6 Effective Ways to Collect Meaningful Customer Experience Data
MHC Team 
June 9th, 2020
As customer expectations rise, the experience a customer has is emerging as a key brand differentiator.
Statistics show that brands that provide superior CX generate 5.7 times the amount of revenue than those who don’t. Companies that put their customers first are 60% more profitable than less customer-centric counterparts.
Even without these kinds of stats, it’s easy to see that improving customer experience is a recipe for success.
However, what’s not so easy is doing this without sufficient information. Customer experience data is essential for any CX project because it informs decision-makers what areas need to be improved.
Fortunately, gathering this type of data is not rocket science. With a few simple strategies, you can compile direct feedback from customers. This will allow you to provide an outstanding experience to your clients.
Continue reading to find out what these data collection methods are.
1. Create Effective Customer Surveys
One of the keys to making a customer experience project successful is to gather qualitative data.
Qualitative data is data that’s not based on metrics and numbers. Instead, it evaluates the customer’s opinions on the quality of the service or experience they received. Qualitative data gives you a view into the way your customers feel about your brand.
An easy and effective way to gather qualitative data is to launch customer surveys. Customer surveys allow customers to give personal feedback. Surveys can be implemented through things checkout processes, and customer communications.
The secret to success with customer surveys is to format the questions with the end goal in mind. Instead of asking a string of generic questions, tailor your queries to focus on key areas where you need feedback.
For example, if web analytics is showing a high rate of cart abandonment while shopping online, include questions around the checkout process in the survey.
Was it easy? Was it fast? Was it efficient? If customers answered no to this type of question, then it’s time to optimize your online checkout process.
Other tips for effective online survey creation is to avoid leading questions and stick to one question per page.
In addition, you should inform your customers of the survey length. You should also and indicate to them how far they are through the survey. This will help to decrease abandonment rates.
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2. Get Your Customers to Rate You
Another simple way to gather customer experience data is to ask customers to rate you. This is relatively quick for customers to do, and can provide you with three vital metrics.
These are your customer satisfaction score (CSAT), net promoter score (NPS), customer effort score (CES).
CSAT scores indicate how satisfied a customer is with their experience. NPS scores measure how likely a customer is to recommend your product or service. CES scores show what level of effort a customer had to go through on their journey.
These scores are generally measured on a scale of 1-3, 1-5 or 1-10. For CSAT and NPS scores, higher scores are positive. For CES, a low score indicates low levels of customer effort.
These rating functions can be implemented at strategic points, such as after a customer checks out. They can be used along with surveys, or on their own.
3. Give Consumers Every Opportunity to Share Their Experience
To comprehensively collect CX data it’s essential to give customers adequate feedback opportunities.
Therefore you should ensure that customer experience feedback surveys are distributed across all channels. Including in-person service, telephonic service, online customer service channels, and online checkout processes.
4. Implement Social Listening
According to reports, 90% of consumers will reach out to brands concerning poor customer service via social media channels. This provides a valuable source of customer experience data.
Social listening is often implemented through social media monitoring tools. In conjunction with automated customer communication management, social listening can effectively work to optimize the customer experience.
5. Leverage Analytics and Cookies
Web analytics provides a pool of data around consumer’s online behavior and how they interact with your online platforms. It can provide quantitative CX data on the customer journey and possible friction points.
Another tool for CX analysis is cookies. Mouse tracking heat maps can also provide insights into user experience and reveal friction points.
6. Take a Look at Customer Support Trends
Another great place to collect customer feedback is customer support. By examining common issues handled by support, you can pinpoint recurring problems in the customer journey.
For example, after conducting customer experience analysis on support trends, you may find that you need to tweak a product. Or perhaps optimize things like instructions or explainer videos. You may also uncover some core problems in customer service.
Besides this, CX data from support tickets can also reveal how long it takes for support to answer customers, as well as average handling times. These are both important metrics for customer experience analysis.
Find our 5 Common Customer Experience Mistakes You Can Easily Avoid
Do You Want to Take CX to the Next Level?
As CX becomes a key focus point for brands, it is vital that you leverage customer experience data to optimize your strategy.
Once you have comprehensive data at your fingertips, you can work to qualitatively improve your company’s customer experience. One of the best ways to do this is through automation.
This allows you to map the customer journey with ease, monitor and manage CX, and interact with customers to build trust, engagement, and enduring brand-loyalty.
Are you ready to take CX to the next level? Take a look at our customer experience automation solutions and request a free demo today.
