“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” – Aristotle

Customer experience (CX) and Voice of the Customer (VoC) programs are an essential element of business intelligence because they inform stakeholders about how customers view their organization. In general, they focus on:

Understanding what drives customers attitudes and behaviors

Predicting the future attitudes and behaviours of customers

Maximizing customers’ future positive attitudes and behaviours

Our framework encompasses a holistic measurement of Customer Experience and Voice of Customer for both relationship and transaction surveys, driver analysis at the transaction level, priority setting among the different transactions, overall evaluation of different facets of the customer relationship and relationship driver analysis against an overall performance metric.

Holistic Customer Experience Measurement

There are two key components to this framework:

1. The relationship a customer has with the organization.

2. Direct feedback a customer has from a recent transaction/interaction with the organization.

Using the quantitative framework outlined below, research is conducted in these two components simultaneously and is aimed at delivering a holistic outlook from a bird’s eye view of the organization, connecting the strategic elements of the business with its operational components.

Relationship Surveys

Relationship surveys are designed to gauge the entire relationship that a customer has with an organization and are less influenced by recent interactions/transactions. Their outcomes tend to be more stable and to fluctuate less over time. Relationship assessment surveys provide strategic guidance on organization-wide initiatives.

Such surveys are longer (often 10-15 minutes in length) but are conducted among a relatively lower volume of customer respondents. As the nature of the underlying relationships (i.e., perceptions of high-level service experiences and overall value of the relationship) rarely changes quickly over time, it is not generally necessary to undergo continuous measurement for such surveys. Rather, they can be conducted periodically (i.e., annually).

Transaction Surveys

Feedback on transaction surveys is influenced by a customer’s recent experience with an organization, often around a given process or “touch point” (e.g., a visit to the company’s website, interaction with a technician or contact with a customer call centre).

Compared to relationship surveys, post-transactional surveys tend to be less static and fluctuate more over a shorter period. Post-transactional measurement is appropriate for providing process improvement diagnostics and for measuring/managing the performance of mid- to lower-level managers in an organization (e.g., technician managers, customer service managers, call centre managers, managers with control of/responsibility for specific customer processes or services).

For post-transactional surveys, the survey length is short (e.g., optimally, three to five minutes in length, content-focused on just one type of interaction or customer touch point, the volume of data collection is high and interviewing is conducted in as short a period of time as possible after the interaction. This way, individual process/service managers can receive feedback on the specific customer experience they are in control of and can be held accountable for the results.

In designing this CX and VoC framework, we use an approach that recognizes these two types of surveys are different but connected, using the outline below.

Linking Relationship Surveys & Transaction Surveys

The linkage between the Relationship Surveys and Transaction Survey occurs in Service Culture. Essentially, on the Relationship Survey within the area of Service Culture, the survey has two parts: a series of statements at the strategic level about the level of service provided by the organization. These are typically more brand promise statements, such as “how would you rate the organization on being easy to work with? Showing interest in customers”? However, a section for those who might have had a recent transaction with the organization can also be included. This post-contact section within the relationship survey helps determine which of the touch points (i.e., Transaction Survey) drive the overall metric.

However, in going beyond just the bird’s eye view we also encourage organizations to look inward and elicit feedback from their employees through an Employee Experience (EX) program. The overall goal of the EX program is to develop a transparent, two-way conversation process between the organization’s management and front-line employees to address internal elements that contribute to CX concerns/issues.

Beyond the Bird’s Eye View

Our approach recognizes that front-line employees play a critical role when it comes to delivering exceptional CX, as they possess a unique perspective of having direct experience with customers and insights on how customers are reacting to services.

By empowering front-line employees to participate in the CX problem-solving process and by listening and incorporating their feedback, an organization will be able to secure greater buy-in from its front-line employees on future CX initiatives, better understand the customer service challenges front-line employees encounter and gain a more comprehensive understanding of the overall customer experience journey. This, in turn, will lead to more engaged and committed front-line employees who will further enrich the CX program – making it even more holistic.

The recommended approach is to run both a quantitative survey aimed at collecting data over time on specific metrics as it relates to employee engagement that measure the impacts of specific changes or initiatives that have been implemented. We also recommend a qualitative discussion board that is aimed to collect more in-depth feedback on specific issues, with shorter turnaround.

The intent of the qualitative piece of the research is to help organizations act fast and come up with solutions that are driven by employee feedback, creating stronger buy-in.

This latter approach also allows organizations to rectify issues before they can cause a noticeable decline in key performance indicators (KPIs) collected through the quantitative piece of the research. These two research components work together to provide the full employee experience picture. However, in going beyond just the bird’s eye view we also encourage organizations to look inward and elicit feedback from their employees through an Employee Experience (EX) program.

Would you like to know more about Insightrix CX Programs?

To find out more about specific measures, timing, costs and how the Insightrix Holistic CX program could work for you, please contact Shonna Caldwell, our Chief Revenue Officer.