CX measurement: 3 ways to make the most of a new era in brand tracking

But times have moved on. We’ve entered a new era of CX, with executives realizing that brand is so much more than a logo, advert, or slogan. It’s everything you do. As former chief executive at Disney Michael Eisner said, “A brand is a living entity – and it is enriched or undermined cumulatively over time, the product of a thousand small gestures”.

So, if your CX is your brand, the simple old metrics of awareness, consideration and usage won't cut it. But how do you truly understand the performance of your CX across the customer journey?

1. Sense-check your CX stages with customers

You might think that you’ve got a solid understanding of your customer journey and how your brand should show up at each stage, but it’s crucial that you’ve sense-checked this with customers – viewing the journey through their eyes and in their language. Qualitative, collaborative workshops are a great way of exploring how your customers maneuver through your experience, uncovering their take on crucial stages, the language they use to describe them, and potential new opportunities for your brand.

Years ago, I conducted workshops exploring the customer journey to purchase new carpet. Sounds trivial, but there was a lot of emotion involved. Our client had clearly identified what they thought the journey was, but it became apparent that they’d missed a big stage: the ‘waiting stage’, or what customers coined ‘the self-doubt stage’.

This happened after buyers had chosen their design, paid, and signed on the dotted line. Their carpet was being manufactured, and they were waiting for a fitting appointment. Suddenly, they became filled with self-doubt. “Have I picked the right style? What happens if it doesn’t go with the new paint? Maybe I should have gone for the upgrade?”.

This was a crucial stage in the journey, where the brand had a potentially lucrative opportunity to deepen its customer relationship by building emotional engagement – reassuring, reacting, and going further than the competition.

2. Turn your CX journey into measurable statements

Once you’ve confirmed the stages of your customer journey, you need to measure how you perform at each stage against brand-driven expectations.

You can do this by surveying customers, taking each stage of the journey, and devising three or four simple agreement statements that encapsulate the brand ambitions at each stage.

Construct these statements in alignment with your brand's vision (positioning, values, and personality) to give a clear score for each stage that reflects its performance against the brand rather than simply whether it’s 'good' or 'bad'.

To illustrate, let’s revisit that carpet company and look at their ‘waiting stage.’ We constructed a poll, asking users to rank to what extent they agreed that the brand “helps me feel confident that I have made the right choice,” that it is “flexible if I change my mind,” and that it “keeps me up to date with details of when my carpet will be fitted”.

The trick is to keep the language simple and relatable. For benchmarking and comparison, consistency is key, maintaining the same scale for each statement and each stage of the journey.

Given that the success of your brand depends on delivering your CX, it’s essential to engage with people across the company who don’t usually get involved in ‘brand’ – like HR and operations. Keep the methodology and scoring system simple and consistent, making it accessible for all.

3. Use results to make strategic decisions

By combining the scores for each statement, you’ll have a clear score for each stage, highlighting where you’re performing well and where there’s room for improvement.

Key driver analysis can also help you measure each CX element's impact, helping you identify the core areas for focus – which have the most influence but need the most improvement.

You can then summarize these areas and supplement them with insights from the business and wider market to give you clear and precise actions that your team can take away and implement.

Then, by measuring your CX over time, you can see the impact of these actions on your performance, allowing you to improve and align your CX to your brand continuously.