There's a New Way to Measure the Customer Experience in Service Interactions
ARLINGTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 16, 2008--Exceeding customer expectations has long been the measure of success in
customer service interactions--89% of customer service executives believe
that "delighting the customer" will lead to increased loyalty. New
research by the Corporate Executive Board's Customer Contact Council,
however, reveals the alarming truth: exceeding customer expectations
results in virtually no loyalty gains. In fact, service and support
centers have little stake in building customer loyalty at all.
"The probability that a service interaction will drive disloyalty is
approximately four times greater than the chance it will create any
positive loyalty impression. In other words, as a function, customer
service typically plays on the 'negative side' of the loyalty field,"
said Matthew Dixon, Ph.D., Managing Director of the Customer Contact
Council. "Most service executives are using traditional customer
satisfaction (CSAT) or the more recently popularized Net Promoter(C)
Score (NPS) to gauge loyalty in service interactions, but we found these
metrics fail to capture the most powerful driver of disloyalty--the
amount of personal effort a customer has to put into the service
experience." In light of this new understanding, the Customer Contact
Council has developed an original metric that is far more predictive of
loyalty than either CSAT or NPS. This new metric, the Customer Effort
Score(TM) (CES(TM)), is based on a single question that determines the degree
of required customer effort during a service request.
The Council's unprecedented research into the impact of customer service
on loyalty is the result of more than 61,000 interactions with customer
service and support organizations. "A finding this powerful--that
customer effort is intricately linked to loyalty--really forced us to
think critically about where and why customer effort exists and what
customer service organizations can do to reduce or eliminate it," said
Dixon. "Our membership pushed us to capture customer service's impact on
loyalty in a simple metric. The CES(TM) comprises a new-to-world question
that all contact centers should add to their post-service surveys and
provides a metric that every service executive should add to his or her
dashboard. We think it will become the new standard for measuring the
service organization's impact on customer loyalty."
The Customer Contact Council consists of experts providing best practice
solutions and extensive quantitative analyses to help optimize process
implementation and save organizations millions of dollars. To learn more
about the Customer Contact Council's work on loyalty, including the
definition and methodology for CES(TM), contact the Corporate Executive
Board.
About Corporate Executive Board
The Corporate Executive Board (NASDAQ: EXBD) drives faster, more
effective decision-making among the world's leading executives
and business professionals. As the premier, network-based knowledge
resource, it provides them with the authoritative and timely guidance
needed to excel in their roles, take decisive action and improve company
performance. Powered by a member network that spans over 50 countries
and represents more than 80% of the world's Fortune 500 companies, the
Corporate Executive Board offers the unique research insights along with
an integrated suite of members-only tools and resources that enable the
world's most successful organizations to deliver superior business
outcomes. Based in Washington, DC, the company employs more than 2,500
professionals in offices around the world. For more information, visit www.exbd.com.
CONTACT: The Corporate Executive Board
Joni Renick, 571-303-4074
jrenick@executiveboard.com
www.executiveboard.com
Source: The Corporate Executive Board
