3 CX Metrics from Gartner that can outshine NPS and CSAT

Customer Experience (CX) is the biggest brand differentiator, in the digital economy we are living in. It has led to a cultural shift, where customer-centric businesses are vying to create positive interactions at every touchpoint.

CX is high on board agendas, and when it comes to gauging the effectiveness of those CX efforts, Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) have long dominated the scene as the holy grail of CX metrics and KPIs. Organisations track these metrics to identify long-term loyalty and build stronger customer relationships.

Let’s reintroduce these metrics before we look at some different measures.

Net Promoter Score (NPS) #

NPS tracks how a business is perceived by its customers to predict customer loyalty. It is determined by asking customers a simple question: "On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our product/service to others?" Based on their responses, customers are classified into three categories: Promoters (9-10), Passives (7-8), Detractors (0-6).

Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) #

CSAT is a widely used metric that gauges the level of satisfaction customers have with a specific interaction, transaction, or experience. It typically involves a survey that can be anything from a numerical range from 0 (Very Unsatisfied) to 5 (Completely Satisfied), to a verbal scale (Very Unsatisfied-Completely Satisfied), a series of face or thumbs up/thumbs down emoji scale.

Beyond NPS and CSAT: 3 CX metrics from Gartner #

NPS and CSAT are good metrics when the goal is to measure long-term loyalty and relationships, but they don’t provide a complete picture, as you can’t objectively measure your performance based on how the customer feels when they complete a survey. The insights derived from customer responses are not actionable and businesses don’t get any information on how they can improve performance. Therefore, using these metrics in a silo without clear future direction, can waste precious time and resources.

Let’s look at 3 other CX metrics highlighted by Gartner that are better predictors across all dimensions of customer loyalty such as repurchase, retention and positive word of mouth; and when tracked in conjunction with CSAT and NPS, can drive overall experiences and growth. How you utilise and incorporate them into your customer satisfaction surveys will depend on the type of business, CX processes and the touchpoints they aim to improve.

1. Value Enhancement Score (VES)
2. Customer Effort Score (CES)
3. Customer Improvement Score (CIS)

1. Value Enhancement Score (VES) #

Introduced by Gartner, the Value enhancement score (VES) focuses on the value customers place on their product or service and is a great predictor of customer loyalty.

VES looks at two main areas of customers' perception:

1. Customers' abilities to use the product or service
2. Customers' confidence in the decision to purchase the product or service

The aim here is not just to focus on solving customers' immediate problems but to go one step further and understand the value these service interactions are adding to customers' lives.

1.1 How VES Works #

VES is calculated through a two-question, post-transaction survey. Customers respond by rating their agreement with the statements on a scale of 1 through 7. The combined score reveals the value customers place on your products, services and the customer loyalty you’ve earned from them. Naturally, a higher combined score is desirable.

1.2 How VES Generates Value #

There are many ways to enhance value during customer service interactions using the insights from VES:

• Educate consumers on how to best use products and services
• Introduce the consumer to unused or newly launched features
• Reassure consumers that they made the correct purchase decision
• Predict which features will be most valuable for consumers in the future
• Outline features a consumer should use based on their goals

2. Customer Effort Score (CES) #

The Customer Effort Score (CES) is another Gartner CX metric; it measures customer perception of how easy a business is to work with during service interactions. This metric enables organisations to assess the customer effort involved during service issue queries and resolution requests.

Service leaders can track CES to identify areas to reduce customer effort. This is important for predicting customer disloyalty, and putting appropriate procedures and actions in place.

2.1 How CES Works #

CES is measured by asking a single question and scoring the response on a scale from 1 to up to 7, with 1 representing the highest level of disagreement with the statement. The closer the customer is to an active agreement, the bigger the opportunity to drive loyalty.

CES is calculated by the percentage of customers' responses to the question. There’s also an opportunity to dig deeper with more than 1 question to understand the reasoning behind the feedback.

2.2 How CES Generates Value #

Customer service organisations can use CES, alongside other operational measurements. So when a customer experiences high-effort interactions, it's essential to enable the Customer Services team to mitigate churn by taking appropriate action:

• Identify shortcomings and gaps in the customer journey
• Optimise purchase and service experiences
• Uncover high-effort pain points (repeat calls, transfers and channel switching)
• User Interface (UI) testing and adoption
• Benchmark CX efforts against competitors

3. Customer Improvement Score (CIS) #

Interestingly, the third metric is really a B2B measure; CIS looks at customers’ perception of whether their relationship with the supplier has noticeably improved their business. This is especially useful for account management, where merely serving the customer is not enough, suppliers have to demonstrate improvement to their customers to improve retention and account growth.

3.1 How CIS Works #

CIS is measured by asking a single question and scoring the response on a scale from 1 to 7, with 1 representing the highest level of disagreement with the statement; 6-7 being the high-growth potential indicators of the account.

This metric is also tracked by asking customers/clients verbatim questions with ‘what’ or ‘why’ statements to promote specific and actionable responses.

3.2 How CIS Generates Value #

Gartner's research indicates that Sales teams historically can struggle to priortise their account growth efforts effectively using metrics like NPS or CSAT. CIS provides more concrete and actionable customer insights can be the single biggest drivers of growth with an account. These insights can be used for the following actions.

• Laying out a clear vision for improving customers' businesses
• Delivering critical perspective on major customer pain points
• Finding gaps in service and working effectively as one team with the customer
• Outlining the commercial impact (ROI) of the relationship

Ready to track your CX Initiatives? #

Using different CX metrics can better capture the complexity of CX and gives businesses a holistic understanding of customer satisfaction, engagement, and long-term value.

What we have discussed is not a definitive list of alternative CX metrics, and the measures you incorporate will vary based on your objectives. However, by incorporating alternative CX metrics into their frameworks, businesses can gain deeper insights, make informed decisions, elevate customer experience and foster growth.

Remember, the key to CX success lies in continuously evolving and refining your strategy to exceed customer expectations and build lasting relationships.

You can also read more from Gartner about their recommended metrics for CX here.

How Boxfusion can help! #

Boxfusion has a track record of building holistic customer experiences by leveraging user insights and implementing CX platforms. Get in touch if you'd like to understand how we incorporate some of these metrics in our client’s CX framework.

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