Welcome – or hopefully welcome back – to my series covering the metrics you can use to see the link between each step of your customer experience and your organization’s business performance.
So far, we’ve covered
Now at step four, your customer has committed to buy. (WooHoo!) As leaders we are accustomed to tracking performance metrics related to getting and keeping customers, but the buy step of your customer experience can be a potent generator of performance, too.
Customers want to get through this gate and on solving their need as quickly as possible. They want control and convenience, so you want them to feel satisfied and looking forward to experiencing the solution you’ve provided. You’re protecting them as they buy.
You can check how you’re performing at the purchase step by looking at these metrics:
- Lagging: Close ratio measures the customers who complete a purchase to those who don’t.
- Leading: Abandon rate accounts for those that make a decision to buy but “abandon” during this step.
- Leading: Average order size and Cross-sell and up-sell show the size and breadth of your customers’ commitment.
- Lagging: Share of wallet is the portion of your target customers’ money spent to solve a problem that they spend with you.
- Leading: Retention rates- your experience at this step contribuites to the portion of customers who buy a 2nd (or 3rd…) time.
I’ve noted above which metrics are leading indicators – those which are predictive of future business performance, and which are lagging – those that reactively measure performance outcomes.
Is this step of your customer experience is as strong as it can be? I would love to hear how you’ve used these metrics to brag about the performance impact of your buy step!
Related Resources
Customer Experience Steps: These earlier posts offer a deeper dive into your customer’s goals – and yours – at each of the steps common to any experience:
Step 1: The Triggering Need
Step 2: Earning Consideration
Step 3: Demonstrating Your Solution
Step 4: Affirming Customers’ Decision
Step 5: Proving Your Promise
Step 6: Anticipating Your Customer’s Next Need
How-to Help
If you’re looking for more detail about these measures and their connection to each step of the customer experience, pick up a copy of Domino. You’ll also find peer examples, customer experience mapping exercises and useful ways to demonstrate the link between your customer experience and better financial performance.
