CX metrics: from objectives to actionable change

In 2021 we established customer experience metrics as top-level company objectives at Frontiers. Since then, we have used Net Promoter Score (NPS) to track both customer journeys and customer relations. We have increased both significantly by 14 and 11 points, respectively.

Establishing customer-centricity with a top-level metric is obviously great. It is the very foundation for directing actions, whether through initiatives or changing minds. At the same time, it is only the foundation. Nothing much will change just from setting a metric. The beauty lies in the details.

So, which details do you need to consider and how? Here’s what I’ve learned over the last few years at Frontiers and before, at Swisscom.

The power of CX owners: driving product change

For digital products and the teams behind them, it is important to understand what drives and blocks positive experiences, reflected in a positive journey Net Promoter Score (NPS). Product trios and leadership need to be able to bridge the gap between product features (or lack of features) and NPS values. This does not come naturally; it requires carefully crafted customer insights based on both NPS surveys and customer interviews.

These insights need to be constantly communicated to influence backlog priorities, both within individual product teams and across products. Backlog prioritization however is not centralized in all cases. Therefore, instead of writing requirement documents and placing them in backlogs, I have in several cases deployed CX owners into product areas where they work regularly and consistently with the product managers.

With that, customers truly do have a representative with the products they use in their journeys. At the same time, having a CX person actually help with implementation was very much appreciated by the product teams.

Over time, significant changes to those products influenced how people value them, thus moving the needle in journey NPS.

When tech and teams work together: service as a CX driver

How customers experience a business’s service influences their overall experience to a similar degree as its digital products do.

At Frontiers, our digital publishing platform is well appreciated. At the same time, researchers rely on human expertise for anything out of the ordinary. Quality in research and experience being our main goals, we actively support this with journal and customer service teams.

In general and similar to the product teams, insights need to be communicated to the service organization (agents and their managers) regularly. The long-term way to do this is to establish an inner-outer-loop system that allows teams to learn, improve, and, if need be, escalate issues.

For the short term, one can implement an open-to-all insights meeting, which could, for example, be called the Customer Insights Lab. For this monthly meeting, recruit all agents who are willing and capable of implementing change, communicate top customer insights to them, and have them spread the word.

As soon as the inner loop becomes actionable, these two work together for maximum impact. Along with changes made in products over time, service agents will see the connection to NPS metrics, especially when they receive more immediate feedback, for example, through a transactional NPS survey or a customer satisfaction score (CSAT) based on their individual interactions.

Checkpoints for success

In the theoretical best case, having empowered product and service teams with the right customer insights will solve those without further involvement of any CX team. In practical terms, however, any organization is lacking in maturity somewhere, and the CX team thus needs to ensure that insights are actually being prioritized — mostly by being in the room.

On top of that, it’s paramount to ensure that all levels of experience metrics are actually being tracked: from product or service metrics to those in between and NPS. Because in particular those metrics in between can be difficult or weak, it’s even more important to make an effort to track and report on them.

In practical terms, this often means that the CX departments need to have tollgates at the beginning, the middle, and end of initiatives to ensure that those know their metrics’ starting points, are actively tracking changes in the metrics over time, and have a sensible target metric that guides the extent of improvements made.

Metrics that motivate

Overall, top-level metrics are a good start, but acting on customer insights in product and service organizations is where they gain real power.

CX metrics become even better when all of these points come together in a narrative that drives home one key point: why a specific metric target is sensible, feasible, or aspirational.

Such a story turns a CX metric target into a mission. It might explain why improving NPS by 20 points through giving customers more control jump-starts the business flywheel. It might show how first-time resolution increased by 20%p frees up time for actually engaging customers for the long term.

In the best case, the narrative will also explain how that will increase bonuses at the end of the year for every individual product manager, or agent.

This article is partly about my work at Frontiers and Swisscom but written in my personal capacity.