SMS:With transactions, deliveries, and services, sometimes texting is the most effective and immediate way for you to interact with customers. It also allows you to grab customers in the place they tend to spend more and more of their time – on their mobile phones.
So, really, it’s not about which is better. The question is, “Which channel or channels are the best fit for my business and my customers?”
Scenarios Where Using More than One Customer Feedback Channel Makes Sense
1. Targeting Distinct Stakeholder Groups with Different Survey Channels.
Consider the enterprise sales model as one that can benefit from both in-app and email surveys. Here we are talking about a SaaS company or other business with a very strong digital presence. In this example, your company is using the Net Promoter Score system to measure customer loyalty.
If your brand is an online product, we’ve seen huge success when you choose in-app surveys as your primary channel. This is because end users of a SaaS product relate to your company through your digital platform. They probably don’t open your marketing emails because they aren’t looking to be sold to. They just want to do their thing in your product everyday. For them, it makes sense to give NPS feedback in-app, and they are mostly likely to respond there.
Now consider some executive stakeholders or buyers of your platform. They don’t spend as much time in your product (if any), but you definitely want to know their opinion. For this group, delivering an NPS survey via email is likely the way to go, and email gives you a higher chance of getting qualitative feedback in their response.
So, in this case, it’s the combination of in-app and email surveys that gets you the info you need.
2. Reaching Customers Throughout their Journey
E-commerce is an interesting use case here. The e-commerce business often has a couple of different customer survey touchpoints: online and offline. Every customer needs to place an order–typically on a website or mobile app. It can be valuable to learn how a customer feels after the ordering process, and that survey can often happen in the web application.
Once the product is delivered, the customer may register delight or dissatisfaction. For e-commerce businesses, it really makes sense to capture that sentiment via email or SMS because, honestly, if the customer had a bad experience, they’re probably not going to come back to your site to give you feedback.
The power of those two surveys together—one in-app and one via email—can give you an insightful story of the customer journey, and it can only happen by tapping into multiple feedback channels.
3. Surveying Customers Across All Lines of Business
As companies evolve and develop new forms of business for growth, customers of those different products might require distinct feedback channels. A good example is a technology company that hasn’t fully migrated to the cloud and still has legacy software offerings. These types of businesses in transition have a software user base “on premise,” where the only option is to do an email survey. Newer, cloud-based offerings from the same company can opt instead for in-app surveys.
Here is another example. A media company might get in-app survey feedback from subscribers or readers who visit their website. However, the same company may find that email surveys are a better channel to reach customers that receive subscription services via home delivery.
4. Improving Response Rates among Low Engagement Customers
Supplementing one channel with another may help you get a higher response rate. For example, if you start your feedback program with in-app surveys and you find that certain customers just aren’t using your application that frequently, or aren’t receptive to an in-app survey, then you have the flexibility to try another channel. See what those customers prefer to respond to–try an email survey, try SMS, or try surveying in a mobile app if you have one. That way, every customer’s voice is being heard on their terms.
5. Evolve to Reach Your Customers Where They Are
There are times when companies communicate with customers primarily through SMS. Think about your mobile provider, bank, airline, or ride share service. You expect to hear from them through that channel and count on the immediacy that texting provides. This is when it makes good sense to survey through SMS in addition to other channels, particularly for transaction-related feedback.
You’ve Got Choices
There are times when “it just depends.” Multi-channel customer feedback gives you the flexibility to survey customers based on the way they prefer to communication with your business. It lets you engage a broader segment of users across multiple touch points and lines of business. You can get the big picture, each step in your customer’s journey.
And, it lets you meet your customers on their terms. Don’t risk filling your customer’s devices with unwanted messages. The sensitivity that multi-channel feedback offers can help you avoid survey fatigue. That means higher quality feedback to help you grow your company.
Start measuring Net Promoter Score in multiple channels with Wootric
There's a famous quote, supposedly from Bill Gates, that goes "A breakthrough in machine learning would be worth ten Microsofts." In the next 5 minutes you'll understand exactly what machine learning is and what it can do and why everyone is excited about it.
First and foremost:
What is machine learning, and why is it a good thing?
Machine learning is a set of statistical/mathematical tools and algorithms for training a computer to perform a specific task, for example, recognizing faces.
Two important words here are “training” and “statistical.” Training because you are literally teaching the computer about a particular task. We emphasize statistical because the computer is working with probabilistic math. The chances of it getting the answer “correct” varies with the type and complexity of the question that it’s being trained to answer.
Different Types of Algorithms
There are a number of different types of machine learning algorithms, from the simple “Naïve Bayes” to “Neural Networks” to “Maximum Entropy” and “Decision Trees.” We’re more than happy to geek on out with you with respect to advantages and disadvantages of different types, and talk about linear vs. non-linear learning, feed-forward systems, or argue about multi-layer hidden networks vs. explicitly exposing each layer.
Lexalytics is a machine learning company. We maintain dozens of both supervised and unsupervised machine learning models (Close to 40, actually). We have dozens of person-years dedicated to gathering data sets, experimenting with the state of the art machine learning algorithms, and producing models that balance accuracy, broad applicability, and speed.
Lexalytics is not a general-purpose machine learning company. We are not providing you with generic algorithms that can be tuned for any machine-learning problem. We are entirely, completely, and totally focused on text. All of our machine learning algorithms, models, and techniques are optimized to help you understand the meaning of text content.
Text is Sparse
Text content requires special approaches from a machine learning perspective, in that it can have hundreds of thousands of potential dimensions to it (words, phrases, etc), but tends to be very sparse in nature (say you’ve got 100,000 words in common use in the English language, in any given tweet you’re only going to get say 10-12 of them). This differs from something like video content where you have very high dimensionality, but you have oodles and oodles of data to work with, so, it’s not quite as sparse.
Why is this an issue? Because how can you start grouping things together and seeing trends unless you can understand the similarities between content.
The Machine Learning Tool Belt
In order to deal with the specific complications of text, we use what’s called a “hybrid” approach. Meaning, that unlike pure-play machine learning companies, we use a combination of machine learning, lists, pattern files, dictionaries, and natural language algorithms. In other words, rather than just having a variety of hammers (different machine learning algorithms), we have a nice tool belt full of different sorts of tools, each tool optimal for the task at hand.
The “term du jour” seems to be “deep learning” – which is an excellent rebranding of “neural networks.” Basically, the way that deep learning works is that there are several layers that build up on top of each other in order to recognize a whole. For example, if dealing with a picture, layer 1 would see a bunch of dots, layer 2 would recognize a line, layer 3 would recognize corners connecting the lines, and the top layer would recognize that this is a square.
This explanation is an abstraction of what happens inside of deep learning for text – the internal layers are opaque math. We have taken a different approach that we believe to be superior to neural networks/deep learning – explicitly layered extraction. We have a multi-layered process for preparing the text that helps reduce the sparseness and dimensionality of the content – but as opposed to the hidden layers in a deep learning model, our layers are explicit and transparent. You can get access to every one of them and understand exactly what is happening at each step.
Machine Learning Models
To give an idea of the machine learning models we have, just to process a document in English, we have the following machine-learning models:
Part of Speech tagging
Chunking
Sentence Polarity
Concept Matrix (Semantic Model)
Syntax Matrix (Syntax Parsing)
All of those models help us deal with that dimensionality/sparseness problem listed above. Now, we have to actually extract stuff, so, we’ve got additional models for
Named Entity Extraction
Anaphora Resolution (Associating pronouns with the right words)
Document Sentiment
Intention Extraction
Categorization
For other languages, like Mandarin Chinese, we have to actually figure out what a word is, so, we need to “tokenize” – which is another machine learning task.
The Hybrid Approach
Some of our customers, particularly in the market analytics space and the customer experience management space, have been hand-coding categories of content for years. This means they have a lot of content bucketed into different categories. Which means that they have a really great set of content for training a machine-learning based classifier – we can do that for you too!
But, and this is a really big but, it is inefficient to do all tasks with the same tool. That’s why we also have dictionaries and pattern files, and all sorts of other good stuff like that. To sum up why we use a hybrid approach, let’s take the following example… Say you’ve trained up a sentiment classifier using 50,000 documents that does a pretty good job of agreeing with a human as to whether something is positive, negative, or neutral. Awesome!
Training the Model
What happens when a review comes in that it scores incorrectly? There are 2 approaches – sometimes you have a feedback loop, and sometimes you have to collect a whole corpus of content and retrain the model.
Even in the case of the feedback loop, the behavior of the model isn’t going to change immediately, and it can be unpredictable – because you’re just going to tell it “this document was scored incorrectly, it should be positive” – and the model is going to take all of the words into account that are actually in the model itself.
In other words, it’s like you’ve got a big ocean liner. You can start to turn it, but it’s going to take a while and a lot of feedback before it turns. In our approach, you simply look to see what phrases were marked positive and negative, change them as appropriate, and then you’re done. The behavior changes instantly.
We like to think of it as the best of both worlds, and we think you will too.
It would be natural to assume that companies which invest in customer experience measurement (CEM) would put customer preferences at the top of the list, but this is not always the case. Companies do not consciously ignore customers in the survey process. Rather it’s more often a matter of doing what has come to be expected internally— populating a dashboard with metrics that provide a snapshot of performance at various levels in the organization. Overly structured surveys may do this efficiently while at the same time falling short of adequately describing customers’ actual experiences. It doesn’t have to be this way. One approach to creating more customer-centric surveys is to make sure customers are able to tell their stories. By shifting the survey balance to include some unstructured feedback, everyone wins.
Unsatisfying Customer Satisfaction Surveys
It’s ironic but a number of customers who take ‘satisfaction’ surveys find the experience less than satisfying. Surveys frustrate customers and the interviewers who have to administer them. The effects can be even more harmful with self-administered questionnaires done online or through the mail—there is nothing keeping a customer from prematurely ending an unsatisfying “exchange.”
Poorly Designed Surveys Have Real Consequences
Too often customers are hindered to say what’s on their minds and interviewers are stymied in their attempt to record valuable information. Completely close-ended customer experience surveys administered using in flexible software are all too common, and contribute to:
Declining response rates—Respondents fail to complete the survey. Others refuse to participate based on previous unpleasant experiences. The available respondent pool shrinks and survey costs increase.
Poor quality data—Respondents rush to get through surveys filled with questions that are irrelevant to them, or are forced into selecting answers which do not represent their true or complete feelings.
Missing or incomplete information—What company would not benefit from learning in a customer’s own words what went amiss in a service transaction, or the opposite—what went exactly right? Too many surveys simply do not provide this opportunity.
The bottom line: customers are becoming disengaged with the very feedback process designed to improve their experiences. Over time, this behavior will have a negative impact on perceptions of your brand—which you may find yourself reading about on a social media or internet rating site.
Creating the Right Kind of Survey
Today’s customers are not waiting to be asked what they think about customer experience surveys—they are telling us without reservation and we need to give them the tools and utilize technology that allow customers to give us feedback.
A key element is more flexible surveys that not only provide better data but also create a better survey experience. In other words, surveys which are more like everyday conversations. During conversations people exchange information quickly and efficiently. They readily engage, react to each other’s statements and naturally probe for and provide further detail. Adding open-end questions to customer surveys helps create an environment in which interesting information surfaces and customers are able to tell their stories in their own words. It’s a matter of shifting the survey balance from 100 percent close-ended ratings-based questions to providing targeted opportunities for unstructured feedback.
Qualitative research entails primarily an open-ended exchange between interviewer and customer. We are not advocating all customer experience surveys should go to this extreme, but there is certainly room to shift the balance and let customers more freely give us the feedback they want to give and not just the ratings organizations force on them.
This does not mean giving up performance metrics. A well balanced experience survey will meet the needs of all stakeholders in the customer experience measurement process. How far a company moves along the continuum depends on a number of factors including:
Information goals: Is the survey’s focus on performance appraisal, diagnosis of systemic problems, rapid problem resolution or retention/relationship building?
How the information will be used and by whom?
The category/type of transaction
The organization’s culture
What Should We Ask?
There is not a magic formula for questions that solicit useful, unstructured feedback. It starts with deciding exactly what type of information you want, who will use it and for what purpose. General considerations are:
Question selection/wording
Placement in the survey
Number of questions
Probing and clarifying responses to best effect
Question Selection
Just as researchers agonize over the best wording for an attribute, they should also give careful thought to the wording of open-end questions. Start by matching the question to the specific information need, and then get creative. In general, the less specific or loosely defined the question is, the less specific the response will be.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with adjectives that might be considered too leading in a close-ended question. Words like unforgettable, terrific or disappointing may inspire respondents to more focused and detailed responses. Don’t forget to communicate research concepts in customer friendly ways and ask them directly:
What stood out?
What matters the most to you?
How do we keep your business?
Consider borrowing simple projective techniques from the qualitative arsenal, e.g., “If you were the President of the company, what would you do to improve this experience?”
Placement
Data continuity will be a consideration unless you are designing a new program. Where new questions are placed
in the survey may influence responses to questions that follow. Therefore, it is advisable to pretest the new questionnaire to understand these effects. An exception would be when new questions are placed at the end of the survey.
How Many Open-Ends Is Too Many?
There is not a one-size- fits-all answer, but in the same way an attribute list can become burdensome, it is possible to put too many open-end questions into a customer experience survey. A pretest will reveal the information each question produces, allowing you to judge incremental value and whether some questions are redundant.
If it turns out that there are several productive questions, consider splitting the questions up across the sample; there should still be enough information to analyze. While it is important that all respondents provide an overall rating, it is not necessary that everyone experiences the same set of open-end questions. The main point here is to make sure that respondents get the most relevant opportunities to provide their feedback.
Be realistic about the survey subject and especially the character of transaction when considering which and how many open-ends to include. Low involvement transactions, especially those done repeatedly, become routine and unmemorable. A simple question at the end of the survey such as, “Please tell us anything else memorably positive/negative?” may be all that is needed.
Getting the Most Out of Open-Ends
More companies are moving customer experience surveys online and it is important that open-end questions can be as effective in self-administered as in interviewer-administered formats. The success of open-ends administered by live interviewers is dependent on the quality of their probing and clarifying skills. The success of open-end questions in online surveys is also driven by effective probing. If the response to an online open-end question is left blank or is too brief, simply trigger a prompt such as, “Please can you tell us more?”
Technology to the Rescue
Automated text analysis uses a combination of natural language processing and other computational linguistic techniques to:
Categorize and summarize text
Extract information into a suitable form for additional analysis
In other words, it turns unstructured text information into structured data that can be summarized and analyzed using familiar quantitative tools. Note that automated text analysis tools are capable of far more than comment categorization (comparable to human coding).
Surveys are a Reflection of your Brand
Every interaction with your company—including a customer experience survey—is a reflection on your brand. One way to make sure the survey experience is positive is to shift the balance from completely structured to semi-structured. Open-end questions have the potential, when designed and executed well, to create a better survey experience for respondents and to generate data with significant diagnostic value. A more open-ended questionnaire design creates a survey experience that is more conversational and allows customers to tell their stories in their own words.
The real value of customer experience programs is not in gathering customer feedback, but in putting the voice of the customer to work. While there was never a positive return on investment (ROI) for simply measuring satisfaction (no more than there is a positive ROI for taking your temperature when you are sick), today’s cost/benefit driven environment has made the need for meaningful action even more acute.
At a Glance
Most organizations invest in measuring customer experience and satisfaction with an expectation that the insights derived will lead to product and service improvements and better customer experiences. Unfortunately, far too many organizations simply hand customer feedback to managers with instructions to “use the results to take action.” The consequences? Quite often, no action is taken and the anticipated improvements in customer experience fail to materialize.
Start to Utilize Your Feedback
A growing body of evidence reveals that a majority of organizations are not where they want to be when it comes to putting the voice of the customer to work. These five steps will help you guide you to identify people and actions to be taken so that the feedback you are receiving can be utilized.
Step 1. Identify High Priority Customer-Driven Action Items
Quite often, analysis of customer survey items – each of which represents a specific element of the customer experience – is the starting point for defining action items. Specifically, items identified as “key drivers” of overall customer satisfaction and loyalty, and those that receive relatively unfavorable customer ratings are designated as customer-driven priorities for improvement. Many organizations also look at additional Voice of Customer (VoC) data sources (e.g., inbound customer comments and complaints, user-generated media, etc.) to corroborate initial conclusions based on analysis of survey data. Overall, the analysis of customer feedback enables the organization to define customer-driven action items.
Step 2. Determine Owners of the Customer-Driven Action Items
The next step in the process involves a review of customer feedback by a cross-functional team of managers. These managers collectively determine the people and parts of the organization that impact and have some level of ownership of each action item. It is the “owners” that must take the lead in developing and implementing an appropriate action plan.
Step 3. “Drill Down” for Clarity and Granularity
The analysis of survey items often provides the starting point for customer-driven action planning and implementation. However, the survey instruments are not generally designed to provide enough detail or granularity to enable an organization to determine the specific action to take. As a result, the action-item owners are limited by an incomplete understanding of “what to do.” This leads to one of two unfortunate outcomes:
The actions taken to respond to the voice of the customer are misguided and ineffective
Managers and employees end up taking no action at all because they lack clarity regarding what the customer wants or needs
In contrast, organizations that are successful in applying customer feedback to drive improvement ask themselves a simple question before developing and implementing action plans: Do we understand what the customer wants us to do or do differently?
The third step in the process requires that owners of a customer-driven action item confirm that they have sufficient understanding of what customers actually want the company to do or do differently. Social media can provide insight into what customers want or expect and knowledge from social media sources can be valuable. If not, the group must determine the questions to address and areas requiring “drill-down” for clarity and granularity.
Step 4. Pinpoint Policies, Processes, and Operations Associated with High-Priority Action Items
Once a customer issue is clarified and ownership for action established, a fourth critical step in the process is to identify and target the relevant business enablers. What are the organizational processes, policies, practices and other aspects of performance that are connected to the targeted element of the customer experience? The owners must answer this question to ensure that they identify and x the “right things.”
Step 5. Develop and Implement Appropriate Action Plans
Upon completion of these first four process steps, the organization has put itself in a very good position to develop and implement an appropriate customer experience improvement plan, because:
The people and parts of the organization that impact the customer-driven action item have been identified
These owners understand what customers want the organization to do
The owners have pinpointed the organizational processes, practices, policies and other performances issues that need to be changed and improved
Essentially, the “guess work” has been taken out of developing and implementing an appropriate customer driven action plan. Now, it’s time for the owners to develop the plan.
Well-conceived action plans require solid information about what to change and how to change it. Integrating action
items identified through the customer feedback process with operational training tools to guide action is a best practice to drive improvement. For many organizations, integrating these elements within the reporting platform is the most effective way to arm corporate and front-line managers with the tools they need to address improvement areas.
Connect to the Right People
Companies investing in capturing, crunching, and sharing insights derived from customer feedback will make some progress toward putting the voice of the customer to work. However, unless these organizations implement a process to connect customer feedback to the right people, and the right business processes, policies and activities, progress likely will be stalled.
For too long the focus has been on “what” your customers are saying, with little consideration to “how” they are being asked. In a time where customer experience is more important than ever, companies are looking to improve the way their data is collected. Traditional methods such as phone surveys, focus groups, and paper surveys certainly serve a purpose, but can leave out important customer touchpoints and insights.
Finding the appropriate channel for your audience will lead to an increase in customer feedback as well as the quality of their evaluations. At InMoment we provide a number of alternative methods for collecting customer reviews and feedback to help you listen and engage with your customers on a deeper level.
Voice Comments
InMoment Voice combines a variety of innovative technologies to glean insights from customers’ voice comments, which are gathered through various channels such as customer surveys or service calls, to support more informed business decisions. Voice responses are transcribed in real time, then text analytics is used to reveal critical information like urgent customer concerns.
Video Feedback
Video goes one step further, giving customers the freedom to express themselves on their own terms. This type of feedback also captures expressions and body language which helps you to better understand both the facts and emotion that make up the user experience. Video feedback typically provides 4-5 times more content than open-ended comments.
Web & Mobile
Online and mobile surveys give a more detailed view into the customer experience. Feedback is gathered at every stage of the buying and online experience, from online browsing, to pre-purchase, purchase, order fulfillment, and delivery and order completion.
Location-Based Insights
Location-Based Insights are used in conjunction with mobile surveys. Through a combination of mobile SDK, beacons, and geofencing, Location-Based Insights help organizations better understand buyer and non-buyer habits. Quick and efficient in-app surveys gather information about a customer’s visit, regardless of whether or not they’ve made a purchase.
Your customers are your best resource. When they are comfortable with the survey method, it empowers them to share valuable insights and touchpoints. This data allows you to make better, more informed decisions that improve your organization as well as the customer experience.
I’m biased – I like the Net Promoter Score system, and I’m going to tell you why (in a minute). But, I also think we need an unbiased perspective on NPS, one that airs the dirty laundry, so to speak. Net Promoter Score is both a customer loyalty metric and a system for improving loyalty over time. NPS isn’t a perfect metric. It’s also not a complete system. But, most of the people talking about NPS are the ones touting it, which means you’ll rarely find a genuine report of its pros and cons.
Well, that’s exactly what I’m doing here.
In the interests of transparency, I have to say that Wootric, an NPS SaaS platform, suggested I write this piece and requested that I don’t pull any punches. No punches have been pulled. This is my take.
Net Promoter Score: Pros
It’s fiercely honest feedback, identifies promoters, and boards love it
As I said, I like Net Promoter Score. In a world of marketing gray areas, biased Yelp reviews, and silent customers reticent to criticize, the NPS question itself is phrased to get the most honest possible response:
“On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend this product?”
Or, as I like to think of it “On a scale of 0-10, would you tell your best friend they should get this product?”
Because that’s what it’s really asking – are you willing to stake your name and reputation by recommending this product?
You’re not asking whether they like the product. That’s subjective, and they’ll just say “yes” to be nice anyway. You are asking whether they would subject their nearest and dearest to this product. And that brings out a whole other side of human character: Selflessness.
I might use a chipped teacup without thinking twice about it, but if I have a friend over, they get the teacup that’s in pristine condition. When it comes to our friends, we want nothing but the best.
Which is why, when you need a completely honest, unbiased report on how your audience perceives your company, an NPS survey is the single best way to get those answers.
Of course, the obvious reason to use NPS is to identify your promoters so you can encourage and amplify their loud, enthusiastic voices that are the real ambassadors of your brand. The less obvious reason is that it’s one of those board-level metrics everyone can easily understand and rally around.
It’s easy on your customers
But here’s the thing about NPS: It’s one question and an open-ended follow-up. The follow-up “Care to tell us why?” question lets customers elaborate on their score.
They get to cut to the chase and tell you what is important to them in their own words. As surveys go, this is a great user experience. That’s why response rates are so much higher than the old school “This will only take 5 minutes of your time…” multi-question surveys. And, you get rich qualitative feedback out of it. So, really, the beauty of NPS is in its simplicity. Both for your customers and for you. It does one thing, and does it very well.
The trouble starts when you expect it to do too much…
The Cons: What are disadvantages of Net Promoter Score?
It’s not a miracle solution
“Anytime anyone presents NPS as the “be all and end all,” they’re wrong.” – Jessica Pfeifer, Chief Customer Officer, Wootric
Thanks to being ubiquitous — after all, Net Promoter Score is a metric measured by most of the Fortune 100 — many people expect NPS to do more than is realistic. This is often why “Net Promoter Score doesn’t work.”
NPS works best within the context of a robust customer feedback & listening program.
Using the entire customer journey as a framework against which to measure customer experience.
Designing a feedback collection strategy with audience segmentation, market segmentation, and customer maturity.
Taking action on feedback – because feedback is only as useful as its follow-through.
Responding to customers, so they know their feedback is valued.
Measuring improvement targets and adjusting as needed.
I might also add incorporating a brand advocacy program to encourage and leverage promoters, as well as tracking other established metrics like the CSAT that lets customers give feedback on their interaction with your support representatives.
But whatever your recipe for creating and counting happy customers, you’ll need to do more than just send out a single survey.
When companies start paying bonuses on NPS
At Sprint, 20% of employee bonuses are tied to Net Promoter Score. On the surface, that doesn’t seem like the worst idea ever. But think of it this way: Is your goal to improve a score, or to improve your customers’ experiences? They are not one and the same. Telstra, Australia’s largest telecommunications company, also uses NPS, but has focused its call centers to give customers more efficient, more helpful service (and follow-up calls and personalized emails). After implementing these efforts, Telstra saw a 3 point rise in their NPS score, and reduced customer churn.
Harvard Business Review’s Rob Markey puts the issue succinctly: “With incentive compensation, you get exactly – and only – what you pay for. Once compensation depends on improving a particular score, people tend to focus on the metric rather than on what it tells you about what customers want or need.”
Another, related pitfall is that employees who receive compensation based on NPS scores tend to coach customers on how to respond, asking for top scores.
In short, use NPS as a compass to guide you to creating better customer service. Don’t treat the number as the end goal, or you’ll find people gaming the system.
When customers answer The Question, but don’t see follow-through
Aside from the best practice of acknowledging any survey response, whether they be good or bad, what customers really need to see is the company acting on their feedback. With NPS, you’re learning what customers struggle with – but without a process in place to use that feedback to inform your product roadmap, customer success efforts, customer service, etc., that feedback too often comes to nothing.
And your customers can tell.
It’s precisely because NPS is so “easy” that it gets abused in this way. But when you don’t take action based on results, NPS won’t magically move the needle for you. The key is to listen, and then proactively deliver what customers need to achieve their desired outcomes. This requires a Net Promoter cycle.
When you put Baby in a corner (ie. NPS isn’t just a one-department thing)
Don’t put Baby in the corner – if it’s one thing we learned from Patrick Swayze, it’s this. And, like Baby, NPS can’t do what it does best when confined. For example, it’s very useful for customer success, especially with identifying promoters and alerting customer service to potential problems, but it’s not just a customer success thing. NPS does its best work as a company-wide metric that has implications and value for just about every customer-facing department.
Product Development uses NPS feedback to prioritize dev resources.
Marketing uses NPS to find and ask happy clients to join their advocacy programs (or get valuable metrics to use for case studies).
Customer Service/Support uses NPS as a signal for when clients need outreach and support.
Sales uses NPS to identify accounts primed for upsells and referrals (NPS is a strong business intelligence tool).
Contending with a firehose of feedback
We’ve all gotten the survey that gives us one box to check, and offers no way for us to explain what has gone horribly wrong with the product, service or company. It’s so frustrating. If you could only explain it, maybe they could fix it, but the fact that they don’t give you a way to communicate just shows they clearly don’t care.
The beauty of an NPS survey is that it does include an open-ended response section, however, another problem can occur.
The open-ended response section of the NPS survey can become a repository for everything from venting, to how-to questions. This can create chaos for the poor chap trying to analyze NPS feedback, and even if the queries are passed on to appropriate customer service representatives, it’s not a system that scales easily. And if you fail to close the loop with these customers, they’ll be even more frustrated.
The beauty of NPS is that it has one job – don’t make it pull triple-duty as the primary communication outlet.
If people are asking questions via NPS survey, it might indicate that they don’t feel able to elsewhere. Do you have a strong FAQ or Knowledge Base available? Is it easy to contact Support?
Hearing from more customers is a good problem to have, but it can be a challenge. But even if you have multiple channels for communication, you’ll still need a good way to categorize the qualitative data you do get via the survey. In fact, that is why NPS companies like Wootric offer sentiment and keyword analysis of the qualitative data that their customers receive. Start by creating categories and tagging responses so you can see where most of the issues are.
So, let’s sum it up…
What are Net Promoter Score Pros and Cons?
Pros:
Quantifies customer loyalty
Rich qualitative feedback
Identifies brand advocates
Higher response rates than multi-question surveys
Cons:
Not comprehensive. Complement NPS with other metrics, like CSAT
Tying compensation to NPS may skew results
Requires analysis of qualitative feedback
What limitations have you experienced with NPS? How have you used NPS to create real positive change? Tell me in the comments below or share your thoughts @NikkiElizDemere on Twitter.
Nichole Elizabeth DeMeré is a SaaS consultant & Customer Success evangelist. She is the founder of Authentic Curation, and serves as a moderator at @ProductHunt & @GrowthHackers.
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They get to cut to the chase and tell you what is important to them in their own words. As surveys go, this is a great user experience. That’s why response rates are so much higher than the old school “This will only take 5 minutes of your time…” multi-question surveys. And, you get rich qualitative feedback out of it. So, really, the beauty of NPS is in its simplicity. Both for your customers and for you. It does one thing, and does it very well.
Nichole Elizabeth DeMeré is a SaaS consultant & Customer Success evangelist. She is the founder of Authentic Curation, and serves as a moderator at