Metrics are one of the most important aspects of a successful CX project. Choose wisely and you’ll have a reliable guide toward your end goal. Choose unwisely and you’ll be measuring the wrong thing (or the right thing in an inaccurate way).

So, we’ve put together a series of articles on the most important metrics used in customer experience. Each article talks about one business area – e.g. sales, customer service, etc. – and explains how its metrics tie back into the customer experience. We also discuss qualitative vs. quantitative metrics and how you can use metrics to show growth and highlight improvement areas.

Read the first CX metrics article now, and stay tuned to our blog as we post the other five over the coming weeks!

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A quick Google search returns at least 50 metrics you can use to chart various aspects of your business. The hard part is narrowing that list down. Even when you group metrics by business area, it can still be difficult to understand what specific metrics appliy to your situation.

We often advise CXers to start where they are. But in this case, we recommend flipping the script: start where you’d like to be, determine what you need to do to get there, and use the metric that delivers that information. So, ask yourself:

1. Where do we want to be?
2. What will get us there?
3. What detail do we need to change to get there?

For example, imagine that your goal is to improve your Customer Service department’s customer satisfaction rating by X percent. Here's how you can apply these three questions to the situation:

Question 1: Where do you want to be? A more efficient CS department.

Question 2: What will get you there? Customer comments show that many people are complaining about long resolution times. What you need, then, is to shorten resolution times.

Question 3: What do you need to change to shorten resolution times? While the metric ‘resolution time’ tells the story at the macro level, you need to dig into the details at the micro level. You might find it helpful to also track response times, first reply times, channel reply times (e.g. reply times for each channel you use), ticket reopens, and agent touches. You’ll learn all about these metrics in the fifth article of our CX Metrics series, so be sure to check our blog in the coming weeks!

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