Customer relationship KPIs: between innovation and conservatism – Customer journey > Customer marketing

NPS is dead, long live NPS! That’s the prevailing impression over the past few months when we look at key performance indicators (KPIs) from a customer relationship perspective. And there are many such indicators. Historical wait times, first contact resolution rate, average processing time… and the latest, the satisfaction score embodied by CES, among CSR-related ones… These KPIs cover a very wide spectrum.

However, NPS, long considered the “master standard” in the field, appears to be no longer popular. Recall that it allows you to know and measure customer satisfaction and loyalty by roughly defining three types of customers. : passives, promoters and detractors. However, its relevance has been lost for some time. Reason ? His insecurity.

“NPS can be the trick in the end! Indeed, it is often manipulated in various ways (with the desire to lower positive ratings) in companies that want to get good scores. However, by reporting this type of biased KPI to management committees, the latter risk making wrong decisions. Remember, the purpose of a post-contact KPI like NPS is not to get a good result, but to determine how customer service is being tested to take action and improve it.” Marie-Louis Julien explains AMARC’s Chief Representative. So what should KPIs consider now?

Between conservatism and innovation

Opportunity evaluation is often favored in the sales-oriented part. “These KPIs are geographical areas, financial amounts, access to decision-makers, etc., as long as the company relies on good methodological foundations. represent good indicators for detecting potential purchases based on For example, in the mutual insurance sector, we are talking about determining the norm of household equipment: household life insurance, savings, etc. equipped with? ? “, emphasizes Nathalie Galliot, commercial director of the French company Effic.

Another important KPI is dedicated to the risk of loss. Determining the number of customer service complaints, the contract expiration date, and the time the brand has had no contact with the customer are key elements. All to calculate wear rate.

In the customer service section, let’s set aside 20+ years of usage (wait time, first contact resolution rate, average processing time, etc.) to review current trends.

According to a Salesforce survey, 80% of customers in 2020 believe that the shopping experience is as important as the quality of the product or service sold.

And in this shopping experiencepersonalizing the customer relationship is a key element for 52% of respondents in the Salesforce study.

In addition, customers seem to have limited time. Indeed, according to a recent study by Zendesk, 66% of customers say they are less patient than in previous years. But among the clues related to this “impatience”, CES is increasingly asserting itself. Admittedly, this is not new, but it is growing in importance. In other words, how much effort does it take to find an answer to a customer’s question? An answer that can be found on its own, in self-service (via a robot), or in interaction with an agent.

Therefore, many other questions arise: how long will it take the customer to find the information? How many articles should you read? Will the chatbot find the answer? Was self service efficient or did the agent take over etc.? ?

Safe bets

Some of the KPIs in the list are important. To begin with using transcripts this remains a very telling indicator of how customers are “talking” about the brand. Ditto for the loyalty rate, which remains a safe bet. But what about the complaint rates that define some of the dysfunctions? “They allow the business to define the ability to identify what is not working. When it is low and, at the same time, the dissatisfaction rate exceeds 10%, we can consider that there is a “hole in the rocket”, notes Marie-Louis Julien.

Apart from the aforementioned “debate” about the relevance of NPS, companies are increasingly looking at its variant, namely Employee-NPS or eNPS.

.Based on the employee’s experience (whether in the store, in the contact center, etc.), this KPI allows you to understand the relationship between employee motivation and the performance of the organization. An index that is widely used, especially in the world of luxury.

However, this index should be compared to the employee’s relationship with their brand. Under the name “symmetry of attention”, the idea is to focus on the well-being of its employees as well as its customers. This symmetry of focus translates into the ability to provide their employees with the right software tools and the right work environment. At the end of the day, with optimization levers that help align physical and digital experiences for both employees and customers.

Customer engagement at a lower cost

Recall that the “Holy Grail,” or at least the intended purpose of the customer relationship center, has long been shift from a cost center to a profit center, as Chams Ejjaouni, Chief Marketing Officer EMEA at Zendesk, explains: “Implementing ROI for customer service has become a necessity, even a priority. However, this requires reducing contact costs while having an effectively structured customer relationship cycle to get a response that leads to a sale, not just a problem solution. A referred agent becomes a sales agent. So to get a good balance between human and robot, automation, self-service… needs to be mixed and balanced.”

This is good because customers want more control over how they interact with companies. To do this, investing in AI-based solutions is a boon to provide quick solutions to its customers. According to Zendesk research, 90% of businesses surveyed said they use bots to steer customers in the right directionfreeing up time for agents to focus on more complex, higher-value tasks.

Also, a balance must be found between automation and human contribution to the customer experience.

This involves a better understanding of customer behaviors in order to place automation where it is most effective. Not forgetting to provide additional assistance to agents who have a stronger impact on the consumer customer.

Go beyond KPIs

Admittedly, it is always relevant to mention a non-exhaustive list of performance indicators. But isn’t it a priority whether the company’s communication channels meet customer requirements? The goal is to succeed in modeling customer typologies and identify preferred channels according to these typologies. Thus, the Covid crisis has “tested” new communication channels, especially through messaging apps.

“In the first months of the arrest, a number of companies opened the WhatsApp channel for their customers. The goal? To compensate for the closure of contact centers during this period, to be faster in the way of providing answers,” says Chams Ejjaouni. The pandemic has therefore led to an increasing number of customers turning to digital channels, as confirmed by Laurent Giet, SVP of Cloud Sales France at Salesforce: “Their expectations are rising and their habits are changing, they are not going to back down. Therefore, companies must adapt and measure these new interactions. Also, according to our latest research, 69% of contact center decision makers have invested in technology in recent years.”

In fact, multi-channel digital communication is becoming the norm. A commitment that ultimately requires companies to align their KPIs to measure the performance of these channels.