Customer experience means the overall experience the customer had with your brand. From the moment they discover you to the ways they interact till the time they checkout. It all influences their satisfaction level. To streamline it all, a customer experience strategy consultant can be your saviour. 

But how do you know if their strategies are actually working?

The answer lies in the metrics. These metrics find out how easy, fun, and useful customers think their experience with your business is. So, let’s look into each of the important metrics to make sure that your customer experience strategy consultant’s advice is going well.

Customer satisfaction (CSAT) score

This score is a quick way to find out how happy people are with a product, website, or service. An average customer satisfaction survey asks, “How happy were you with the product/ service today?”. 

Responses are rated on a scale of 1 to 5, where:

• 1 = Very Unsatisfied
• 5 = Very Satisfied

You can put out this survey at relevant points in their journey, like when they are logging out or on the page that confirms their purchase.

To calculate the total CSAT Score:

(Number of 4 and 5 ratings ÷ Total responses)×100 = CSAT 

A higher CSAT indicates a positive customer perception and effective CX strategy.

Customer effort score (CES)

The customer effort score shows how much work a customer has to do to do something, like buy a product, find information, or fix a problem. People usually rate CES on a scale of 1 to 5 or 7, with 1 being very hard and 5 being very easy.

It’s usually asked right after an interaction, with a question like:

“How easy was it for you to [complete action]?”
Rated on a scale of 1 to 5 (or 1 to 7), where:

• 1 = Very Difficult
• 5/7 = Very Easy

Trigger CES surveys after key steps like:

• Completing a purchase
• Using a service
• Contacting support

Your CES should be as high as possible. A low score means that customers think your website is hard to use or that your customer service isn’t helpful. If you ask a follow-up question about low CES ratings, you’ll be able to find out what’s stopping customers and making their journey harder. 

To calculate this, add up all the customer effort ratings and divide them by the number of survey responses.

Net promoter score (NPS)

You can find out how loyal and happy your customers are by asking them. Get NPS responses by putting across the question (“On a scale of 0–10, how likely are you to recommend us?”). It can be after a customer has received their order or used your service for a reasonable amount of time.

To calculate, put the responses into three groups: detractors (0 to 6), passives (7 and 8), and promoters (9 and 10). Then, take the percentage of detractors away from the percentage of promoters. 

Customer churn and customer retention rate

Another key metric that helps decode the impact of a customer experience strategy consultant is customer churn rate. It is the percentage of customers who stop buying or subscribing to a company’s products. Customer retention, on the other hand, is a business’ ability to keep its customers over time. And if a lot of customers leave and do not come back, it could mean that the customer experience is not good enough.

• For SaaS and subscription businesses, to find out how many customers you keep each month, divide the number of active customers at the end of the month by the number of active customers at the start of the month. Then, your monthly churn is the opposite of your monthly retention.
• For online stores, use cohort analysis. It helps group all customers that have made repeat purchases over a period and figure out how many of them stayed with you.

First response time (FRT)

First response time is a customer service metric that tells you how long it usually takes for customer support teams to answer a customer’s question or problem. Depending on your business, FRT can be measured in days or hours.

To get the average first response time, add up all the first response times and divide that number by the number of customer issues received.

Adding more customer service staff will probably make first response times shorter. However, you can also reduce the number of support requests you get by making your website or product better.

Average resolution time

The average resolution time is the time it takes for a customer success team to handle each customer support request successfully. ART can be measured in days or hours, just like FRT.

Add up the total time spent talking to customers and then divide that by the number of chats or tickets.

Customers are more likely to be happy and have had a good experience with your service or product if the ART is faster.

Customer lifetime value

The average amount of money a customer will bring to your business over time is called their lifetime value.

For SaaS companies

Divide your monthly recurring revenue (MRR) by the total number of customer accounts, and then divide that result by the user churn rate.

CLV= (MRR/ Number of customers)÷ Churn rate 

For online stores (e-commerce)

Multiply the average order value (AOV) by the average purchase frequency and the average customer lifespan.

CLV=AOV × Purchase frequency × Customer lifespan

CLV is first and foremost a measure of revenue, but it also shows how loyal and happy customers are. If your customers are happy, they are more likely to buy from you again or stay subscribed. What happens? More money for the business and higher CLV.

Takeaway

These seven metrics are extremely important when it comes to measuring the impact of your customer experience strategy consultant. If these metrics seem to be in a good spot, it means your customer experience strategy consultant knows what they’re doing and their impact on your business is solid.

Adam Mulligan, a psychology graduate from the University of Hertfordshire, has a keen interest in the fields of mental health, wellness, and lifestyle.