By Simon Fraser, InMoment + Kirstin Simons, NPSx by Bain & Company
NPSx by Bain & Company and InMoment recently released the State of CX: UK Consumer Trends Report, an in-depth analysis of customer perceptions on brand experiences across multiple industries. Based on responses from over 32,000 consumers, we have uncovered invaluable insights that reveal how certain brands are performing.
In this blog, we take a look at the findings specific to the retail industry and delve into the secrets of CX leaders and the key net promoter score drivers that propel them to the top of the leaderboard!
The Challenge of Our Times
It’s no secret that retailers today operate in a challenging environment. In the ever-evolving landscape of retail customer experience (CX), businesses face a multitude of challenges and trends that shape their strategies. Record inflation, supply shortfalls, labour constraints, rising capital costs, and material shortages have created a perfect storm. To add to the complexity, an increasing number of customers are demanding that companies take meaningful steps toward sustainability, reflected in their ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) commitments.
Exceptional Brands in the Spotlight
Among the wide range of retail and grocery brands, two stand out in their dedication to delivering on their promises: John Lewis in the retail sector and Aldi in the grocery sector. These brands couldn’t be more different, yet both have mastered the art of aligning their brand identity with their customer experience, and they’ve done so with resounding success.
Clear and distinct brand identity is a common thread between successful retail brands. It’s the beacon that guides their actions and decisions, ensuring that every interaction with customers reflects their core values and promises.
Retail’s NPS Drivers
When we scrutinise the net promoter score (NPS) data by sector, a pattern emerges: product quality and great value consistently stand out as the primary drivers of customer loyalty. Today’s consumers want their money to stretch further, and they value brands that save them time and effort by offering trustworthy products. Making it easy for customers to access help, both online and offline, is another critical factor in building loyalty.
Retail, in particular, shines when it comes to providing great value to customers. This is a testament to the industry’s commitment to delivering products and services that meet customers’ needs without breaking the bank.
The Era of Personalisation
In an age where consumers are inundated with marketing messages, personalisation has become a key factor for success. A staggering 72% of consumers now engage only with messages tailored to their interests. While customers appreciate this approach, marketers acknowledge that achieving true personalisation requires substantial investment.
Effective personalisation begins with a deep understanding of customer needs. To organise around customer goals rather than organisational silos, businesses must dissect customer behaviour. This involves identifying what products customers are buying, their interests, preferred communication channels, and the right timing for engagement.
NPSx by Bain & Company states that connected customer experiences, powered by AI, are the future of CX. Predictive personalisation and hyper-personalisation are emerging as game-changers. These tools leverage data and algorithms to anticipate customer needs and provide tailored experiences that delight customers.
Promoters, Passives and Detractors in Retail:
Over 50% of John Lewis and Ikea customers are enthusiastic Promoters, setting a high standard for customer satisfaction.
Brands like Amazon and Shein tend to polarise opinions, evoking strong reactions from both Promoters and Detractors.
Many retailers, including Matalan, The Range, and Boohoo, have a significant number of Passives among their customer base. This presents an opportunity for growth and improvement through targeted investments.
Retail in the Bigger Picture
Taking a step back and comparing the retail industry to the broader UK context, we see that retail is one of the top-performing industries in the study. It consistently outperforms the average across all NPS drivers. Retail’s strengths lie in its ability to provide great value and adapt to challenging market conditions.
In a rapidly changing retail landscape, understanding NPS trends and adapting to meet evolving customer expectations is crucial. Brands that can navigate these challenges while staying true to their core identity and delivering exceptional value and personalisation will undoubtedly excel in the dynamic world of retail CX.
If you’d like to find out more about the study and how you compare to others in the retail sector, book your meeting here!
In the interconnected world of today, reputation management has evolved from a luxury to an absolute necessity. This article delves deep into the critical role that reputation management plays in determining a brand’s success. We’ll explore how effectively managing public perception can significantly impact your brand’s credibility, consumer trust, and financial outcomes.
Understanding Reputation Management
Reputation management is the strategic approach to shaping the public’s perception of your brand by influencing the information available about it online. In today’s digital landscape, where consumers heavily rely on online reviews and social media feedback, the importance of reputation management cannot be overstated. A well-managed reputation not only fosters consumer trust but also encourages positive word-of-mouth marketing, which can be a powerful driver for brand success in today’s competitive market.
It’s essential to differentiate between brand image and brand reputation. While brand image is the way a brand presents itself to the world, brand reputation relates to brand reception and is how the world perceives the brand based on their experiences and the information available. Both are important, but reputation is built over time and is less controllable, making it even more crucial to manage effectively.
The Digital Landscape and Reputation Management
The advent of the internet and social media platforms has significantly amplified the need for effective reputation management. Information, both positive and negative, spreads like wildfire. A single tweet or a Facebook post can go viral, causing irreparable damage to a brand’s reputation. In such a volatile environment, brands must be vigilant and proactive in managing their online reputation to mitigate potential risks.
The Connection Between Customer Experience and Reputation
Customer experience is intrinsically linked to reputation management. A positive customer experience can significantly bolster your brand’s reputation. Reviews and feedback are instrumental in shaping public perception. According to various studies, 93% of consumers say online reviews influence their purchase decisions, and 84% trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends or family.
Ignoring or failing to address negative reviews can have severe consequences. A single negative review can drive away approximately 22% of customers, while three negative reviews can deter 59% of potential customers. Therefore, monitoring and addressing negative reviews and feedback should be a cornerstone of your reputation management strategy.
Key Strategies for Effective Reputation Management
Managing your brand’s reputation is an ongoing effort that requires a well-rounded approach. In this section, we’ll outline key strategies that can help you effectively shape public perception, from monitoring online mentions to handling customer feedback.
Proactive Monitoring
One of the first steps in effective reputation management is proactive monitoring. Utilize tools and techniques like predictive analytics to keep an eye on brand mentions, reviews, and social media conversations. Social listening tools can provide real-time alerts for brand mentions, allowing you to address issues before they escalate.
Swift Response and Redressal
Time is of the essence when it comes to addressing customer concerns and complaints. About 53% of customers expect businesses to respond to negative reviews within a week. Having a well-defined process for handling criticism can not only mitigate damage but also turn detractors into promoters. Read more on the importance of addressing concerns and closing the feedback loop here.
Transparency and Authenticity
In today’s world, consumers value transparency and authenticity. Being upfront about your business practices, and admitting when you’re wrong, can go a long way in building a strong reputation. Authenticity should not just be a buzzword but a core value that informs all your interactions with customers.
Content Creation and Management
Content is a powerful tool in shaping public perception. High-quality, relevant content not only provides value but also positions your brand as an industry leader. Regularly update your blog, social media channels, and other platforms with content that aligns with your brand values and speaks to your audience’s needs and concerns.
Employee Advocacy
Employees often serve as the first touchpoint between your brand and the public, making them crucial players in managing your reputation. To leverage this, businesses should invest in creating a positive work environment for their staff and providing a great employee experience. Training programs can be enhanced with guidelines on managing customer interactions, both online and offline. By encouraging employees to share good news and positive experiences about the company on social media, you can turn them into effective brand ambassadors.
Regular Reputation Audits
Conducting regular reputation audits can provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of your reputation management strategies. Use analytics tools to track key performance indicators like customer satisfaction scores, online review ratings, and social media engagement levels. This data can help you fine-tune your approach and identify areas for improvement.
Common Pitfalls in Reputation Management and How to Avoid Them
Even the best brands can make mistakes in reputation management. Some common pitfalls include not responding to negative reviews, being defensive, or providing generic responses. Avoid these mistakes by training your customer service team in empathetic communication and problem-solving. Always strive for a personalized approach to show customers that you value their feedback and are committed to improving.
In conclusion, the importance of reputation management in today’s digital age cannot be overstated. A well-managed reputation can be your brand’s most valuable asset, driving customer loyalty and long-term success. By implementing effective strategies for monitoring, response, transparency, content management, and employee advocacy, you can not only protect but also enhance your brand’s reputation. As we’ve seen, the link between public perception and brand success is undeniable. Therefore, prioritizing reputation management is not just a good business practice; it’s a critical requirement for long-term success.
Ready to improve your brand’s reputation? Watch our webinar to learn practical tips that can make a real difference.
In today’s cut-throat market, differentiating your brand is more important than ever. What better way to outsmart your competitors than to understand them intimately? Competitive analysis offers you this lens. This article will walk you through how to conduct an effective competitive analysis, interpret the results, and turn those insights into actionable strategies.
Understanding the Basics of Competitive Analysis
Competitive analysis involves systematically evaluating your competitors to identify their strengths and weaknesses relative to your own business. Why is this important? Whether you’re a startup or a market leader, understanding your competitors helps you make informed decisions, from product development to marketing strategies.
Preparing for a Comprehensive Competitive Analysis
Before diving in, define clear objectives for your analysis. What do you want to discover? Next, identify your primary competitors. They could be businesses offering similar products or targeting similar audiences. Collect preliminary data on these competitors to provide a basis for more in-depth analysis.
Key Components of an Effective Competitive Analysis
Product Analysis:
Compare product features, advantages, and disadvantages among competitors. This will help you understand what makes your product unique and identify areas for improvement.
Market Position and Brand Analysis:
How do consumers perceive your competitors? Evaluate their branding strategies and messages to identify their market positioning. Is it consistent with their target demographics?
Sales and Marketing Strategy Analysis:
Break down competitors’ sales funnels and marketing campaigns. What channels are they utilizing? Who is their target audience? This information can inform your own strategies.
Operational and Financial Analysis:
Look into operational efficiencies, production costs, and pricing structures of competitors. This financial foresight is vital for strategic planning.
Tools and Techniques for Competitive Analysis
In today’s fast-paced, technology-rich environment, competitive analysis has undergone a transformation. Gone are the days when spreadsheets and casual market observations sufficed. With an abundance of specialized tools at your disposal, competitive analysis has entered a new era—one deeply anchored in data-driven methodologies.
The Importance of CRM Databases in Competitive Analysis
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) databases are essential tools for storing and tracking customer information, interactions, and sales history. When used in competitive analysis, these databases can help you understand how your competitors are succeeding in areas like customer retention and loyalty programs.
The Role of Data Analytics in Competitive Analysis
Data analytics tools are crucial for turning raw data into actionable insights. These tools help you transition from merely collecting data to intelligently analyzing it. Data analytics can help you identify weaknesses in your strategy, spot emerging market trends, and even model potential future scenarios.
Interpreting the Results of a Competitive Analysis
Data collection is an important first step, but the crucial part is analyzing that data to make informed decisions. While having the right tools can provide you with valuable information about the competition, the ability to interpret this data effectively is what sets successful businesses apart from the rest.
Identifying Market Gaps
Identifying gaps in the market is not just about finding areas where no products or services exist; it’s about recognizing opportunities that meet unmet consumer needs. These could be features that no current products offer, service needs that are not adequately addressed, or new ways to engage customers. These are areas where you have the opportunity to differentiate your business and gain a competitive advantage.
Capitalizing on Competitor Weaknesses
Studying your competitors’ strategies through competitor analysis will expose their strengths, but more importantly, their weaknesses. These are not just points for consideration; they are potential goldmines for strategic advantage. For example, if you find that a competitor has high customer churn rates due to poor customer service, this isn’t just a point to mull over—it’s an actionable insight. Could your company fill this void with exceptional customer service and thereby win over disenchanted consumers? In the world of business, one company’s weakness could become your stepping stone to market leadership.
Turning Competitor Insights into Action
The ultimate goal is to take action based on your analyses and data collection. After you’ve gathered and interpreted all the necessary information, the next step is to implement real-world strategies. This is the stage where your planning and insights become tangible actions that impact your business.
Strategic Adaptation: Make Informed Changes
The key to this phase is making informed adjustments to your business plans based on the data you’ve gathered. Use the insights from your analysis to identify what’s working well in your operations. Focus on these strong points, whether they are product features, service quality, or brand image, to differentiate yourself from competitors.
Addressing Weaknesses: Improve and Balance
The next step is to identify and improve areas where your business is lacking. For example, if your marketing campaigns are not delivering the expected return on investment, or if your customer service is inefficient, these are issues that need to be addressed. By reallocating resources like staff, time, or budget, you can turn these weaknesses into new strengths.
The Tactical Play: Make Data-Driven Decisions
Your strategies can take many forms, such as updating your product line or adjusting your marketing budget. The important thing is that these changes should be based on solid data and careful analysis. Each decision you make should be considered a smart, data-driven choice that contributes to your overall business goals.
The Importance of Customer Experience in Competitive Analysis
Customer experience is a critical factor for gaining a competitive edge. It’s more than just a metric; it’s central to your business’s success. Understanding and improving the customer experience can give you a significant advantage over your competitors.
Customer Feedback: A Valuable Source of Information
First, let’s discuss customer feedback. These aren’t just comments or ratings; they offer valuable insights into your business. Customer feedback can help you understand areas that may not be visible through analytics alone. This information can be used to improve your SWOT analysis, refine your market segmentation, and provide real-world examples for your strategy planning.
Enhancing the Customer Experience: A Key Differentiator
To create a memorable customer experience, focus on exceeding customer expectations at every interaction point. This is how you turn regular customers into loyal advocates for your brand. To do this effectively, identify what’s lacking in your competitor’s customer journey and aim to not only fill that gap but to excel in those areas.
The Added Value: A Unique Competitive Advantage
So, how does customer experience relate to competitive advantage? When two businesses offer similar quality and services, exceptional customer experience can set you apart. By incorporating customer experience into your competitive analysis, you gain an additional layer of valuable data, giving you an edge over your competitors.
Conclusion
An effective competitive analysis isn’t a one-off task but a continuous process. As the market landscape evolves, so should your strategies. This deep dive aims to equip you with the analytical tools you need to maintain a competitive edge.
Keen to stay competitive?
Learn how InMoment can provide you with the tools and expertise you need to provide a customer experience better than the competition.
This year’s edition of the XI Forum Europe is making a triumphant return, promising an even more exceptional experience. We’d love for you to join us in London on the 4th & 5th October. This year’s event is jam-packed with hands-on demonstrations, workshops, and interactive opportunities to help you extract tangible value from our speakers, as well as gain applicable knowledge for your experience programme.
Here are five reasons why you should save your spot today:
Reason #1: Embrace ‘Integrated CX’ for Your Brand
Ever heard of integrated CX? It’s not just the central theme of our upcoming XI Forum in London, but also the driving philosophy at InMoment. We’re all about assisting businesses in translating their customer experience initiatives into tangible, measurable business outcomes.
Integrated CX connects critical aspects of a successful customer experience, including:
Integrated Signals: Weaving together customer voices and potential customers’ perspectives throughout the entire customer journey, including surveys, chats, reviews, calls, and more.
Integrated Insights: Delivering both leading innovative technology and strategic expertise to deliver ROI.
Integrated Actions: The ultimate goal is to eliminate any and all silos that exist in many companies, facilitating a coordinated, data-driven approach to prioritising which action will get your business the best results.
Explore the transformative potential of integrated signals, insights, and actions for your experience programme.
Reason #2: Learn From Award-Winning Speakers
The 2023 speaker line up has been announced and the content is more practical than ever. Joining us on stage, we have CX Leaders from a variety of brands including, Metro Bank, Foot Locker, Quilter, Vue Cinema and MediaMarktSaturn to name a few! As well as leading CX experts from InMoment, NPSx by Bain & Company and Forrester!
Joining us means tapping into a wealth of expertise and insights that you simply can’t afford to miss. Get ready to gain invaluable knowledge, gain fresh perspectives, and stay ahead of the curve. Your chance to learn from the best is here – seize it!
Reason #3: Network With Your Peers
Engage with over 200 seasoned CX professionals representing the foremost brands in the region. That’s right—there will be plenty of opportunities to meet new people and create new connections throughout the two days and learn from their unique experiences. Hear what our delegates had to say about last years’ event!
Reason #4: The Conference is More Practical Than Ever
The event has been crafted to provide you with an insider’s perspective on a selection of EMEA’s most successful experience programmes. You’ll glean insights from experts that can be directly integrated into your own programme right from the outset. Unveiling previously undisclosed CX resources, client stories, frameworks, and methodologies, this conference will offer delegates a unique opportunity to explore these valuable insights.
Reason #5: Hear from our Exclusive Partner, NPSx by Bain & Company!
Our exclusive partner, NPSx℠ by Bain & Company, will host a workshop on day one of the XI Forum focused on why data is the key to building a successful business case for customer experience improvements; and a thrilling keynote presentation on day two, featuring Stanford Swinton presenting the battlegrounds of customer experience in 2024.
NPSx℠ brings together the best of Bain’s customer-first thinking and world class technologies, packaged in a simple and accessible way, for leaders around the world.
With so much riding on each interaction with your brand, you can’t afford to leave a negative customer experience unresolved. Research shows that it takes about 12 positive experiences to make up for one unresolved negative experience. In fact, a study by Lee Resources reveals that 91% of unhappy customers won’t return to your brand at all. That’s where a closed-loop system comes in!
What Is a Closed-Loop System?
A closed-loop system is “the ability to identify and resolve individual customer issues and larger organizational patterns and trends based on those issues while communicating solutions back to customers and employees,” as defined by Bain & Company in “The Ultimate Question 2.0.”
This system consists of an inner loop, the ability to identify and resolve individual customer issues while communicating solutions back to customers and employees, and the outer loop, the ability to identify and resolve larger organizational patterns and trends based on individual customer issues while communicating solutions back to customers and employees.
Why Is a Closed-Loop System Important?
And though closed-loop systems have been around for a while now, they are still just as vital to your customer experience (CX) program! Here are just a few reasons why:
A closed-loop system gives you a competitive advantage. Many organizations don’t have a formal process for closing the customer feedback loop. If you have one, that places you above more than half of the competition in terms of making your customers feel seen and heard.
A closed-loop system increases your customer loyalty. Did you know that 83% of customers feel more loyal to brands that respond and resolve their complaints? Getting feedback is one thing, but acting on that feedback is what will keep your customers coming back time and time again.
A closed-loop system will decrease customer churn. By reducing your customer defection rate by just 5% using an effective closed-loop system, you can increase profits by 25-95%!
Additional benefits that come from putting effort into closing the customer feedback loop:
Prevent problems – By implementing a closed-loop element into a customer feedback program like Net Promoter Score, you can identify problems before they escalate. Using automation and data analytics, you can recognize recurring themes in customer surveys that need to be addressed to avoid those same problems for future customers.
Discover upsell opportunities – Even satisfied customers can have great feedback on how you can improve your product or service. Maybe you don’t offer a product in a certain color, or something on the website is confusing. Either way, there is always room for improvement, and those improvements can become upsells for your customers.
Create and foster long-term relationships – When a customer feels that you listen to their concerns and respond to them, they are more likely to be return customers and bring referrals. Every time you acknowledge your customers for taking the time to provide feedback, you are strengthening your relationship with them.
Retain current customers – studies show that returning customers spend 60% more money on purchases and provide more referrals than new customers. It is also 5 to 25 times more expensive to find new customers than to retain existing ones. By closing the customer feedback loop, you help customers feel more loyal to your brand and come back for more.
Avoid customer churn – 89% of customers switch brands after a bad experience with a company if the company does not respond to their problems or complaints.
Are you convinced? Great! Now that you’re on board, we’ve outlined the 7 most important steps you need to take to get started with an effective closed-loop system.
Getting Started with a Closed-Loop System
1. Get Executive Buy-In
Customer experience is an investment, and for your program to have a positive impact—and succeed—you need buy-in from your executive team. For best results, we’ve found that closed-loop pilot programs focused on a few locations usually are the easiest for executives to get behind. With fewer locations, it’s easier to prove the efficacy of the program without straining your brand’s resources too much.
2. Prioritize Initiatives
Implementing a closed-loop system is a marathon, not a sprint. No matter the size of your company, setting up your program will take time. As your program matures, look for the easy wins to gain credibility and prove success within your organization. Once you’ve found your stride, gradually move on to more complicated issues.
3. Harness Existing Business Knowledge
Identify employees with an understanding of your organization’s operations, and empower them to resolve customer issues as they occur. Your employees know your business and are in a unique position to help your customers and quickly close the loop on customer issues.
4. Commit to Faster Resolution
As technology advances and the customer experience evolves, consumers expect more and more from your brand. Expectations have risen to the point that 42% of consumers said that if they contact your brand for support, they expect a response within 60 minutes. Resolve customer issues in a timely fashion, and your customers will reward you with repeat business and brand advocacy throughout the years.
5. Increase Organizational Agility
Don’t get too comfortable with the way things have always been done in regard to your CX program. Treat every customer issue as you would if you were a small business, and resolve it as quickly—and personably—as possible. Customers want to feel special, and the quicker you’re able to adapt to individual customer issues, the more you’ll be able to reduce customer churn and ensure organizational success.
6. Make Individual Contact
Your customers don’t care about the size of your business; they care about how your brand treats them on a personal level. Study your brand’s customer journey, gather feedback, and identify ways to increase the amount of personal contact during the process of resolving a customer issue. A simple note or phone call can have a profound impact on the success of your program.
7. Empower Your Employees
As mentioned earlier, your employees understand the way your organization operates better than anyone else. This knowledge puts them in a unique position to understand customer issues and know the right solution for resolving the problem. Have faith in your employees and give them the autonomy they need to address customer issues on a case-by-case basis and resolve them as efficiently and personably as possible.
The Value of Closing the Loop
Closed-loop systems are one of the most effective ways to not only reduce customer churn but proves the financial impact of your brand’s customer experience program. One client of ours implemented a closed-loop system that helped them identify nearly $23 million in potential revenue.
Other studies have found that closed-loop programs help retain customers, which can increase company value (up to 30%) and increase profits (up to 125%).
You can learn more from InMoment expert Jim Katzman about the value of closing the loop in his article here.
3 Myths Around Closed Loop Systems
When developing an effective closed-loop system, it is just as important to think about what to do as well as what NOT to do. We’ve put together a list of 3 myths revolving around closed-loop systems—and what you can do to avoid them.
Myth #1: Closed-Loop Systems Are Not Profitable
An effective closed-loop system will not only help you break even, it will help save you money! While many people think that closed-loop systems handle singular cases, they actually help you identify business trends and get ahead of them! By anticipating, not merely reacting, to your customer’s needs, you’ll be improving experiences before they even happen.
Myth #2: Closed-Loop Systems Are Only Relevant for Certain Industries
There is a stigma surrounding closed-loop systems—that they only belong in certain industries, such as retail or food service. While those industries definitely benefit from closed-loop systems, they are not the only ones with something to gain! Every business, regardless of the industry they operate in, can benefit from a system that gives you the ability to identify the next best action for a customer and address the root cause of issues to ensure continuous improvement.
Checkout this case study to see how one of our Financial Services clients utilized a closed-loop system to improve their NPS score as well as other business-specific metrics!
Myth #3: Closed-Loop Systems Are Too Complex
A system that allows you to quickly respond to customer complaints, analyze data to identify customer trends, and share knowledge within your organization to create a holistic view of the customer experience? It sounds like it would be a headache to implement. Well, that couldn’t be further from the truth—if you have the right partner!
Automating the Customer Feedback Loop-Closing Process
Closing the loop shouldn’t be a complex process, with automation you can simplify the method. For example, if you use Intercom to communicate with customers, you’re in luck. It’s extremely easy to implement a customer experience (CX) program that will close the customer feedback loop with InMoment’s entirely code-free Intercom Messenger Integration and start gathering feedback right in Intercom chat. InMoment’s NPS microsurvey can be integrated with Intercom Messenger with one click and survey responses automatically appear in Intercom user records. This makes it easy to set up automated follow-up messages to survey respondents based on their sentiment. Whether or not you use Intercom and InMoment, you can adapt a closed-loop process to your own systems as you handle customer feedback.
Real-Life Example of an Automated Closed-Loop System
Lead-gen software startup Albacross recently shared how they were able to swiftly automate a full-cycle NPS program. While the team started by simply sending NPS surveys through Intercom, they quickly realized the value in closing the customer feedback loop with all of their respondents–detractors, passives, and promoters. For Albacross, automating a close-the-loop process took just a few simple steps and the results have been incredible. Albacross has been able to understand its detractors on a whole new level, and they’ve been able to leverage promoters to drive more business.
Ask Detractors for Product Feedback
Sure, it might not feel great when you’ve received some low scores from valued customers on your customer surveys. But, qualitative feedback from detractors can become a guiding light for your organization as it chooses what issues and insights it wants to prioritize in closing the customer feedback loop. You should also pay attention to detractors because a low score is often an indicator of customers who are at higher risk of churn. In other words, it’s crucial that you leverage your detractors – there is so much that you can learn from them. And, it’s quite simple – here’s how Albacross automated their messages for detractors:
For users who rate their app low (0-6), Albacross sends two Intercom messages that ask for additional feedback. The main purpose of asking for additional customer feedback is to start the conversation and gain a deeper understanding of how the customer feels, what they’re struggling with, and why they’re disappointed.
Albacross sends messages via email:
and via in-app messages that appear immediately after the user completes the survey:
When creating these automated messages, it’s important that you pay great attention to the simplicity and brevity of the message you’re sending out. In this case, Albacross only asks users for a single thing that they can improve to make it as easy as possible for customers to answer.
Ask Promoters to review you on Capterra or G2 Crowd
What about all of your promoters? How can you make use of all this praise and admiration coming from your customers?
Here’s the answer: close the customer feedback loop by getting your promoters to share their experience on online review sites.
Online reviews are of utmost importance in a buyer’s evaluation process, especially in the B2B world, since these transactions often involve many people and large investments of money. According to a study done by G2 Crowd and Heinz Marketing, 71% of B2B buyers look at online reviews during the consideration stage. In addition, 92% of B2B buyers are more likely to purchase after reading a trusted review. By getting happy customers to share their positive experiences online, your organization can build credibility, improve trust, and increase brand awareness among potential buyers. If you’ve got happy customers, the momentum is already there – it’s now your job to transfer that positive momentum from your surveys to review sites.
Let’s take a look at how Albacross closes the loop with their promoters.
For users who give the app a passive rating (7-8), Albacross sends an email of gratitude to let them know that they appreciate the user’s feedback. This is sent via in-app message.
You’ll notice that Albacross’s message is short and sweet, and at the end, they ask their users to leave them a review on Capterra.
For users who rate the app very high (9-10), the Albacross team sends an email with similar content, but this email is sent from their CEO.
Closing the Customer Feedback Loop with Automation Leads to Results
Automating your close-the-loop process is guaranteed to uncover invaluable insights and drive high-impact action, whether that’s fixing a common issue for detractors or sending promoters to a review site to share their praise for your product. We cannot stress the value of closing the customer feedback loop enough.
In the case of Albacross, their efforts in closing the customer feedback loop and automating their program saw two key tangible effects:
Albacross’s NPS Score is consistently climbing. In just a short period of time, Albacross has more than 2x’ed their NPS score. Anyone with any experience with NPS knows that this is not an easy feat.
Secondly, Albacross now has a rating of 4.5/5 and 100+ reviews on Capterra. Most of the reviews that they’ve gathered recently have come from promoters who were directed to Capterra from Albacross’s automated Intercom messages.
So, go forth and close the customer feedback loop with survey respondents. It’s easy when you automate!
For more tips and tricks on closing the customer feedback loop, read our whitepaper designed to help you learn all you need to know to help you make a difference in your company using customer feedback.
Get the Closed-Loop System Starter Kit with InMoment’s Closed-Loop Action Package
Not sure where to start? No worries, we are here to help. We have developed a Closed-Loop Action Package that contains everything you need to get started with a system that will improve your business tomorrow, today!
Our Closed-Loop Action Package consists of four products: Case Management, Alerts & Notifications, Moments, and Reporting. Let’s break down what those are and what they mean for your business.
Case Management: Manage, track, prioritize, and resolve customer experience cases. Supports the ability to track communications with customers about their experience and helps to surface the root cause of customer issues from the employee perspective. Case Management is available on all managed survey programs purchased with XI Platform and allows for flexible filtering, for example, case status (closure or expiration), case owner, or case timer
Alerts & Notifications: Provides the ability to notify designated users based on specified criteria which may include scores and/or verbatim content tags. Includes up to 5 notification workflows per survey program from employee recognition, phrase/score recognition, and customer rescue alerts. Alerts can be sent via email, text, or other custom systems.
Moments: Case Management integrates with the Moments mobile application to enable the creation of cases and close the feedback loop on the go. With Moments, users can create and amend favorite collections, share feedback, create a case, mark moments invalid, or complete and close the loop so they get the insights they need to take immediate action.
Reporting: Offers insights into closed-loop data. Users can visualize and monitor cases at a high level. Program owners can immediately see stats such as average days to close a case, hours to first action, and number of escalated cases.
Voice of Employee: Supports the ability to track communications with customers about their experience and helps to surface the root cause of customer issues from the employee’s perspective. Incorporate the voice of the employee tasked with case resolution with a built-in questionnaire to uncover actionable intelligence from your employees; including customer and employee sentiment, and the root cause of the customer issue.
Khoros. Must-Know customer service statistics of 2023 (so far) (https://khoros.com/blog/must-know-customer-service-statistics). Accessed 3/12/2024.
Forbs. Don’t Spend 5 Times More Attracting New Customers, Nurture the Existing Ones (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jiawertz/2018/09/12/dont-spend-5-times-more-attracting-new-customers-nurture-the-existing-ones/). Accessed 3/12/2024.
Help Scout. 107 Customer Service Statistics and Facts You Shouldn’t Ignore (https://www.helpscout.net/75-customer-service-facts-quotes-statistics/). Accessed 3/12/2024.
Choosing the right partner for your CX program is essential for creating a memorable customer experience and increasing customer loyalty. 73% of customers say that a good customer experience is one of the biggest deciding factors for brand loyalty.
It’s clear that creating memorable experiences can not be overlooked, which means choosing a partner for your CX program is one of the most important decisions you will make for your business.
InMoment recently held a webinar featuring Forrester, an independent, research and advisory firm. InMoment’s Principal CX Strategist Jim Katzman and guest speaker from Forrester, Senior Analyst Colleen Fazio discuss decision-making in regards to CX program initiatives, finding the right program size, proving ROI in your CX program, and more. Let’s dive into what we covered on our webinar.
Setting Up Your CX Program for Success
Whether you are a small startup or a large corporation, defining the right size for your CX program is the first step towards success. The scale of your CX program should align with your organization’s resources, goals, and customer base. If your program is too small, it may not move the needle at all. Conversely, an overly ambitious program can overwhelm your team and drain its resources.
The team designing your CX program plays a pivotal role here, as crafting a strategy that is neither too ambitious to execute nor too modest to make an impact. At InMoment, we share a framework for success with our clients which we call the Continuous Improvement Framework. This framework consists of five steps, the first of which is design. When designing a CX program, we guide our clients to “design with the end in mind.”
It is necessary for you to set clear, measurable objectives from the outset, which can guide the design and implementation phases of your CX program and provide a clear way for evaluating success. The team designing your CX program should work closely with other departments, such as marketing and operations, to ensure that the CX teams in an organization are aligned and do not operate siloed from one another.
Proving the ROI of Your CX Program
In an era marked by economic challenges, it is important that you embark in designing, actioning, and proving an ROI focused experience program. In today’s competitive and financially constrained environment, organizations are under more pressure than ever to justify their investments in customer experience.
You need to develop a well-defined and quantifiable approach to measuring the ROI of CX initiatives, which is essential for securing ongoing support and funding from senior leadership.
But as any CX professional knows, tracking the performance of your CX program is only half the battle. It is important to vocalize and share the wins your business has achieved through your CX program. InMoment believes that sharing your wins, whether that is increased sales, increased customer acquisition, or increased net promoter score, is the last step in how you prove the ROI of customer experience in your organization.
How to Find the Perfect Partner for your CX Program by Asking the Right Questions
At this point, you should have the skeleton of your CX program built because you have already determined its size, and InMoment doesn’t think you need a huge team to be successful. Checkout how you can craft a max-impact CX strategy for a small CX team.
You should have also determined the metrics you are going to measure to track success and measure the ROI of your CX program.
Now, before choosing a partner for your CX program, there are questions that you need to ask yourself. It’s easy to get carried away here, so at InMoment we’ve narrowed it down to five questions that you can’t miss.
1. What are you trying to achieve with this partnership?
Before selecting any vendor or partner, you need to know what you are trying to get out of it. As we talked about earlier, you need to have a definition of success, and clarity on your objectives.
You also need to think about what you want a vendor to help you with in regards to your CX program. Are you looking for a self-serve solution or a full-service solution? Not sure? Then, you should start by taking our quiz that will help you do just that! Take our self-serve vs. full-service CX quiz here!
2. What are your non-negotiables for your CX Program?
Defining your non-negotiables upfront is crucial in selecting a CX partner that aligns with your business values and priorities. These could include factors like data security standards, cultural alignment, or specific service offerings that are indispensable for your organization. By identifying these essentials, you ensure that your partnership is built on a solid foundation, minimizing potential conflicts down the line.
3. How will this partnership support our strategic objectives?
Choosing a CX partner isn’t just about finding a solution; it’s about finding a strategic collaborator. Understanding how the potential vendor’s capabilities align with your broader business goals ensures that the partnership contributes to your overall growth strategy. A vendor that complements your strategic objectives can bring fresh insights and innovation, enhancing your CX program’s impact on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.
4. What is your budget, and how does this vendor align with it?
Budget considerations play a pivotal role in vendor selection. Before committing to a partnership, it’s essential to have a clear picture of your budget and how the vendor’s pricing structure fits within it.
While cost is a significant factor, it’s equally important to assess the value the CX partner provides relative to the investment. This ensures that you make an informed decision that balances financial feasibility with long-term gains.
5. What are the potential risks of a CX partner, and how can they be mitigated?
No partnership is without risks, and understanding potential pitfalls is a crucial step in vendor selection. Identifying risks, whether they pertain to data privacy, service disruptions, or misalignment with your organization’s values, allows you to put mitigation strategies in place. By addressing these concerns proactively, you can safeguard your CX program and establish contingency plans that ensure business continuity even in challenging situations.
By encouraging a thoughtful and rigorous questioning process, organizations can avoid common pitfalls and establish partnerships that are both fruitful and sustainable in the long term.
InMoment CX Program Success Stories
Companies like Foot Locker and alphabroder are two companies that have chosen InMoment as their CX program partner and have improved their metrics by focusing on the customer experience and employee experience. They have managed to align their CX strategies closely with their business goals, providing a roadmap for other organizations aiming for similar success.
When crafting a CX strategy for your own organization, remember to look at what industry leaders are doing to see if any of their strategies can be adapted for your own organization. Remember, the most successful companies are those that are willing to regularly reassess their strategies, learn from their experiences, and make data-driven adjustments as needed.
In Moment’s take on Finding CX Program Success in the Future
Crafting a successful CX program demands a thoughtful, strategic approach rooted in the unique needs and goals of an organization. It’s crucial to establish clear objectives, aligning CX initiatives with broader business goals that drive tangible value.
The right CX platform should empower teams with immediate, actionable insights. Maintaining momentum in a CX program requires ongoing governance, regular reassessments, and a willingness to adapt as the business landscape evolves. It’s about building a culture that puts the customer at the heart of every decision, every process, and every interaction.
In today’s fiercely competitive business environment, customer satisfaction is paramount to success. Happy customers become brand advocates, fueling growth through positive customer feedback. The Net Promoter Score (NPS) metric reveals the essence of customer sentiment and unlocks the path to business success, so it is important that you take the time to uncover net promoter score drivers.
By using the Net Promoter Score system as your compass, you can gain a better understanding of what drives customer loyalty and satisfaction. In this article we will share the three key drivers of NPS identified in our latest report, State of Customer Experience: 2023 UK Consumer Study, conducted in partnership with NPSx by Bain & Company, which reveals how to transform NPS from a numerical score to a strategic advantage!
Net Promoter Score Driver #1: Deliver on Product Quality and Innovation
Customer experience plays a crucial role in driving great product quality and innovation. As a reminder we have listed the steps to consider:
Company Purpose: Define your company’s purpose and why it exists, what does it hope to achieve for its customers and why. What differentiates you from your competitors, what value do your customers get from your product, and what are the unique solutions you provide.
Identify Pain Points: By listening to your customers’ experiences and collecting feedback at various touch points along the journey by utilising voice of the customer surveys, you can identify areas where your product falls short or where improvements can be made.
Understand Customer Expectations: By analysing and understanding your customers’ feelings and emotions using sentiment and text analytics towards a product or service you are offering, you are able to align your development efforts with customer needs and preferences.
Usability Testing and User Experience Research: By observing how customers interact with your product, you can identify usability issues, confusing workflows, or design flaws.
Continuous Improvement: Customer experience serves as a continuous customer feedback loop for product improvement and helps you to identify emerging trends, evolving needs, and areas that require ongoing enhancement.
Net Promoter Score Driver #2: Make it Easy For Your Customers To Get Help
Making it easy to get help is the third most important driver of NPS. During challenging times, customers appreciate brands that provide assistance and support when needed.
Here are some proven recommendations on how you can identify moments to deliver great value:
Simplify Processes: Streamline your processes to minimise complexity and eliminate unnecessary steps. Focus on making each step clear, intuitive, and user-friendly.
Enable Self Service Through Digital Channels: Invest in user-friendly digital platforms, such as websites, mobile apps, and self-service portals, to facilitate easy self-serve interactions with your business. Ensure these channels are accessible, responsive, and offer a seamless experience across devices.
Don’t Forget The Human Touch: Free the time for customer service agents to focus on more complex or challenging interactions with customers, who are not able to self-serve. Train and enable agents to better understand and empathise with customers’ feelings.
Personalise Interactions: Tailor your customer interactions to meet individual needs. Leverage customer data and analytics to understand their preferences, purchase history, and behaviour.
Seamless Omnichannel Experience: Ensure a seamless experience across all customer touchpoints, whether online or offline. Customers should be able to start an interaction on one channel and seamlessly transition to another without losing context.
Get Customer Feedback: By capturing feedback on the customer service experience, companies can gain insights into their strengths and weaknesses, enabling them to make targeted improvements and enhance overall customer satisfaction.
Net Promoter Score Driver #3: Enable Your Employees and Strengthen Your NPS
Your Employees are Your Greatest Asset
High-quality employees are essential for delivering an exceptional customer experience (CX). They are crucial for creating and maintaining a positive customer experience, ultimately leading to customer satisfaction, loyalty, and business success.
Here are some strategies to leverage employee experience:
Focus on Employee Engagement: Actively engage employees by involving them in decision-making processes, recognising their contributions, and fostering a collaborative and inclusive culture. Provide opportunities for growth and development, and ensure that employees have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities. Doing this will actively increase employee commitment and create more positive customer experiences.
Regularly Seek and Act on Feedback: Create mechanisms for employees to provide feedback and suggestions for improvement. Actively listen to their concerns, address any issues promptly, and take appropriate action to improve the employee experience.
Recognise and Reward Performance: Implement recognition and reward programmes that acknowledge and appreciate employees’ hard work and achievements. Celebrate milestones, exceptional performance, and behaviors aligned with the organisation’s values.
Invest in Learning and Development: Offer continuous learning and development opportunities to enhance employees’ skills and knowledge.
If you are unsure whether your existing CX technology vendor can help you achieve these goals, we would be happy to talk to you about how we can assist you. InMoment’s award-winning AI-based experience improvement technology and decades of industry expertise combined with NPSx market-leading training certification and communities for CX practitioners, and CX Roadmap & Assessments help organisations align and prioritise their CX investments, create customer-centric cultures and give clients a comprehensive set of solutions to support customer loyalty and business growth.
Take the initiative today and book your meeting to start your journey towards improved NPS and a remarkable customer experience. We look forward to discussing how we can support your growth and success.
More and more companies are realizing that the customer experience is more important than ever before. As a matter of fact, customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable than companies that don’t focus on customers.
Among the arsenal of tools available to create continuous positive experiences, predictive analytics software and, more specifically, predictive analytics tools stand out as game-changers in not only understanding customer behavior but also in shaping exceptional customer experiences. In this article, we delve into the world of predictive analytics tools, their pivotal role in the customer experience industry, and why businesses can’t afford to overlook their potential.
What Are Predictive Analytics Tools?
Predictive analytics tools are the modern-day wizards of data-driven decision-making. They harness the power of advanced algorithms and historical data to forecast future outcomes. These tools take a proactive approach, helping businesses anticipate customer behavior, preferences, and trends with remarkable accuracy.
By analyzing patterns, predictive analytics tools offer insights that enable businesses to make informed choices, quickly implement a closed-loop system, and fine-tune their CX strategies.
The Role of Predictive Analytics in Customer Experience
At the heart of predictive analytics software lies the ability to decipher complex data and transform it into actionable insights. By capturing and analyzing customer data across various touchpoints, businesses gain a comprehensive view of their customers’ journeys. This deeper understanding leads to tailored interactions, personalized recommendations, and improved problem resolution. With predictive insights, companies can stay ahead of customer demands, enhance engagement, and foster long-lasting relationships.
Key Features and Functionalities of Predictive Analytics Tools
Predictive analytics tools offer an array of features designed to unravel the intricacies of customer behavior. From sentiment analysis and trend identification to customer segmentation and churn prediction, these tools equip businesses with the knowledge needed to make strategic decisions.
For instance, a retail company could use predictive analytics to forecast demand spikes, ensuring optimal stock levels and preventing disappointed customers. In doing this, this retail company would ensure that they are creating a positive retail customer experience.
Selecting the Right Predictive Analytics Tools
Choosing the right predictive analytics tool is a critical decision that can shape the success of your CX initiatives. Factors such as ease of use, scalability, integration capabilities, and the tool’s alignment with your business goals should be considered. Leading solutions like InMoment’s XI Platform offer a user-friendly interface, seamless integrations with existing systems, and a track record of delivering actionable insights.
Implementation and Best Practices
Implementing predictive analytics tools requires a strategic approach. Begin by defining clear objectives and aligning them with your CX goals. Then, gather relevant data from various sources and ensure its accuracy.
It is important to collaborate with data analysts and domain experts to fine-tune algorithms and models. Remember that predictive insights are most valuable when combined with human expertise. Leverage the insights to personalize customer interactions, optimize marketing campaigns, and preemptively address issues.
Future Trends and Innovations
As technology advances, so does the potential of predictive customer analytics. With the advent of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data, predictive tools are becoming even more sophisticated. Businesses can expect enhanced predictive accuracy, real-time insights, and the ability to forecast customer preferences with unprecedented precision. Staying updated on these trends will be crucial for businesses aiming to maintain a competitive edge in the CX arena.
Real-World Benefits and Success Stories
Implementing predictive analytics tools in your customer experience program will help you achieve real-world business outcomes, and get you closer to mastering the four pillars of customer experience ROI.
Don’t believe us? InMoment recently partnered with Foot Locker to help them manage large quantities of data from multiple different sources to become proactive about their customer’s needs, not reactive. Read the full customer story to learn more!
Predictive Analytics Tools Moving Forward
In the dynamic world of customer experience, predictive analytics tools emerge as indispensable assets. By unlocking the power of data-driven predictions, businesses can transform customer interactions from reactive to proactive. With a deep understanding of customer behavior and trends, companies can refine their strategies, deliver personalized experiences, and build lasting customer relationships.
As the customer experience landscape continues to evolve, embracing predictive analytics tools is no longer an option—it’s a strategic imperative. Click here to find out how you can use predictive analytics tools to take your customer experience program to the next level!
More than ever before, proving the ROI of customer experience is absolutely vital. Businesses are under pressure (amidst the Year of the Squeeze, declining employee engagement, etc.) to look at cutting discretionary spending. And, unfortunately, customer experience programs may fall on the chopping block. In fact, research shows that 30% of businesses reported having budget related issues to their CX programs.
Under all that pressure, how are you supposed to build a CX program that continuously demonstrates its value?
If you are looking to unlock a true return on investment in your experience program, you need to go beyond sending and collecting surveys. You need to craft a strategy that enables you to use customer feedback and employee feedback to take action in strategic areas that actually improve the experience and map to business value.
The Continuous Improvement Framework: A Quick Summary
The Continuous Improvement Framework focuses on building an experience program that moves past measuring and managing what customers are saying and transforms into one that actually improves the customer experience and benefits your business.
To reach the goal of a truly effective, ROI-focused CX program, we cycle our customers through our five step framework. Those steps are:
Design
The road to true experience program success begins with clearly defining an experience strategy that aligns with overall business goals and brand promises and then designing a program purpose-built to support those goals.
Take this opportunity to take a step back, identify goals, and assess the current experience program to see if it is achieving the desired outcomes. This would be a good time to engage in customer journey mapping, to visualize the ideal touchpoints a customer would hit in their journey with your brand.
Listen
Thoughtfully deploy modern listening strategies and data integrations to expand and enhance holistic understanding.
This step revolves around customer feedback. Analyzing feedback from your customers will help you uncover their wants, needs, and expectations.
Understand
Centralize data streams and leverage advanced analytics and behavioral science experts to identify where and how to act—and the anticipated impact.
Merely attuning to customer voices isn’t sufficient for businesses; even if they manage to listen diligently. It’s equally imperative for companies to delve into comprehending the identities of these individuals, enabling a profound grasp of their desires and anticipations. Pinpointing customers empowers brands to prioritize both the amassed insights and any feasible knowledge, culminating in the provision of a heightened, tailored experience.
Transform
Create and implement dynamic actions plans, trainings, and policies that facilitate organizational change and promote revenue-generating activities.
After organizations have lent an ear to their customers and acquired insight into their identities and expectations, it is time to initiate impactful changes or even forge fresh encounters. How can businesses embark on this journey of transformation following attentive customer listening and heightened comprehension? The foremost stride towards effecting any form of change involves sharing these newfound insights among other stakeholders.
Realize
Evaluate and demonstrate results of experience initiatives including organizational change, improved metrics, and financial impact while determining appropriate next steps.
A Common CX ROI Misperception
Where we’ve seen so many brands go wrong on their path to CX ROI is that they are too focused on the “Listen” and “Understand” steps of this framework, and not enough on the other three.
In our latest webinar, “Designing, Actioning, and Realizing a ROI-Focused CX Program,” two of our esteemed experts, Jim Katzman and Eric Smuda, break down the truth behind common difficulties in proving the ROI of customer experience—and discuss why surveys alone do not create ROI.
And because we are all about sharing the best practices you need to overcome obstacles, here is a breakdown of those three necessary keys you need to take your experience program to the next level.
3 Keys to Prove the ROI of Customer Experience
Design
Transform
Realize
Key #1: Design
Design is arguably the most important phase of your experience program. If you build your program on a faulty foundation, the results can be deadly for your program (think lack of actionable insights, false signals, and hours of work that don’t accumulate ROI).
When designing the right program for your business, it is important to shift your focus away from scores, scores, scores. A program that relies too much on scores can hurt your chances of proving ROI. Additionally, if there is too much focus on the financial drivers of the past, there isn’t much room to ideate, test, and implement financial drivers for the future.
So what should you focus on when designing your program? The answer is simple: you need to focus on what you want to get out of the program. And if that’s ROI, you want to build a program that will allow you to capture insights that can be turned into actions that result in financial returns.
In our experience, the four areas most programs prove the ROI of customer experiences in are:
In order to completely transform your experience program, you need to focus on three key processes: organization, action planning and project management.
Organization
Organization refers to how you are taking action, and how that is being implemented across your company. One major step in successful organization comes from developing cross-functional teams and avoiding siloing data from department to department.
Each department needs to be connected to the customer experience and work to support front-line employees. Upward and downward organization will lead to a more holistic customer experience.
Action Planning
Using the Net Promoter System (NPS), you can look at inner loop and outer loop processes for action planning. Inner loop processes are very 1:1 based. They refer to individual customer feedback and the learning, and actions that come from that.
Outer loop processes are when teams meet and determine that they keep hearing similar feedback from multiple customers and that maybe something is going on systemically that is causing issues for many customers. Learning how to close the outer loop and create a culture of customer centricity is incredibly important in order to realize success.
The inner loop is generally focused on short-term action, while the outer loop focuses on structural improvements that may take longer.
Project Management
Whether they be short-term or long-term, you will always have multiple projects going on at the same time. With so many things to do, how do you decide where to focus your efforts? You need to consider how many customers are going to be impacted by this project, what is the cost/benefit of this change, and how easy is the change to implement.
Now, if you design your program thoughtfully, you should be able to use your findings to understand where you focus your efforts to help continuously improve the customer experience.
Key #3: Realize
After you collect insights and take action based on your findings, you need to measure success and then share that proof across the company. Because if you truly can prove the ROI of your customer experience but don’t share it with your stakeholders, how is it helping you in the long run?
It is important to share your wins! Be vocal about the success you have seen from your CX program. Not only will it help show how your program is helping the customer, it will also create a culture of commitment within your business and show your employees that their efforts are being successful.
Additionally, when you are looking to prove the success of your CX program, it is important to partner with your finance department. They are the ones who will help you measure and validate your wins, then turn them into a cost analysis report that your c-suite will want to see.
Proving the ROI of your experience program is crucial. But, it is important to remember that it isn’t always about the money.
Changing your CX program is as much about driving a culture of customer centricity as it is about driving revenue. This cultural journey can be reflected in an increase in employee commitment, and by building a program that delivers as many cultural wins as it does financial wins.
To learn more about how you can transform your CX program into an ROI-Focused, revenue generating machine, watch the full webinar with experts Jim Katzman and Eric Smuda here!
In the world of customer experience, surveys have been a reliable feedback-collecting source for decades. As we make our way forward with new CX technologies and approaches, survey fatigue remains a key operational concern. CX professionals are finding it more challenging than ever to keep program momentum alive. Today, I’m going to share some tips for reviewing your survey program for better response rates, higher program engagement, and better representative results. Use these tips to deliver excellent experiences for your customers while demonstrating that their voice is being heard!
The Road to Alleviate Survey Fatigue
As our approaches to customer experience advance, so does the challenge of survey fatigue. This is a hurdle that CX professionals confront head-on as they strive to maintain the momentum of their survey programs. In the following sections, I will delve into strategies that not only increase your response rate but also invigorate program engagement and yield more representative results. By implementing these techniques, you’ll not only provide outstanding customer experiences but also emphasize that their feedback is not just heard, but genuinely valued.
#1. Make Surveys Shorter. A LOT Shorter.
How many times have you called a customer service representative and thought, “I am your customer—you should already know all these details about me.” Well, people are potentially thinking this about your surveys, too. Ideally, experience surveys should take 2-4 minutes to complete, which can be easily achieved by cutting out the questions to which you already know the answers. You can start your journey to beating survey fatigue with shortening surveys further by removing surplus demographic or operational data that could be sourced from your CRM or data lake (e.g. age, products held, customer tenure), and ultimately improved response rates.
Another technique to fight survey fatigue that is successful for many brands is to leverage microsurveys for mobile and other digital environments. A survey can be set up at each key digital touchpoint (like on a mobile app or website) to send a one or two question microsurvey with an open text box to capture immediate, in-the-moment responses from customers.
Learn how Hootsuite tripled their Net Promoter Score by using InMoment’s microsurveys!
#2. Ask Survey Questions That Drive Action.
Whilst “good” survey questions vary from industry to industry, there are some overarching considerations that you need to keep in mind when drafting customer survey questions:
Make sure each survey question has an owner within your organisation;
Consider the type of action that can be taken within your organisation from this question
Minimise words used in your questions. If the idea is clear without excess words, trim down wherever possible
Confirm each survey question is either aligned to customer experience goals and / or targets (e.g. expected front line behaviour or a KPI).
By keeping each of these principles in mind, you’ll ensure that each question can drive action within your organisation, which could in turn be used in comms to demonstrate you’ve listened to customer feedback and taken action to drive an improved customer experience!
Want to see what a survey that drives action looks like? Learn how Pizza Hut UK partnered with InMoment to optimise survey design which resulted in double the average number of survey responses. Read the full Pizza Hut customer story today!
#3. Make Your Surveys Count: Pull Transactional and Journey Surveys Into Your Case Management Program
Surveys can be seen as the starting point of a customer conversation. Case management programs—also known as closed loop feedback (CLF) programs—enable trained staff to connect with customers one on one. Frontline staff call back customers to understand why an experience was either great or has room for improvement, and provide a chance to really connect with customers and hear their stories first hand. This can help drive continuous improvement initiatives, or provide customer-driven evidence to support larger initiatives that may require a business-case. Further, and if conducted with a treatment / control approach (e.g. 50% of CLF qualifying customers receive a call), you can track how customers’ behaviour has changed after you close the loop.
Don’t underestimate the potential positive brand impact you’ll see when customers receive a call from a representative after clicking “submit” on their survey. By optimising case management, it will give your program the opportunity to evolve outside of analytics, and start directly contributing more to other operational areas of the business.
In this world where we can reach customers in so many different ways, asking customers “how would you rate XYZ”, “why did you rate XYZ”, and “thinking over these elements, how would you rate…” can be boring, let’s be honest, especially if it is a long survey. Instead, we encourage you to make your surveys shorter to fight survey fatigue and look beyond the questions to discover how the customer’s voice can influence your organisation’s operational performance through CLF and actionable insights.
To learn more about what makes a great survey and how to combat survey fatigue, schedule a demo today!
Mastering unstructured data analytics is going to be key for any business wanting to improve the customer experience, and succeed in today’s business environment. While traditional customer feedback is a goldmine of insights that can drive business growth, a substantial portion of this valuable feedback lies in unstructured data. Emails, social media posts, customer reviews, call center transcripts, and open-ended survey responses—all hold crucial information about customer sentiment and preferences. Leveraging unstructured data analytics is the key to transforming this raw data into actionable insights that can transform your customer experience strategy.
Understanding Unstructured Data Analytics
Understanding unstructured data analytics is crucial for businesses looking to extract valuable insights from vast and diverse data sources. Unstructured data, in contrast to traditional structured data, poses unique challenges due to its lack of predefined formats. It encompasses a wide array of data types, such as text, audio, images, and video content, making it difficult to analyze using conventional methods.
However, through the application of advanced technologies like Natural Language Processing (NLP), voice analytics, and predictive customer analytics, companies can now unlock the hidden potential of unstructured data, gaining deeper customer insights and improving decision-making processes.
Being able to analyze unstructured data is not only about processing data but also about recognizing the invaluable insights within it. By tapping into unstructured data sources, businesses can elevate their customer experience strategies, customer experience research, improve personalized interactions, and create more meaningful connections with their target audience, ultimately gaining a competitive edge in today’s data-driven marketplace.
The Challenge of Unstructured Data
Unstructured data analytics can be a challenging process due to its diverse nature. However, it holds immense potential to unveil customer sentiments, emotions, and expectations, which can significantly impact business decisions. Traditional data analysis techniques fall short in making sense of this unstructured data, leading to missed opportunities and incomplete insights.
Moreover, the sheer volume of unstructured data can overwhelm traditional data storage and processing systems, making it difficult to handle and manage. Companies may struggle with data silos and do not understand the danger of data silos in customer experience management. This various inefficiencies hinder their ability to consolidate and analyze data from multiple sources cohesively.
Addressing the challenge of unstructured data necessitates investing in cutting-edge technologies and data management strategies to unlock its true potential and gain a competitive advantage in the era of data-driven decision-making.
The Benefits of Unstructured Data Analytics:
From deeper customer insights and improved customer experiences to data-driven decision-making, unstructured data analytics paves the way for a transformative journey towards customer-centricity and long-term business success. Let’s dive in and look at the benefits of unstructured data analytics!
Deeper Customer Insights
Unstructured data analytics unlocks hidden patterns and trends that may not be apparent in structured data alone. This deeper understanding of customer preferences and pain points empowers businesses to tailor their products and services to meet customer demands effectively.
Unstructured data analytics allows companies to uncover hidden patterns and trends that would otherwise remain unnoticed, shedding light on subtle shifts in what drives your customer’s behavior and expectations. Armed with these in-depth insights, businesses can fine-tune their product offerings, service delivery, and marketing strategies to align precisely with customer demands and desires.
Moreover, unstructured data analytics offers a holistic view of the customer journey, capturing the entire spectrum of interactions across various touchpoints. This 360-degree understanding enables organizations to identify critical moments of truth that significantly impact customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Businesses can prioritize areas for improvement, focusing their efforts on delivering meaningful experiences that leave a lasting positive impression on customers.
Embracing the power of unstructured data analytics allows businesses to stay agile, customer-focused, and innovative, cementing their position as industry leaders and fostering long-term customer relationships based on trust and satisfaction.
Improved Customer Experience
With unstructured data analytics, organizations can adopt a proactive approach to customer experience management. Rather than reacting to customer complaints and issues as they arise, businesses can anticipate and resolve potential problems before they escalate. By staying ahead of the curve, companies can create a seamless and satisfying customer journey, resulting in increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Embracing unstructured data analytics empowers companies to adapt quickly to the evolving needs and preferences of their customer base. As consumer behaviors change, businesses can make data-driven decisions, implement relevant enhancements, and offer personalized experiences that resonate with their target audience. This agility ensures that businesses remain competitive and stay ahead in the fast-paced and ever-changing marketplace.
Unlock the Voice of the Customer
Mastering unstructured data analytics is the key to unlocking the Voice of the Customer (VoC) and gaining profound insights into customer sentiments and preferences. The VoC represents the collective feedback, opinions, and expectations of customers across various touchpoints and interactions with a business. A significant portion of the VoC resides within unstructured data sources, such as customer reviews, open-ended survey responses, social media posts, and call center transcripts.
By harnessing advanced technologies like Natural Language Processing (NLP) and sentiment analysis, businesses can analyze unstructured text data to extract valuable insights from the VoC. NLP enables the understanding of customers’ words, emotions, and context, providing a deeper understanding of their experiences and feelings. Sentiment analysis helps gauge customer satisfaction levels, identify recurring issues, and spot emerging trends in customer feedback.
Mastering unstructured data analytics in the context of the VoC empowers businesses to make data-driven decisions, identify opportunities for improvement, and optimize their customer experience strategies. By listening attentively to the Voice of the Customer and tapping into unstructured data sources, companies can cultivate strong customer relationships, foster loyalty, and continuously refine their offerings to meet and exceed customer expectations.
To learn more about how unstructured data analytics is key to understanding the Voice of the Customer, read this white paper!
The Next Step to Mastering Unstructured Data Analytics
In the age of data-driven decision-making, tapping into unstructured data analytics is a game-changer for businesses aiming to elevate their customer experience strategy. By harnessing the power of natural language processing, voice analytics, and image and video analysis, companies can unveil valuable customer insights and create more personalized and meaningful interactions. Embracing unstructured data analytics will not only drive business growth but also position your organization as a customer-centric industry leader.
To learn more about how your brand can use unstructured data analytics to drive business success, request a demo here!
One size doesn’t fit all, but knowing essential NPS best practices that can fit any program is a great place to start. In our latest report, State of Customer Experience: 2023 UK Consumer Study in partnership with NPSx by Bain & Company, we uncovered the differences between industries and brands and how each brand represents certain values. We learnt that there are multiple approaches to achieving success and that the true differentiators between leading and lagging companies are culture, capability, and execution.
In this blog, we have listed NPS best practices that will help you shape the course of your organisation into becoming a leader in customer satisfaction.
NPS Best Practices Tip #1: Listen To Your Customers
Understanding your customers is paramount in shaping your business strategy. While reports and data can offer valuable insights, the most authentic and relevant information comes directly from your customers. The strength of your organisation’s capability to listen, understand, and act upon customer feedback is crucial. By engaging with those who use your products or services, you gain unparalleled access to the truth about your brand’s perception and the experience you deliver.
Start by delving deep into your customers’ perspectives, their pain points, and their expectations. This knowledge will empower you to craft a customer experience (CX) approach tailored to your unique circumstances. Remember, customer feedback is a goldmine of actionable data that can steer your business towards delivering exceptional experiences and fostering lasting customer loyalty.
NPS Best Practices Tip #2: Build a Customer-Centric Culture
A customer-focused culture is essential, where processes align with customer-centricity, making it a systematic approach rather than mere aspiration. It requires alignment of processes and actions that prioritise customer satisfaction at every level; from the leadership team to front-line employees, everyone must understand their role in delivering for customers and comprehend the significant impact it has on the success of the business.
It is imperative that everyone across the organisation understands their role in delivering for customers and why crucially it makes great business sense. Companies that prioritise their customers and build a culture around their needs, tend to thrive and outperform their competitors and grow ahead of the market.
NPS Best Practices Tip #3: How You Execute is Key To Your Success
Effective execution determines success. Even if you have established listening posts and a customer-focused culture, poor execution will hinder your progress. The true value lies in taking decisive action based on the insights gathered from customers. Turning knowledge into action is the driving force behind real progress.
By actively listening, learning, and implementing changes based on customer feedback, customer-focused companies create a framework for continuous improvement. While knowledge is valuable, taking action based on customer insights is what drives progress. Simply knowing everything without implementing changes will hinder your advancement. Continuously evolving and adapting based on customer insights propels these businesses towards sustained success.
NPS Best Practices Tip #4: Listen Outside of Your Industry
Often, brands focus solely on their own industry, and while it’s natural to focus on your own industry for inspiration and benchmarking, looking beyond those boundaries can yield valuable insights and a competitive edge.
Analysing similar structures in different industries can provide valuable insights that may not be apparent when only examining your own category’s performance. For instance, in this study, we observed that the automotive industry can learn valuable lessons from other industries, such as energy. Even in relatively narrow categories like insurance, there are opportunities to gain inspiration and insights from unexpected sources. Embracing ideas from different industries can lead to groundbreaking strategies and a forward-thinking mindset.
NPS Best Practices Tip #5: Don’t Ignore Low NPS Drivers
It is interesting to note that sustainability ranked relatively low in terms of importance. However, upon closer examination, some leading brands do have robust sustainability charters and consider environmental impact in their operations. While it may not be a major driver, there is a subtle undercurrent of customers caring about how companies treat their employees (which manifests itself in the employee experience) and the origins of their products.
As customers become more conscious of corporate social responsibility, the significance of these factors may grow over time. By acknowledging and addressing low NPS drivers, businesses can stay ahead of evolving customer expectations and position themselves as responsible industry leaders.
If you are unsure whether your existing CX technology vendor can help you achieve these goals, we would be happy to talk to you about how we can assist you. InMoment’s award-winning AI-based experience improvement technology and decades of industry expertise combined with NPSx market-leading training certification and communities for CX practitioners, and CX Roadmap & Assessments help organisations align and prioritise their CX investments, create customer-centric cultures and give clients a comprehensive set of solutions to support customer loyalty and business growth.
Take the initiative today and book your meeting to start your journey towards improved NPS and a remarkable customer experience. We look forward to discussing how we can support your growth and success.
