Creating an effective customer experience programme relies on strong setting. Our Periodic Table of Customer Experience outlines some of the most common goals for CX, and why they’re valuable.
As with any major project, creating a Customer Experience (CX) strategy without well-defined goals is an exercise doomed to underperformance, or even failure. However, because many CX projects are conducted without a clear focus on what they are looking to improve, many organisations still see CX as a cost rather than a means of creating value.
The Periodic Table of Customer Experience gives a whole category of elements over to the sorts of goals and measures you might look for in creating your CX.
1. Engagement
When many organisations think of engagement, they think primarily of social media. Shares, likes and retweets are all very well, but depending on the nature of your brand, you may find that they may have little impact on your bottom line.
However, in real terms, engagement also covers a lot of traditional ‘brand measures’, such as loyalty. This means that the level of engagement a customer has with your brand may impact other key business goals, such as Customer Lifetime Value.
2. Conversion
The most important measure for your marketing and sales efforts is conversion. Do your product pages lead to purchases? Does your enquiry page lead to enquiries? What percentage of your enquiries lead to sales? Increasing conversion is about increasing the effectiveness of your existing efforts, which may require an ongoing strategy of split testing, or investment in user testing. Thus it is a vital part of your CX strategy.
3. Revenue
The mother of all business goals, revenue is an essential metric for understanding the value of your CX. Revenue goal setting cannot be considered in isolation, without acknowledging the impact throughout the business. How much of your increase in revenue is represented in increased customer lifetime value? How much is cost-saving that comes down to reducing incoming calls through a focus on Problem Resolution Time and First Contact Resolution? Answering these questions will ensure realistic revenue targets.
4. Customer Lifetime Value
If customer loyalty is a key objective, one of its best measures is Customer Lifetime Value. Ensuring that your customers repurchase or renew their relationship with you is often cheaper than new customer acquisition, and thus increasing lifetime value can be an easy strategy for increasing revenue. Alongside retention, this is a powerful measure that can be addressed in your CX with customer service and communications.
5. First Contact Resolution
The final three goals are closely related. For any contact centre, first contact resolution is a crucial measure. Improving the percentage of customer queries that are resolved on first contact saves on call centre costs, and may contribute to increased customer satisfaction with the service received.
6. Talk Time
Overall talk time, both during sales and customer queries, can have an impact on your customer satisfaction as well as on your bottom line.
7. Problem Resolution Time
Problem resolution time covers the overall time taken for a problem to be resolved from initial contact, including email and online chat responses as well as phone calls.
These goals represent some of the key areas for consideration in creating your CX strategy. Without well-defined goals, CX risks being seen as a cost centre, rather than a revenue generator. Of course, goal-setting is only one part of the bigger picture, and our Periodic Table of Customer Experience covers everything from touchpoints to information management. You can download an A3 Printable version here.
