If you’re just joining us in the Measuring the Customer Experience series, you can play catch up by taking a look at the metrics I’ve shared so far.
- 5 metrics you can monitor to see the performance impact of the first step of your customer experience: triggering a need.
- 4 metrics to watch to see how you’re performing at the second step: earning consideration.
- 5 metrics to check on how you’re doing at the third step: demonstrating your solution
- 5 metrics to keep track of if you want to make sure you’re performing well at the fourth step: affirming your customers’ decision
Today, we’re covering the metrics you should check to see how you’re doing at the fifth step common to every customer experience: proving your promise as your customers are using your product or service to solve their need.
What did you promise prospects you would help them solve as customers?
When step five begins, your customer has one simple goal: solve the need that triggered them to act in the first place. Your goal is simple too: prove the promise you made before the purchase. Remember that virtual reality you created as prospects were envisioning what life would look like with you helping to solve their need?
Rubber, meet road.
From your customer’s perspective, this step starts when your customer begins actually using your product or service to solve their need. It ends at the moment your customer’s answer to the question “Did this work for you?” changes from “To soon to tell…” to “Let me tell you!”
Did you deliver on what you promised?
Here’s your opportunity to learn how your solution is used and how effectively it meets the need. You can see how you’re doing at meeting these needs by checking in on these metrics. (As for earlier steps & metrics, I’ve noted here which metrics are leading performance indicators — those that are predictive of future performance, and which are lagging –those that reactively measure performance outcomes.)
- Lagging: “YES my problem was solved” – the percentage of customers who answer this when you ask.
- Leading: Customer satisfaction or loyalty scores are indicators that problems are being solved well.
- Leading: Share of wallet is the portion of your target customers’ money spent to solve a problem that they spend with you over time.
- Leading: Retention rates also indicate you are proving your promise.
- Lagging: Overall operating margin – a good ratio indicates strong alignment between your operating actions and the value customers ascribe to your solution.
- Lagging: Cost to serve (total service and support cost)—and ratio of cost to serve / total revenue.
- Leading: Customer engagement is measured in usage, penetration, compliance, enrollment, and indicates how important your solution is to your customer.
One special note: Too few product, brand and company leaders I meet say they regularly ask their customers this simple question: “Did we help you solve the need that triggered your journey to us?” Too few can name the event that happens that lets them know – without asking – that a need has been solved. Remember every experience starts with a person who has a need or problem or desire they’ll trade money to have solved. You must measure that you solved it.
How are you doing at this step? Have you solved the problem that prompted your customer to seek out your solution? Can you see the reward in your business performance? If you’re feeling positive about your performance against the metrics here, you’ve demonstrated you’ve proven your promise and can move onto keeping that customer and reaping the rewards of loyalty. Life is good, and I’d love to hear your story.
Do you use these metrics to measure your performance at this step of the customer experience?
