Customer Experience VI – Customer Experience Measurement System

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IF YOU CAN’T MEASURE IT, YOU CAN’T MANAGE IT – William Thomson, Lord Kelvin

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Customers rule the marketplace. To witness this, one only has to look at the various indices that enterprises use to measure the customer experience such as Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) index, Customer Experience Index (CXI), Customer Effort Score (CES), First Call Resolution (FCR), etc. However, customer experience is a dynamic phenomenon governed by several factors. There is the customer journey, i.e., how a customer moves through multiple stages of a product consumption lifecycle with an enterprise. Different consumers interact with enterprises through various touch-points such as website, mobile app, physical store, call center, social networks, etc. Further, while some consumer trends impact the top line, others impact the bottom line and some impact both. Thus, arresting certain negative trends can be cost prohibitive while driving some positive trends may generate no revenue or profitability.

This creates specific challenges for CXOs. For instance, what does the chief executive officer (CEO) of an enterprise measure and what does he ignore? Should the chief marketing officer focus on the same metrics as the CEO? These questions are also relevant for chief finance officers, chief information officers and chief technology officers. While all these departments impact the customer experience, how do you customize the view that they can influence the most?

The analytics-driven Customer Experience Measurement System (CXMS) simplifies this complexity. It allows decision-makers to focus on their business instead of wondering about tracking the right metric and the impact of their decisions on the customer experience.

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CXMS is a system to measure customer experience levels across various phases of the customer journey and across multiple customer touch-points using a set of pre-defined metrics. The system collects data from the organization around products, processes and personnel. Metrics may be categorized as core or secondary depending on the impact on an organization’s cost, revenue and/or operating efficiency. The weighted average of all the constituent metrics yields a measure known as Total Experience Index (TXI). This helps organizations measure and monitor the state of customer experience to improve business profitability. CXMS comprises a designation-based dashboard for different stakeholders to view their areas of priority and identify how they impact the overall customer experience. Further, the system can establish thresholds for automated alerts and monitoring. In case of any issues, a drill-down menu helps identify the failing factor behind the metric and its source – whether it is related to the system, an employee or the nature of the product/service that the organization is selling.

A key challenge with creating a superior customer experience is to understand how customers feel, i.e., the emotional contribution. This can be a happiness trigger, boost in self-esteem, increased intimacy with loved ones, etc., that make the customer experience positive or negative emotions. Thus, while the science can be measured, managed and influenced, the emotional factor can only be monitored. CXMS helps organizations get a complete grasp on the mathematics, statistics and analytics behind customer experience, thereby minimizing the unpredictability of this variable. This allows employees and executives to focus on the instinct-driven decisions while the system provides analytics-based insights. While I agree that there are aspects of CX that cannot be measured, the ones that can, should be – accurately.

Today, technology is pervasive and consumers are increasingly connected with each other and their business service providers. Social media, smart phones and wearables are influencing human choices. In such an environment, it is intriguing that companies continue to depend on surveys and feedback forms to understand customer sentiment about products and services. Today’s customers communicate with their providers through every single interaction about how they feel about the business and their experience. The question is – are companies listening?

P.S. Originally published on Infosys Blogs, this article is based on US Patent No. – US20150262107, awaiting award

Abhishek Singh
Currently, Abhishek holds the responsibility for conceptualizing, implementing and managing the IT product strategies for Infosys subsidiary, EdgeVerve, in the Digital space. Prior to this, several years at Singapore Airlines as well as his years of entrepreneurship ingrained in him the importance of customer experience.

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