Qualifying customer experience is more important than quantifying CX. There. I’ve said it.
Think about it. We can quantify anything. Just survey a bunch of people and draw conclusions based on either rock-solid (or fairly dubious) analytics. Publish the results. Then, hope that somebody who actually understands those numbers (and statistical techniques) does not question our findings.
How often have we been quick to the social media trigger, without taking the time to qualify how customer experience impacted those survey results?
First, we read these surveys every day. Some of us rush off to tweet the findings. Why? Because we think our use of numbers followed by percentage points (otherwise known as statistics) make us look more erudite, more knowledgeable and more expert to the folks who follow us on social media.
Then, the majority of us who are just plain uncomfortable around analytics never even question the information (raw data) upon which these alleged statistics are based. Except that conducting surveys is a form of data science as well as market research. And, how we design the experiment impacts – and even biases – the results we obtain.
That is why qualifying customer experience – before you start collecting the CX data – becomes critical to whether you produce innovative insights or ho-hum garbage.
I learned that years ago when I conducted Voice of the Customer qualitative research projects prior to working with the teams who created the quantitative research surveys.
Now, Voice of the Customer (VoC) research methodology involves more than just “sticking close to customers” and asking them how things are going on a quarterly basis. Then again, VoC techniques produce very different conversations than the type of information uncovered in a typical sales discovery conversation. Also, VoC – when done right – turns customer service conversations into insightful and mutually enjoyable works of art.
When we qualify customer experience, we establish the situational context behind what eventually is quantified in CX surveys.
Our survey results become relevant and valuable to clients only when, in fact, the information is factual and accurate. Period. No fake data, please. No sketchy conclusions based on the results what we wanted to prove before we collected the data.
When we honestly report our results to clients, they appreciate that we appreciate certain ambiguities. No survey instrument is 100% one way or another. There are certain questions that represent grey areas: where further insights need to be explored and elucidated.
Your “How”? Ask two more qualitative VoC questions than you planned to ask prior to creating that CX survey instrument. It makes all the difference when quantifying CX.
Ready to find out what those two questions involve? Then take the next steps! Start moving one millimeter forward, today.
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Babette Ten Haken, Founder & President of One Millimeter Mindset™ serves organizations as a corporate catalyst and innovative speaker, strategist, coach and storyteller. Babette’s One Millimeter Mindset™ Workshops and Speaking programs leverage collaboration to catalyze professional innovation, workforce engagement and customer retention, especially in challenging Industrial Internet of Things environments. Babette’s playbook of IIoT team collaboration hacks, Do YOU Mean Business? is available on Amazon. She is a member of SME, ASQ, SHRM and the National Speakers Association. Image source: Fotolia
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