customer service

Why You Should Care About Your Customer Effort Score

Survey Tips

Do you know your customer effort score? Do you have a grasp of what it is?

Your customer effort score (CES) measures what your customers think about how easy or difficult your business makes it for them to complete an action.

The CES measures how many hoops your customers have to jump through to get what they need. For example, are they looking for info on your website and can’t find it? Or, are they getting a busy signal each time they call customer service?

One study says it is 25% more predictive of customer loyalty than the next best metric. Combined with the Net Promoter Score and Customer Satisfaction Score, you should have a working knowledge of how your customers feel about you.

Because it’s so important, in this article, we look at why you should care about your customer effort score.

The Customer Effort Survey

First, let’s look at how you get this information.

The CES survey involves a single question that is scored on a scale from one to seven.

The question might look like this:  X (your name) made it easy for me to get what I needed (or find an answer, or some variable of this).

The answer options are: strongly agree, agree, somewhat agree, neutral, somewhat disagree, disagree, strongly disagree.

If you get a negative score, you can use your survey to send them to another question that is empathetic and looks something like this: “It looks like we could have done a better job helping you. Please let us know more about your experience.

You would then list seven options underneath for them to click on. For example, answers might be: I was on hold too long, your website was confusing, no one answered my question, etc.

Now let’s look at why it matters.

You Can Improve Your Service

Using your CES data can help you improve your customer satisfaction. It can help you get your customer service right the first time, so you don’t have unsatisfied customers.

If your score is low, you want to train your staff to not only respond quickly but to respond with empathy and knowledge. If they aren’t trained correctly, they will fall short.

The CES helps you learn where your staff and your company fall short and where you can improve.

You Can Improve Your Speed

Customers waiting too long on hold? Or, are they spending a lot of time on your website and not finding answers?

Speed is so important in the 21st century. In a world of immediacy, people are not willing to wait.

So, surprise them and speed things up.

If your CES shows that customers are waiting too long, you can add staff and improve your processes.

You Can Improve Your Options

Oftentimes, people are happy to solve their problems on their own, but they need the right information to do so.

You can help your customer service process by exploring your self service tools.

Your most modern customers will be glad to look for some answers on their own. Make these easy to find, and always offer the option of talking to a person, too.

Final Thoughts

If your customers have to expend too much effort to get what they want and need from you, they aren’t going to return.

Effort is a good predictor of how loyal your customers are and will be in the future.

Your customer effort score can help you understand where your company, products/services, and staff fall short so you can improve. (tweet this)

Today’s marketplace is all about providing the best possible customer service, and that includes how much effort your customers have to spend to get what they want.

When you reduce their effort, you increase their loyalty.

Surveys help you make the best decisions for your business. Are you ready to get started with your free Survey Town trial? Start with your free account today, and you can upgrade at any time.

Image: Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

The Importance Of Employee Reward And Recognition

Survey Tips

You know the importance of sending surveys to your customers. Most likely you do this because you are dedicated to improving your customer service.

Yet, the only way your business will shine is if customer service is part of the very fabric of your company. For this to happen, it must start with you, and your employees must buy in. (tweet this)

In other words, you can do all the advertising in the world, send surveys on a regular basis, and if your team isn’t on board, things will be tough.

One way to encourage your staff to provide the best service is to incentivize your managers and your team for good reviews. Let’s look at the importance of employee reward and recognition.

Reward Employees Named in Surveys

Let’s say a survey respondent names one of your employees positively in a survey. Consider rewarding your team member for the mention.

For example, you might give them a gift certificate, Friday afternoon off, or a small bonus.

Set Goals

If your first survey garnered less than perfect results, set a goal for your staff.

For example, if you send a Net Promoter Score survey, and it comes back on the low-end, set goals for each quarter. Your goal might be to raise your score by one-two points each quarter.

Then, if your team meets the first quarter goal, they get a reward. If they meet the second quarter goal, they get another, and the same for quarters three and four.

If all four goals were met, consider a bigger reward and recognition at the end of the year.

Get creative. Ask your employees what might motivate them, and then set the rewards in motion.

Final Thoughts

Providing the best customer experience possible is what sets businesses apart in the 21st century, and surveys help you uncover valuable data to do this.

Get your employees on board by rewarding and recognizing them for your positive surveys.

Because the happiness of your customers stems directly from the contentment of your employees, you’ll find that actively engaging them in the process helps drive business and your overall growth.

Surveys help you make the best decisions for your business. Are you ready to get started with your free Survey Town trial? Start with your free account today, and you can upgrade at any time.

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How to Measure the Success of Your Support Department

General

Well-known management consultant, Peter Drucker, said, “What gets measured, gets managed.”

His management philosophy means that the best plan of action is to measure the things that matter to your company. One of the most important things to measure is customer satisfaction.

If you’re ready to more than meet your customers’ needs and exceed their expectations every time, you want data you can measure.

Here’s how to measure the success of your support department.

How to Measure Satisfaction

One way to measure success is to send out feedback surveys. This helps you assess how well your support team is doing while learning what your customers need and expect.

These metrics help you keep tabs on what your customers experience when they talk with your support team. Is the time spent with your support staff easy, or is their time difficult and frustrating?

You can always use the Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey to measure customer satisfaction. Yet, in this case, the NPS merely scratches the surface of your customers’ whole experience with support.

Consider also sending surveys that measure the following:

  • The number of conversations a person had with your support department to resolve the issue.
  • How many customers hung up frustrated.
  • If your customers felt their issues were resolved.
  • Overall satisfaction.
  • If customers felt the amount of time spent on the phone was satisfactory.
  • Whether or not the team member was friendly, courteous and ready to help.

Final Thoughts

Your customer support department is highly measurable. From things such as call volume, chat time, interaction counts, resolution rates, and customer satisfaction, you can record data and measure it quite easily.

Remember that you can only change and improve the things you are aware of. If you don’t know about the success of your support department, you can’t reward it or improve it.

Because your support department and ensuring customer service is meaningful to the success of your company, it makes good business sense to measure it on an ongoing basis. (tweet this)

Your satisfied customers who had a good experience with your support department are the ones who’ll return to shop with you.

Surveys help you make the best decisions for your business. Are you ready to get started with your free Survey Town trial? Start with your free account today, and you can upgrade at any time.

Image: rawpixel on Unsplash