The success of a business is largely determined by the customers’ loyalty and satisfaction, and in an age where competition has reached new heights, it is crucial to carefully examine their current patterns to predict their future behavior. While loyalty itself is rather difficult to measure, businesses can still analyze customers’ loyal behavior and utilize those insights for further business success. Listed below are three different consumer loyalty measurement metrics.
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
NPS is your go-to if you are tired of conventional customer satisfaction surveys. The metric asks one simple yet an important question of how likely a customer is willing to recommend your service or product to others, on a scale of 1 – 10. This not only shows customers’ current satisfaction levels with your business but also lets you know if they will be coming back or bringing other customers along. Having this information can help you predict your business’ growth. This way, you can implement damage control to salvage relationships with dissatisfied customers. A good NPS score ranges from 70 – 100.
The customers reply within 1 – to 10 values, which then sorts them into the following categories:
- Score of 9 – 10. Loyal and sure to recommend you to their peers.
- Score of 7 – 8. Perhaps satisfied, but they wouldn’t mind switching to competitors and will not necessarily be enthused about hyping you to others.
- Score of 0 – 6. These customers have had an unpleasant experience with your business and thus have the potential to badmouth and tarnish your reputation.
The typical cases of SuiteFeedback NPS Surveys in NetSuite are after a Sales Order has been created, after a Project has been completed, or 7 Days after an order has been shipped.
Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)
CSAT is another customer satisfaction program that acts as an alternative to designing a survey. Unlike NPS, CSAT asks more than one question by encouraging them to rate their experiences as well as give open-ended feedback. This provides the business with a more in-depth idea of their customers’ grievances since people can voice their concerns in detail.
CSAT surveys are meant to measure customer satisfaction in relation to a specific event, and answers to questions can range between 1 and 5. These surveys are ideal for online checkout processes, sales interaction, and customer support interactions. CSAT scores are generally determined as a percentage scale, unlike NPS. The higher the percentage, the more satisfied your customers are with your product or service. This metric is user-friendly, easy to use, and not-so-complicated for your customers. However, because it uses more than one question, it might quickly become taxing for some people who are in a rush or simply not interested.
The typical cases of SuiteFeedback CSAT Surveys in NetSuite are after a Case has been Closed, after a Phone Call has been Completed or 7 Days after training has been completed.
Customer Effort Score (CES)
Unlike both NPS and CSAT, CES is a single-item metric that essentially focuses on how much trouble a customer had to go through to solve their query or concern, get a product exchanged or returned, or a request fulfilled. Its question asks customers to rate their experience on a scale of ‘very easy’ to ‘very difficult. In essence, what it was like to interact with the said business. The idea behind CES is that ease of experience is very much significant in determining if a customer will show loyalty towards a business and its product/services.
CES also offers room for extra optional questions that revolve around the common factors affecting the service experience, for instance, how efficient or knowledgeable was the staff member, etc.
Knowing your CES score is important so you can eliminate friction between customers and your staff, thus limiting negative word of mouth. However, it needs to be combined with either NPS or CSAT because the score on its own doesn’t give sufficient information regarding customer loyalty. For example, a customer might be very loyal to your brand and may have had one bad interaction with the support staff only once.
The typical cases of SuiteFeedback CES Surveys in NetSuite are after a Sales Order has been created, or x Days after a case has been closed.
NPS vs. CSAT vs. CES
NPS measures customer loyalty to the business, whereas CSAT focuses on customer satisfaction with a particular product or service. Meanwhile, CES measures the extent of ease or difficulty with which a customer was faced when completing their tasks with you.
CSAT questions can be used in more than one context for focusing on a particular aspect of customer experience, while NPS’s straightforward single question takes a rather broader view of the product or business.
When to Use NPS, CSAT & CES?
NPS, CSAT, and CES are three of the most popular customer satisfaction metrics widely used by businesses to ensure their success. You can use either one of the three, depending on your needs, or use a combination of all to achieve a more comprehensive picture.
If you wish to measure your customers’ long-term loyalty to your business to see who qualifies as good brand advocates, then NPS is your best bet. That is because it analyses the complete relationship between the business and the customer and can offer valuable data to make forecasts. It looks at the broader picture, including the product features, price, brand image, and customer support.
On the other hand, CSAT calculates more of a short-term satisfaction of customers with your brand. It is very flexible and can enable you to ask a range of questions related to a specific product, event, or interaction. CSAT surveys are not limited to one question and can include both open and close-ended questions. It gives you more precision but might not be enough if your aim is to examine the current loyalty or relationship of your customers with the business.
Last but not least, CES is a metric that is quick and easy to set up and great for tracking customer satisfaction over time. However, as mentioned earlier, it is not very effective on its own and needs to be combined with either NPS or CES for a clearer picture.
Investing in a reputable, end-to-end solution will allow you to closely listen to your customers and then build on that valuable data to create an even more favorable environment for the business. Ensuring consumer loyalty is not only important for the growth of your customer base but also for reducing costs that are incurred as a result of poor customer support.
Sources https://www.retently.com/blog/customer-satisfaction-metrics/ https://www.qualtrics.com/experience-management/customer/customer-effort-score/ https://www.qualtrics.com/experience-management/customer/what-is-csat/
