Any successful customer-centric organization’s foundation is built on the customer experience, yet knowing this intuitively is insufficient. Without giving leadership concrete data to evaluate to show that it is genuinely assisting the business, you are arguing for the continuation of an expensive business function. Therefore, If you want your company’s leadership to keep funding your customer experience program, it is necessary to justify the ROI of the program.
A study by Forbes to prove why effective Customer Experience Management is imperative for an organization stated
- Companies that prioritize their consumers are 60% more profitable than those that don’t.
- Brands that provide an exceptional customer experience generate 5.7 times more revenue than their competitors.
- 84% of businesses that strive to improve the customer experience note a rise in revenue.
Clearly, when customer experience is properly prioritized, there is a significant return on investment. The secret is to tell a compelling tale and demonstrate the ROI of CX using data.
This article is all about how to calculate your customer experience expenses, returns, and ROI and how to use this information to create a successful CX program.
The trickiest element of calculating ROI is determining benefits or returns, which is why the majority of CX professionals avoid this process. This is due to the fact that you have to decide how changes in the customer experience will affect the precise quantitative measurements that your company uses to measure its success.
Decide which business metrics are most impacted by customer experience
Investing in customer experience is now more important than ever and has a number of quantitative advantages. The key, though, is to pick the business metrics that are ideal for your particular business and industry.
Here’s a list of business metrics most commonly used for customer experience ROI calculation:
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
Customer lifetime value estimates the total amount of money a single customer will spend on your company’s product or service. It is computed by multiplying the average customer lifespan by customer value.
Churn Rate
The percentage of consumers who cancel or quit your firm within a certain time frame is known as your churn rate. It is computed by dividing the total number of lost customers by the total number of new ones.
Cost of Support
Expenses unrelated to production or manufacturing is referred to as Support Costs. Among these are initiatives for customer service and quality assurance. These expenses should be closely compared to your metrics for customer satisfaction.
Cross Sell/Upsell
Customers who are pleased with their experience are more likely to purchase additional goods and services from a company. They like engaging with your business and keep returning. Calculating Additional Revenue from Upsell/Cross-sell is a good way of determining the ROI on CX. The formula for the same is,
Revenue earned from selling an additional product x (% of customers who buy an
additional product in the next year x total no. of customers).
Average Transaction Size
By dividing the total sales made over a certain period by the total income earned during that same period, the average transaction size is determined. This helps you understand your consumers’ buying patterns and top product preferences.
How to Increase Return on Investment for Customer Experience
Companies that are just beginning to analyze customer experiences may start by looking at NPS or CSAT scores. While tracking these measures over time will undoubtedly reveal trends, it is impossible to tell what steps should be taken to boost performance without going deeper.
Here are some actions you can do to increase the effectiveness of your customer experience program and gain a deeper understanding of your customers.
Segment your customer base.
It is useful to categorize the customers you work with according to their individual traits and habits in order to comprehend them better. Different buyer personas might help you identify chances to boost income because not all customers behave in the same way.
Here are some ways of segmenting your customer base:
- Product/Plan Purchased
- Contract Value/Average Transaction Size
- Age
- Location
Use Text Analytics to examine qualitative data.
Text analytics software can analyze qualitative data from survey replies, customer chats, online reviews, social media conversations, and more instead of manually going through support tickets and listening to phone recordings. With the use of this technology, you can handle a variety of essential data without having to examine each piece of customer feedback yourself.
Look for historical trends.
Once you’ve accumulated a sizable amount of data, search for patterns that describe what has or hasn’t previously worked. Do clients in a certain segment consistently discuss a certain feature? Do you have a particular target audience where the churn rate is higher? What did their qualitative data show regarding how they viewed your brand?
You may compare your customer experience program to the metrics you’re tracking by viewing data via this lens. You’ll have a better understanding of what programs are effective and where improvements may be made for a higher return.
Decide which opportunities will have the biggest impact.
Look for a certain buyer profile or group where you can have a substantial impact on their customer experience once you have a sense of how your program is functioning. For instance, you might begin focusing on a high-value market segment where the churn rate is high but there are still plenty of opportunities to create satisfied customers.
Your customer experience measurements will be useful in this situation. Take a look at the past campaigns you’ve run that have been effective with audiences like these. Use qualitative data to tailor your next project for your new target persona and quantitative data to assess your financial performance.
How to Use Customer Experience ROI to Build a Successful CX Program
Organize CX investments based on business objectives.
You have made a significant step in obtaining budget approval for your cx investments by calculating customer experience ROI. Make sure to rank them according to the company’s overall goals as well as the customer experience team’s goals.
To make sure you are on the same page with the main metrics and goals that matter for your firm, interview top executives, participate in town-hall meetings, and carefully review important papers like annual reports. Only then will you be able to create an effective customer experience program that will be promoted by influential figures within the organization.
The Cost of Inaction Must Be Emphasized
For the majority of firms, there is no longer a choice between investing in improving customer experience and not doing so. The cost of inaction is significant, primarily in the form of client turnover, in a market where customer expectations are rising quickly and switching to another brand or provider is simpler than ever.
Determine Quick Wins to Show Success
Utilize the customer experience ROI formula to find quick wins that will show success right away. Nothing is more effective than demonstrating what better customer service looks like! This will significantly raise the profile of your CX program within the company and assist garner supporters and ongoing funding.
Increasing Sales Through Customer Experience
Customer encounter ROI is a useful number for your company to track, not just for fun. Upcoming initiatives can be prioritized, customer centricity can get support, and team morale is generally increased.
Connecting data you already track to the financial measures given in this piece is the key to calculating customer experience ROI. You can determine the effectiveness of your customer experience program by contrasting that contextual data with customer feedback.
