Are you measuring your customer effort score yet? Service professionals are now prioritising this key performance indicator (KPI) with the same importance as tried-and-true metrics like customer satisfaction, revenue, and customer retention, according to the latest findings from the Salesforce State of Service report.
Since we began surveying service professionals for the State of Service reports in 2016, this is the first year that customer effort has cracked the top five most-measured metrics. Today, the majority (60%) of service organisations track customer effort compared to 44% in 2018. That’s a 37% increase year-over-year. Service professionals have clearly realised how much work a customer puts in to get the information they need matters.
“60% of service pros today track customer effort compared to 44% in 2018, according to the Salesforce State of Service report. Are you one of them?”
A customer effort score is a quantifiable measurement of the amount of work a customer puts in to get information they need or to reach a resolution on an issue. Harvard Business Review introduced the idea of customer effort back in 2010 as something that is directly tied to customer loyalty.
Consider some of the most frustrating customer service experiences that you’ve had — they probably involved more steps and callbacks than expected. If a customer is transferred to multiple departments and has to repeat themselves several times, or they search your help center only to have to reach out by chat or phone anyway, that’s increased effort for the customer. The goal is to do the opposite: Ensure as little effort as possible.
“Your customer effort score is directly tied to brand loyalty. Consider the work a customer has to put in to resolve an issue. Then, find ways to reduce their effort.”
Most organisations measure their customer effort score with follow-up surveys after a service interaction that might include questions like, “How easy did we make it to resolve your issue?” Response options are on a multi-point scale (strongly agree, agree, neither, disagree, strongly disagree). To get your score, find the percentage of those who selected the “agree” options.
Of course, there are other factors that contribute to customer effort beyond a survey. Average handle time (AHT), the amount of repeat calls, and the number of transfers can add to the hurdles that customers have to jump over to get their issue resolved. One way to gain insight into these areas is to review contact center analytics to spot gaps and opportunities for improvement.
Using a heat map to see where users navigate on your website is another good way to understand effort. Do patterns indicate that they easily find what they need on your help center or customer portal? Review search terms to signal any gaps as well.
“76% of customers prefer different channels depending on context, according to the Salesforce State of Connected Customer report. Keep an ear to the ground to understand your customer’s channel preferences for service.”
“76% of customers expect consistent interactions across departments, but the reality is that 53% feel like sales, service, and marketing don’t share info, according to the Salesforce State of Connected Customer report.”
Customer effort is just one of many prioritised metrics that indicate a change in customer and business objectives. Get more insights from 7,000 service professionals.
SEE TOP INSIGHTS FROM THE STATE OF SERVICE REPORT ›
This post originally appeared on the U.S.-version of the Salesforce blog.