Everything a brand does, directly or indirectly, feeds into the customer experience (CX) it delivers. Since experiences are a major differentiator, many business leaders are starting to explore what is being called return on experience (RoX).
RoX is a metric which helps you determine how your investments in customer experience are impacting your bottom line. It provides a holistic understanding of how customers view your brand, and helps you identify steps to improve customer engagement. Consider RoX a collective assessment of several other metrics, like RoI, conversion rate, etc. These metrics can differ depending on who is measuring the RoX and for what.
Let’s say you’ve launched a new website. Your IT team may want to measure metrics such as website uptime, loading speed, and compatibility across devices - all of which affect the customer’s user experience. But the marketing or sales team will likely be more interested in knowing how the new web experience affects revenue. Thus, one team arrives at their RoX by measuring different metrics than the other.
But by and large, there’s a simple equation to get you started on calculating your RoX.
Our research finds that 79% of consumers and 85% of business buyers consider experience just as important as the products or services a company provides. Therefore, managing and improving customer experience just makes good business sense.
Here are a few reasons why you need to start measuring RoX:
You may be providing great products and services. But customers also expect a great experience throughout their interactions with your brand. So, how smooth or fun can you make their shopping experience? Can you add value to customers beyond your products or service? Do you shape experiences around just what you have to offer, or what customers want? Perhaps, they’d like a nifty new app feature, or they’d want to see your brand becoming available on a social channel.
All these things can impact your customer experience, giving people more reasons to choose you over your competitors.
Long turnaround times on service requests, misleading marketing, and a lack of relevant and useful content can all frustrate customers and send them looking for better experiences elsewhere.
By measuring RoX, you can better identify areas of friction or gaps in customer experiences. And by proactively addressing them, you can close sales faster and retain customers for a lifetime. Going the extra mile to give customers memorable buying and servicing experiences will encourage them to come back for more.
When you supplement quantitative measures like marketing return on investment (RoI) with qualitative ones like feedback, you get a more holistic view of how customers perceive your brand. You can, for instance, identify the reasons a customer would choose you over another brand with the same offerings, and how or when they feel the most connected to your brand.
Such insights help you determine what’s working and what isn’t in your customer experience strategies. You can then make better-informed investment decisions that lead to happier customers and higher returns.