Metrics, metrics, metrics. The word gets thrown around a lot. How do we establish and define them, let alone use them? And which metrics are actually useful and yield the best results for our businesses?
All hail the Customer Effort Score (CES)!
Customer Effort Score, established in the HBR article “Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers” is a metric that allows companies to determine how to reduce the amount of effort customers have to put in to achieve their intended goal. Businesses measure CES by asking just one question: “How much effort did you personally have to put forth to handle your request?”
The HBR study led to the development of CES because of these two conclusions: First, customer loyalty is built by reducing effort—defined as the work they must do to get their problem solved—not through over-the-top customer service. Second, focusing on reducing effort alone can lead to lower customer service costs and higher customer retention. By assigning ratings from 1 to 5, with 5 representing very high effort, CES measures the effects of how companies can create a more effortless customer experience.
http://customerthink.com/make-it-easy-how-to-improve-your-customer-effort-score/
