Executive Summary

Benchmarks are so helpful because of the sheer amounts of data they house, but it’s certainly a lot to look at. We’ve distilled the main takeaways from each section here so you can see the big picture.

Business Growth and Priorities

More than half indicate having ‘happy customers’ is the top driver of their business growth.
Increasing customer loyalty is the most important goal, followed by growing market share and improving employee engagement.

Higher-performing brands put greater emphasis on brand reputation and superior products/services as top drivers of business growth.

CX Strategy & Approach

Nearly three out of five are ‘extremely committed’ to providing a superior customer experience to their customers.
The main ways to collect CX insights are with NPS surveys, email surveys, mystery shoppers, as well as via unsolicited feedback and transactional data.
CX insights are collected from current, past, and potential customers, and customer-facing employees.

Higher performing brands have a stronger commitment to providing superior CX and are more likely to have a customer-centric culture.

Lower performing brands are more likely to rely on unsolicited feedback and transactional data. They are also more likely to collect insights on the customer experience from their employees.

Benchmarking CX

Companies who monitor practices of their peers know where they are ahead and where they are lagging. It helps reveal which practices to lose and which to improve.
Examples from industry leaders help free up innovation log jams and close the gap in competition.
Setting goals based on a sort of data scoreboard increases clarity in CX strategies and leads to attainable growth and new business.
The number one metric used by companies for benchmarking CX is the Net Promoter System.
Average and exemplary NPS scores vary by type of industry. Comparing to similar businesses is the best option.
Following up with negative customer feedback, analyzing trends in responses, and sharing findings with your staff to improve training and morale are top ways to improve NPS score.

Customer Feedback Collection, Analysis, Reporting

Operations and/or Marketing departments are most likely to be responsible for managing customer feedback.
Most companies are integrating a range of other data with their customer feedback – most typically it is operational data.
Key loyalty driver analysis and Net Promoter analysis are the most common analyses undertaken – so unsurprisingly, the most common metrics tracked are NPS, loyalty metrics, and CSAT.
Corporate, regional, and local employees/managers have access to the data and analysis, with executives and senior management most commonly reviewing the reports. It is less common for individual employees to see the analysis and reporting (only in about one out of four companies).

Higher performing brands:

Rely more on their Marketing departments to help manage
customer feedback.
Are more likely to be on the pulse — analyzing and reporting in real time, or on a daily basis, rather than on a weekly basis.
Are more likely to have franchise owners/managers and customer-facing staff reading and reviewing NPS reports.`

Lower performing brands are working hard to improve their performance:

They are more likely to be integrating operational data with customer feedback.
They are more likely to use company scorecards and company dashboards.

Taking Action

Customer feedback is primarily used for CX improvements and follow-up with dissatisfied customers.

Results are typically shared and discussed on a weekly or monthly basis.
Ad-hoc meetings are the most common way that root cause analysis is conducted.
Improvement goals are most commonly set at the corporate/brand level or the location/service area level.
A majority agree that goals to improve customer feedback are set at the right level of difficulty.
Most agree their employees have knowledge & skills to understand customer feedback.
73% agree their customer-facing employees have autonomy to make decisions and take action.

Higher performing brands are more likely to:

Use feedback for marketing/PR communications than for personal communications to customers.
Share and discuss results on an ad-hoc basis.
Agree their employees understand customer feedback and have autonomy to make decisions and take action.

We hope you’ve learned as much about CX trends and top performing customer feedback strategies as we have. For more insights, resources, and guides to help you on your journey to a better CX, join us at Listen360.com.

2019-20 NPS Customer Loyalty ReportTraits of CX Leaders