LONDON: NPS and CSAT metrics are “blunt instruments” when to comes to measuring customer experience, according to an industry figure, who maintains that Experience Quality Measurement (EXQ) is a far more reliable indicator.
Writing in the current issue of Admap, Christopher Brooks, founder and managing director of the Lexden Customer Experience Consultancy, argues that widely used NPS and CSAT metrics – measures of intent and sentiment – fail to relate to transactional gains and losses.
A better measure is one which most closely correlates to actual change achieved because of the customer experience, he says.
“This should be evidenced in the incremental commercial contribution at a transactional, reduced operational cost due to satisfaction, advocacy or long-term commitment.”
Unlike other measures, EXQ is interested in actual change, not inferred intentions, he says, citing research which shows EXQ as a measure for customer experience accounts for 90% of consumer decision-making, compared to less than 1% attributable to NPS or CSAT.
EXQ is based on 25 drivers of consumer behaviour, with each driver being measured and combined with a share-of-category calculation which identifies the overall importance of that driver to a brand.
Brooks concedes that EXQ is not a continuous feedback measure – there is a six-week start-to-finish time frame for EXQ study completion – but suggests that it can be used in a complementary way with NPS and CSAT to reveal which actual customer experiences are driving those measures.
“We have conducted EXQ studies which have matched two-thirds of NPS scores given back to EXQ drivers,” he says.
“This provides a powerful combination: on the one hand, the recognised single measure to put in the KPI dashboard and share around, and on the other hand, the hard-working evidence which answers, ‘what drives our NPS?’”
Not only is EXQ a strategic CX tool which allows for medium to long-term planning, Brooks adds, it can be converted into a more accessible set of ‘Branded Customer Standards’.
“With certainty that attention on the priority EXQ drivers increases customer value, the Customer Standards ensure the employee experience is aligned to the customer experience and every experience is delivered consistently whether an in-house or front-of-house initiative,” he states.
Writing in the current issue of Admap, Christopher Brooks, founder and managing director of the Lexden Customer Experience Consultancy, argues that widely used NPS and CSAT metrics – measures of intent and sentiment – fail to relate to transactional gains and losses.
A better measure is one which most closely correlates to actual change achieved because of the customer experience, he says.
“This should be evidenced in the incremental commercial contribution at a transactional, reduced operational cost due to satisfaction, advocacy or long-term commitment.”
Unlike other measures, EXQ is interested in actual change, not inferred intentions, he says, citing research which shows EXQ as a measure for customer experience accounts for 90% of consumer decision-making, compared to less than 1% attributable to NPS or CSAT.
EXQ is based on 25 drivers of consumer behaviour, with each driver being measured and combined with a share-of-category calculation which identifies the overall importance of that driver to a brand.
Brooks concedes that EXQ is not a continuous feedback measure – there is a six-week start-to-finish time frame for EXQ study completion – but suggests that it can be used in a complementary way with NPS and CSAT to reveal which actual customer experiences are driving those measures.
“We have conducted EXQ studies which have matched two-thirds of NPS scores given back to EXQ drivers,” he says.
“This provides a powerful combination: on the one hand, the recognised single measure to put in the KPI dashboard and share around, and on the other hand, the hard-working evidence which answers, ‘what drives our NPS?’”
Not only is EXQ a strategic CX tool which allows for medium to long-term planning, Brooks adds, it can be converted into a more accessible set of ‘Branded Customer Standards’.
“With certainty that attention on the priority EXQ drivers increases customer value, the Customer Standards ensure the employee experience is aligned to the customer experience and every experience is delivered consistently whether an in-house or front-of-house initiative,” he states.
Sourced from Admap
