Analyzing Customer Experience Metrics for Continuous Improvement

The customer support team hit every KPI last quarter. 99.2% CSAT. 2.3 minute average handle time. 94% first-call resolution. The CEO said "exceptional performance!" Then I read the actual tickets: Ticket #47291: Customer called about wedding catering delivery that never showed. 150 guests. No food. Reception ruined. Support response: "Sorry for the inconvenience. Here's a full refund and 20% off your next order." Ticket closed in 90 seconds. Satisfaction survey: 5 stars. Metrics: Perfect. But here's what the dashboard couldn't measure: That couple will never use our service again. They'll tell this story at every dinner party for the next decade. Their friends will choose the competitors. The reality: One "perfectly handled" ticket. Lifetime value lost: $12,000. Word-of-mouth damage: Immeasurable. I started digging deeper into other "high-performing" tickets. Found dozens of these stories hidden behind green metrics. A birthday party disaster marked as "resolved." A business meeting catastrophe labeled "satisfied customer." Anniversary dinner failure tagged "case closed." Each one a perfect score in our system. All of them a brand-damaging story in real life. Yesterday, someone watched Sarah from the support team handle a similar call. Customer: "The flowers for my mom's funeral never arrived." Sarah didn't offer a refund. Sarah didn't close the ticket in 90 seconds. Instead, she said: "I'm going to personally make sure we get flowers to the service. What was your mom's favorite color?" Handle time: 18 minutes. Resolution metrics: Failed. Customer retention: Guaranteed for life. We're measuring efficiency when we should be measuring empathy. Tracking speed when we should be tracking stories. The best customer support doesn't show up in quarterly reports. It shows up in customer conversations five years later.

The MOST critical metric you can use to measure customer satisfaction: (This changed everything for my company) We had a daily deal site with 2 million users. Sounds great, right? But about 18 months in we had a massive problem: → Customer satisfaction was TANKING (we were in the daily-deals business, largest Groupon competitor) Why? Our customers weren't getting the same experience as full-paying customers. They were treated as “coupon buyers”, so they: - Had long wait-times - Didn't get the same food - Got given the cr*ppy tables at the back They went for the full service and they got very low-quality service. And it was KILLING our business model. We tried everything - customer service calls, merchant meetings, forums. Nothing worked. Then I learned about NPS (Net Promoter Score) at EO and MIT Masters. It was an ABSOLUTE revelation. NPS isn't a boring survey asking "How happy are you with our service?" It's way more powerful. It asks, on a simple scale of 0-10: → "How likely are you to recommend this service to a friend or colleague?" 10-9 → Promoters (Nice!) 8-7 → Passive (no need to do anything) 6-0 → Detractors (fix this NOW) It’s such a simple shift on our end and so easy to respond on the customer end: “Hey, would you recommend me or not, out of 10?” “Hm, 7.” “Ok, thank you” — that’s it. Simple reframe, massive impact. We implemented it immediately. But here's the real gold: → We contacted everyone (one-on-one customer service) who used our service and provided a NPS score. They scored us less than 6? - Give them gift cards - Interview them to make them feel heard - Do ANYTHING to flip detractors into promoters Because if they’re scoring you less than 6, they’re actually HARMING your business. These are going to be like e-brakes in your company. NPS became our most important metric, integrated into everything we did. The results? - Improved customer satisfaction - Increased repeat business and customer LTV - Lower CAC (because happy customers = free marketing) - Higher AOV (people were willing to spend more) But it's not just about the numbers. It's about understanding WHY people aren't recommending you and fixing it fast. (Another great feature is that people can also add comments to get some real feedback, but just using the number is POWERFUL). If you're not using NPS, stop what you're doing and implement it tonight. Seriously. And if you are already using it? Double down on those 0-6 scores. Turning your detractors into promoters is where the real growth potential lies. Remember: in business, what gets measured gets managed. And NPS is the ultimate measure of how satisfied your customers REALLY are. So, what's your score? — Found value in this? Repost ♻️ to share to your network and follow Ignacio Carcavallo for more like this!

CSAT measurement must be more than just a score. Many companies prioritize their Net Promoter Score (NPS) as a measure of Customer Satisfaction (CSAT). But do these methods truly give us a complete understanding? In reality, surveys are not always accurate. Bias can influence the results, ratings may be misinterpreted, and there's a chance that we didn't even ask the right questions. While a basic survey can indicate problems, the true value lies in comprehending the reasons behind those scores and identifying effective solutions to improve them. Here’s a better way to look at CSAT: 1. Start with Actions, Not Just Scores: Observable behaviors like repeat purchases, referrals, and product usage often tell a more accurate story than a survey score alone. 2. Analyze Digital Signals & Employee Feedback: Look for objective measures that consumers are happy with what you offer (website micro-conversions like page depth, time on site, product views and cart adds). And don’t forget your team! Happy employees = Happy customers. 3. Understand the Voice of the Customer (VoC): Utilize AI tools to examine customer feedback, interactions with customer support, and comments on social media platforms in order to stay updated on the current attitudes towards your brand. 4. Make It a Closed Loop: Gathering feedback is only the beginning. Use it to drive change. Your customers need to know you’re listening — and *acting*. Think of your CSAT score as a signal that something happened in your customer relationships. But to truly improve your business, you must pinpoint the reasons behind those scores and use that information to guide improvements. Don’t settle for simply knowing that something happened, find an answer for why it happened. Art+Science Analytics Institute | University of Notre Dame | University of Notre Dame - Mendoza College of Business | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | University of Chicago | D'Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University | ELVTR | Grow with Google - Data Analytics #Analytics #DataStorytelling

Surveys can serve an important purpose. We should use them to fill holes in our understanding of the customer experience or build better models with the customer data we have. As surveys tell you what customers explicitly choose to share, you should not be using them to measure the experience. Surveys are also inherently reactive, surface level, and increasingly ignored by customers who are overwhelmed by feedback requests. This is fact. There’s a different way. Some CX leaders understand that the most critical insights come from sources customers don’t even realize they’re providing from the “exhaust” of every day life with your brand. Real-time digital behavior, social listening, conversational analytics, and predictive modeling deliver insights that surveys alone never will. Voice and sentiment analytics, for example, go beyond simply reading customer comments. They reveal how customers genuinely feel by analyzing tone, frustration, or intent embedded within interactions. Behavioral analytics, meanwhile, uncover friction points by tracking real customer actions across websites or apps, highlighting issues users might never explicitly complain about. Predictive analytics are also becoming essential for modern CX strategies. They anticipate customer needs, allowing businesses to proactively address potential churn, rather than merely reacting after the fact. The capability can also help you maximize revenue in the experiences you are delivering (a use case not discussed often enough). The most forward-looking CX teams today are blending traditional feedback with these deeper, proactive techniques, creating a comprehensive view of their customers. If you’re just beginning to move beyond a survey-only approach, prioritizing these more advanced methods will help ensure your insights are not only deeper but actionable in real time. Surveys aren’t dead (much to my chagrin), but relying solely on them means leaving crucial insights behind. While many enterprises have moved beyond surveys, the majority are still overly reliant on them. And when you get to mid-market or small businesses? The survey slapping gets exponentially worse. Now is the time to start looking beyond the questionnaire and your Likert scales. The email survey is slowly becoming digital dust. And the capabilities to get you there are readily available. How are you evolving your customer listening strategy beyond traditional surveys? #customerexperience #cxstrategy #customerinsights #surveys