Benchmark Customer Experience For Improved Customer Satisfaction

February 12, 2021

Benchmark Customer Experience For Improved Customer Satisfaction

I visited a website, found the product I was looking for, purchased it, and received it. We could say I had a good customer experience, right? But how does my service provider get wind of my experience? I mean, taken at face value, CX (customer experience) seems more of an intangible item…something that could only be referred to anecdotally.
And yet, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos swears by the effectiveness of industrious customer experience measurement; in fact, his sentiments are clearly exemplified by the company’s outstanding score of 8.80 in the Pillar of Time and Effort. Consequently, all of Mr. Bezos’ departments (throughout Amazon) are completely data-driven. Not only does this allow the brand to focus on its strengths and weaknesses, but it also helps in continuously improving the customer experience, a win-win for everyone. This explains why it is the reigning and undisputed champion in online retailing and departmental customer satisfaction.
Still, how exactly do you get around to measuring the emotion-based connection that is CX?

How to Benchmark Your Customer’s Experience

One particular method that can be used to benchmark customer experience is the NPS (Net Promoter Score), a customer loyalty metric based on one question; how likely is it that a customer would recommend a service or product to a friend?

1. Those who respond with a score that ranges from 0-6 are the unhappy customers who don’t want to see our face again; these are the detractors.
2. Those who respond with a score that ranges from 7-8 are the customers who liked your service but not enough to become loyal and are most likely to stray; these are the passive customers.
3. Those who respond with a score that ranges between 9-10 are the promoters; your loyal enthusiasts who never pass the chance to recommend your brand to friends and colleagues and will be buying from you in the future.

The final NPS score is then calculated by subtracting the promoters’ percentage of detractors (Promoters – Detractors= Final NPS).
And to elaborate how effective Amazon is at providing a premium customer experience, Forbes reports that it operates with an NPS that ranges between 50-80% while the average company operates with 5-10% or worse yet, a negative percentage. Clearly, Amazon is the stuff of legends.
However, please note that there are several alternative variations on the NPS questions.
All in all, regardless of how you choose to measure customer experience, it is important not to lose sight of the main agenda; using customer feedback to improve customer experience. However, upon reading this, I don’t expect you to come down from the proverbial Mt. Sinai with the 10 commandments for guaranteed success; instead, I’m hoping to change your perception. Realize that it stopped being about the product a long time ago, and just like Forbes put it, “Customer experience is today’s business benchmark.”
What is your approach to benchmarking customer experience?