When it comes to measuring the customer experience many companies are now looking at gathering feedback at the multi-touchpoint level. While this can more often than not deliver more actionable insight than relationship metrics, it’s still not enough.
Customer experience is about the journey, and that’s why metrics such as Customer Effort are now in vogue. In this context, multi-touchpoint experience will not deliver you enough insights. Here the math doesn’t work: the sum of the parts won’t give you synergies (or DYSERGIES), and the order of the factors WILL affect the product. Two examples that could illustrate these ideas are the following:
- Dysergy: Imagine you chose a company to fly with and in one outbound flight you experience that the staff at the check-in weren’t very friendly, your flight was delayed, your meal was cold, and your luggage was lost. Your perception of this company would probably be very different if all of these events had happened in isolation.
- The order of the factors WILL affect the product: Imagine you just bought a product online and then walked past a store and found out it was more expensive. Now imagine the opposite. In the former example you would feel that you got a great deal and you saved time and effort. In the latter you would be upset.
The other challenge is that multi-touchpoint feedback doesn’t take into account transaction type. Most touchpoints will have a split of sales vs service transactions. Benchmarking results across touchpoints to understand satisfaction by transaction type is something very few companies are - currently doing. Identifying gaps, fixing inconsistencies and learning from best practice is seen even less at this level.
Finally, think about your silent customers. These customers will still have an experience with your brand although this wouldn’t be captured with multi-touchpoint feedback. Remember, key moments of truth also occur when there are no -touch point interactions with your business. To illustrate this point, imagine a flight being cancelled (no interaction is not good), or a customer that never calls its Telco provider because everything is just fine (no interaction is good). Their journey also matters.
Natalia Piaggio
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