Customer experience metrics made simple
How to measure customer experience (CX) using key metrics
Customer experience (CX) has become a competitive differentiator that can make or break your business. The CX metrics used to track, measure, and act on customer feedback are all important—but which will provide the best insight into your customers’ world?
It depends on the type of outcome you’re seeking. Do you want to build brand loyalty and reduce churn, or ease the customer burden in key areas of their journey? There’s a metric for just about any CX goal you have in mind.
While it can seem overwhelming, we’re here to help. In this guide you’ll find the most popular customer experience metrics, cataloged by purpose and use case. If you're a seasoned CX professional, this library can strengthen the connection between your efforts and results. If you’re just getting started, this list can help you create a plan.
The three most commonly used customer experience metrics are Net Promoter Score® (NPS®), Customer Effort Score (CES), and Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT). Most companies use at least one of these metrics to measure their customer experience program. Ideally, you should use all three. Let’s go over each one.
Examples of customer experience metrics
1. Net Promoter Score (NPS)
NPS is a popular metric—it’s a simple, easy-to-understand survey that measures customer loyalty and advocacy. It’s also the most commonly used benchmark for CX, used by two-thirds of the Fortune 1000.
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is the result of asking: “How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?”
The respondent ranks their likelihood on a scale of 0 to 10—0 being highly unlikely, and 10 being extremely likely. People who select 9 or 10 on the NPS survey are considered promoters, 7 or 8 are passives, and people who select 6 or below are detractors.
To calculate the NPS score, subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters (percent promoters – percent detractors = NPS).
You can add a comment option to your NPS survey or ask one open-ended question to give customers a chance to explain their ratings.
NPS scores vary by industry, but generally, an NPS rating above 0 is considered good; above 50 is considered excellent; and a 75 and above is world-class.
Use NPS to create a customer-centric culture
The Net Promoter Score is often used as a relationship metric to evaluate the overall customer relationship and end-to-end experience.
It’s a great indicator of how your customers feel about the overall brand and relationship, and can be a valuable tool in improving the customer experience. But that’s only if it’s used consistently and the results are communicated throughout the company so teams can take action.
Here are some ways to put your NPS data to work:
- Recognize patterns and act. If you notice repeat issues, share and strategize with the appropriate team to make improvements. For example, if delivery is frequently mentioned as an issue to your detractors, get your delivery team involved in the CX conversation.
- Connect with your Promoters. Promoters took the time to share their positive feedback. Show them your appreciation by inviting them to your customer advisory boards or special customer events. Some CEOs even call a few promoters directly each month to say thank you!
- Don’t shy away from your detractors. Listen to their complaints—letting them share concerns directly with you is a great way to recover from a potentially problematic event or avoid unnecessary issues in the future.
An NPS survey can be applied at specific touchpoints in the customer journey. For example, you could use a variant of NPS (“Would you recommend us to a friend?”) after support calls to determine the effect of customer service on customer loyalty.
2. Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
The Customer Satisfaction Score is assessed by asking customers: “How would you rate your overall satisfaction?” with your company and its products, services, and interactions.
A five-point scale is most commonly used, with options very unsatisfied, unsatisfied, neutral, satisfied, and very satisfied.
There are two ways companies can calculate CSAT: an average of 1-5 or by focusing on the 4-5 responses.
SurveyMonkey recommends using this formula: (Number of 4 and 5 responses) / (Number of total responses) x 100 = % of satisfied customers.
While you can use CSAT as an average, it’s more useful to calculate the percentage of those customers who consider themselves satisfied—the metric is designed to identify the percentage of happy customers.
The final score is typically represented as a percentage of the maximum. For example, with a five-point scale, a CSAT rating of 80% means that the majority of customers are giving a satisfied rating (4 out of 5). Like an NPS survey, a CSAT survey gives the option for respondents to leave a comment and explain their rating.
A CSAT score of 80% is a good indicator of success, although it will vary by industry. For the latest CSAT benchmarks, check out this article.
CSAT pros and cons
A CSAT study is easy to understand and implement—most people are comfortable answering the question of rating a brand on a scale of 1-5.
However, the wording of the CSAT question is not standardized, making it difficult to compare scores between different organizations. And, a satisfied customer is a fairly low bar that may give organizations a false sense of security because it doesn’t necessarily lead to loyalty.
Like NPS, the Customer Satisfaction Score is considered a relationship metric, which means it should be used to evaluate the overall customer relationship and end-to-end experience. For this particular purpose, CSAT should be measured annually or quarterly, to assess a customer’s satisfaction with their experience over time.
Customer Satisfaction Score is a touchpoint metric. That means it’s used to capture feedback after a specific customer interaction with different parts of a company. So, instead of understanding overall customer happiness, CSAT can zero in on a single stage, touchpoint, or relationship.
Customers may have a tendency to focus on their most recent experience with a company in an NPS survey. However, the 5-point scale of CSAT can apply to specific instances, such as a customer service call or delivery experience.
Use CSAT to improve touchpoints along the journey
Customer-centric brands use CSAT with the intention of creating specific improvements along the customer journey. Here are some examples.
- Use CSAT to incrementally measure touchpoint improvements. Once a touchpoint is changed for the better, validate it with customers by comparing before and after CSAT scores.
- Identify the specific goals a customer has at each stage in their journey; then use a CSAT study to understand if those goals are being met. If satisfaction is lower at a particular stage, that’s where improvements should be prioritized.
- Use CSAT to track the satisfaction of big, complex interactions. Examples include lengthy buying cycles and complex B2B service issues that aren’t resolved with just one call. Once the situation is resolved, ask the customer about their satisfaction level. Service recovery should build loyalty by taking care of customer problems. If that’s not happening, a CSAT survey will tell you.
- Review CSAT throughout the journey. Even if you are collecting CSAT at specific interaction points, take a step back and review the big picture of these scores within the customer journey. The lower scores highlight gaps in the experience. Address those improvements and watch the scores rise again.
By being hyper-focused on specific interactions, CSAT helps you discover gaps in your customer experience program and make improvements across the customer journey.
Related: 50 examples of great customer satisfaction survey questions
3. Customer Effort Score (CES)
The Customer Effort Score (CES) asks the customer to score the amount of effort involved with a specific interaction. According to our research, 82% of customers say they've backed out of an online purchase due to a negative experience, such as hidden fees or difficult website navigation. Evaluating CES can pinpoint problems and help companies reduce costs and customer frustration.
A CES survey asks customers to agree or disagree with the statement: “[Company Name] made it easy for me to handle my issue.” You can also include an open-ended follow-up question that asks for feedback on the response. The respondent can choose from 7 answer choices ranging from strongly disagree (score 1) to strongly agree (score 7).
A CES is the average of all responses by adding up the total sum of responses, and dividing by the total number of survey respondents. The equation looks like: (Total sum of responses) / (Number of responses) = CES score.
An average Customer Effort Score over 5 is good. A score 5 and lower means there is room for improvement. Some theorize that you actually don’t want a perfect score, because that shows your customers aren’t putting in any effort themselves to get their questions answered. Somewhere between 5-6 is the sweet spot. If you’re averaging at a CES of 7, especially when scaling a support team, you might want to encourage more self service options.
Why CES matters
The Customer Effort Score has gained popularity as a metric aimed at reducing the effort in customer service or other routine interactions. If the primary value proposition of your brand is fast and easy experiences (think Amazon) then CES could work well as a brand loyalty indicator. However, for the rest of us, CES is best used in customer service or other routine experiences where low effort is the main loyalty driver.
As you may have noticed, CES is another touchpoint metric. As effortless experiences become the expected norm, this metric will help guide your strategy to create less effort for customers throughout their journey.
Use CES to reduce effort at key touch points
Successful CX programs use CES to measure how a customer feels across the journey and what actions are leading them to feel that way. Here are some examples:
- A customer might report high satisfaction with the buying phase (via CSAT), while also reporting that the purchase online required more effort than they would’ve liked (via CES). Determine which factors led to the feeling of effort for the customer, then provide improvements or peripheral guidance like additional instructions, online support, real-time chat, etc. Finally, measure CES once more and see the results of your efforts.
- Tie your CES score to referrals and word-of-mouth marketing. When you bring your CES up, you might notice your referral rates and social media sentiment increase. This can also be measured in reverse—as your CES dips, pay attention to the way customers are discussing your brand.
- CES is great for soliciting open-ended feedback from customers who may have great ideas on how to reduce the effort for their fellow customers.