When it comes to customer experience (CX) measurement, it’s incredibly easy for frontline teams to become fixated on CX scores (e.g. NPS, Overall Satisfaction, or similar) rather than the quality of individual customer interactions.

It’s like using the stock market index to determine how individual companies are performing. Sure, it gives you an overall read on market sentiment, but it doesn’t help you decide which company is the right investment.

It’s just the same with the individual customer interactions that make up the metrics CX professionals monitor. To coin a well-worn phrase, “Look after the cents and the dollars will look after themselves”.

To bring this to life, consider that every customer feedback survey represents an individual transaction. Each customer is worthy of individual examination to understand the nuances. For example:

•  Was everything perfect?
•  Were there areas where the customer marked you down?
•  What might lie behind their ratings?
•  Was there something missing that would have made the difference?
•  What details have they provided on why they felt the way they did?

Reflecting on the process and determining how that customer might have left happier, more content (or simply less frustrated), will pay dividends the next time they visit.

It’s easy to forget the interaction the customer has with your business is almost certainly not the most important thing in their day. It’s a chore to fit amongst their other activities, a task they need to achieve.

Being aware of this, and tailoring a frictionless service to suit, will result in a more appropriate outcome, reflecting the customer’s needs. The more we can do this, the more likely it is that they will emerge with a positive experience. Add up those positive experiences and we get a favourable score.

However, while a positive rating can flatter the ego, it’s the real-world impacts that drive longer-term profitability:

• Loyalty : Will that customer return to your business on the next occasion?
• Advocacy : Will they tell others about the great service they received?

While getting an overall score of 87.3 might mean achieving an internal bonus, think of it more as a reflection of the dozens of customers who came away from your business impressed. Even then, we need to avoid complacency.  To throw another quote into the mix, “You’re only as good as your last performance”.

Where you have left a customer happy, think about how you can match (or exceed) that level of service the next time. Between visits to your business, they will interact with dozens of others (in person and online), so their point of comparison isn’t necessarily what happened 14 months ago.

Organisations that truly learn from every customer will be the ones that thrive.

So, lift your eyes away from the ‘share price’ and focus on the fundamentals behind it – the customers!