Guest Post: How to Effectively Monitor Customer Experience

This week we feature an article from Thomas Fordham, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at TAP London. He shares different strategies to help your business monitor and measure customer satisfaction.
Customer experience is crucial for businesses looking to retain existing customers and attract new ones. But monitoring it is sometimes easier said than done. In order to really improve where customer experience is concerned, businesses need to fully understand the experience that they currently offer, and know what needs to be done to make it better. And effective monitoring is integral to this.

Many important customer experience metrics can be measured in a quantitative way, and this will give a company a great overview of how its customer experience strategies are developing. Take a look at our brief guide on how to monitor customer experience to learn how to make changes that’ll benefit your customers, and your business.

Measure Customer Satisfaction Using Quantitative Metrics

Customer satisfaction is a great indicator of the impression consumers have about a brand, and it’s an important one to track for experience purposes. Satisfaction can be measured in a number of ways, so it’s often worth trying out a range of different methods to get the full picture.

Send out surveys for customers to fill in and offer plenty of opportunities for them to provide feedback – both good and bad. Monitor online review scores and comments, and send in mystery shoppers to get the inside scoop on how the customer journey really works.

Keep Track of Customer Retention Figures

Customer retention can give a very clear indication of satisfaction, and this one is relatively simple to keep track of using the most commonly used analytics tools. Regularly review metrics relating to retention, from the numbers of repeat customers purchasing products to engagement metrics from loyal followers on social media.

Don’t forget to include statistics on returned products in your retention-focused calculations, as these too can give a clear idea of how happy customers are with their products, and the overall service received.

Think About Whether Customers Are Spreading the Word

Word of mouth is a massively important marketing tool, so you’ll want to make sure your customers are helping to spread the word about your company. Review mentions on social channels regularly and keep an eye on commonly used hashtags relating to your products.

Make sure you’re in the know about online conversations concerning the experience offered by your brand, and grab every opportunity to join these conversations and improve the experience further. Check to ensure that loyal customers are advocating for your brand. If they’re not, there could well be an experience-related reason for this.

Focus on Engagement Within Your Company as Well as Outside

Engagement with consumers is of course a key consideration in any customer experience improvement strategy, but far too many companies forget another important group of people: their own staff.

If your teams are fully engaged, motivated and ready to vouch for the brand they work for, then the chances are this positivity will translate into a better experience for customers, and similar advocacy from them. If in-house teams aren’t quite engaged enough to do this, then it’s worth stepping back and rethinking communication strategies as a whole.

Consider how you can improve the experience your own staff receive, then use these learnings to help guide improvements outside of your HQ. You may be surprised by the ideas simple strategies like this can inspire.

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Make monitoring customer experience a priority in your business, and you’ll quickly gain a far greater understanding of how customers feel about your brand, and what you can do to improve their opinions. There are many different metrics that can give you a complete overview of customers’ experiences; monitor these regularly and your business will be best placed to offer the sort of standout experiences customers crave.

Thomas Fordham is Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at TAP London. Experts in the Adobe Experience Cloud, TAP London helps brands organise data to provide meaningful insight and memorable customer experiences. 

For more articles from Shep Hyken and his guest contributors go to customerserviceblog.com.

Read Shep’s latest Forbes article: Three Strategies Successful Service Organizations Must Do in 2021