Blind spots in measuring CX? You’re not alone

Businesses today are competing on customer experience (#CX) as much as any other differentiator: 70% of consumers globally say?a company is only as good as its service. This means that improving CX is critically important to your overall competitiveness, especially in a difficult market where consumers need greater support.

But CX measurement hasn’t kept up; traditional metrics like customer satisfaction and Net Promoter Score (NPS) offer a narrow view of experience and leave valuable troves of data unused. In a 2022 survey by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services, just 28% of executives say they have a very good understanding of CX across all phases of the customer journey.

Specific challenges: Four in 10 organizations don’t understand why their CX metrics rise or fall; one-third have CX metrics that aren’t necessarily aligned with business outcomes. And almost six in 10 are unable to make decisions in real-time.

Using metrics to drive change

CX has changed tremendously since the start of the pandemic, and in ways that make measurement easier in the long term. Workflows and interactions are digitalized, allowing us to capture far more customer data as well as continually generated event data. We should know if a customer had a positive experience, regardless of how they answer a satisfaction survey.

The survey supports this view. Some 81% of respondents said shifting toward journey measurement is a key priority. And more than half are moderately or significantly increasing their investment in CX measurement.

Within the survey sample, a cohort of organizations, “The Leaders” have made most progress thus far. They’re measuring CX along all phases of the journey, correlating metrics to business outcomes and understanding the moments that matter most to their customers.

They’re also more likely than other respondents to use customer data management tools, predictive analytics and sentiment analysis to measure CX. Leaders ensure that data reaches a wide internal audience and have senior leadership buy-in to act on any insights.

Technology as your eyes and ears

The big trend in CX measurement is to get deeper insights earlier in the journey — meaning it’s easier to take action and course-correct. Artificial intelligence (#AI) brings exciting developments in this area:

?Tools like speech-to-text analytics provide detailed insights about employee-customer interactions, creating targeted coaching opportunities

• Real-time sentiment analysis enables employees to course-correct in the moment
• Predictive engagement senses a customer’s intent and directs them to the right content or person, which makes them feel heard and understood

Rethinking CX measurement allows your organization to become more technology-enabled and people-centric. And organizations that pioneer new ways of measuring CX in terms of empathy, efficiency and effectiveness will have a strong foundation for building long-term loyalty and trust. That’s the only way to create a sustained competitive advantage today.

For more information, download the white paper "Beyond NPS: CX measurement reimagined."