is customer effort score the new nps?

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Is Customer Effort Score the new Net Promoter Score?John RagsdaleVP Research, Technology and SocialTSIA

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Agenda

1 Customer Effort Score – what it is and who measures it

2 What drives Customer Effort and why it is important Iron Triangle

3 Linking Customer Effort to Customer Satisfaction & Advocacy

4 How to analyze and reduce Customer Effort

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Measuring Customer Effort

• “How much effort did you personally have to put forth to handle your request?”– 1 to 5 scale, 1 = Very Low Effort, 5 = Very High Effort

• Customer Effort Scores (CES) is proving to be a more effective determinant of customer loyalty than satisfaction scores (CSAT)

• Ultimately, companies need to measure the effort involved in the end-to-end customer journey– But most start by measuring effort for assisted and unassisted support

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Marketing Sales Implement Support Renewal

The End-to-End Customer Journey

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Friction Points Driving Up Customer Effort

Assisted Support• Finding contact information• Phone tree navigation• Hold time• Entitlement process• Technical knowledge of agent• Complexity of recovery procedures• Talk time/Resolution time

Unassisted Support• Finding self-service options• Single signon?• Unified search?• Screen design/layout• Tools/routes to find content• Content filtered for my account• Content formats (text vs. video)

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You can’t identify friction points—or get well plans—in a vacuum. Customer surveys/focus groups are required.

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Are you currently measuring customer effort scores (CES)?

A. YesB. No C. Plan to implement in 2016

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Polling Question

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Customer Effort Score (CES)

29%

71%

Are you currently tracking CES?

Yes No

6Source: TSIA 2016 Support Services Benchmark Survey

Scale: 1 = Very Low Effort, 5 = Very High Effort

Industry Pacesetters1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

3.4

4.4

Average Customer Effort Score

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From Customer Effort to Customer Satisfaction

Google

Self-S

ervice

Online

Com

munity

Chat S

uppo

rt

YouTub

e

Email S

uppo

rt

Phone

Sup

port

Twitter S

uppo

rt

Faceb

ook

Linke

dIn

Google

Plus0%

10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90% 82%

55%

26%20% 17% 16%

8% 7% 5% 4% 1%

When you need support for a product, which of the following channels do you prefer?

Phone

EmailCha

t

Social

Self-S

ervice

00.5

11.5

22.5

33.5

44.5

5 4.4 4.3 4.3 4.23.5

Customer Satisfac-tion by Channel

Source: The State of Support Services 2016, TSIA

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Is Customer Effort Score the new Net Promoter Score?Alex PoulosVice President of Marketing Support.com

© 2016 SUPPORT.COM, INC.

• Customer Effort can include a number of different types of effort …

Breaking Down Customer EffortSUPPORT.COM

Cognitive effort

• Examples:– Waiting to get through to an agent – time, emotional– Having to repeat information – time, emotional– Reviewing T&Cs – cognitive, time– Having to return a product to a store – time, physical– Trying to set up a Smart Home hub – cognitive, time, emotional

Time effort Physical effort Emotional effort

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1. Inconsistent or unclear information2. Having to repeat information3. Wait time (being on hold)

What Drives Effort in Customer Support

4. Not solving the issue the first time5. Navigating support structure6. Switching channels

What frustrates Connected Consumers the most about their support experience (Source: Support.com, Oct 2015)

SUPPORT.COM

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© 2016 SUPPORT.COM, INC.

A Success Story – Why Customer Effort MattersSUPPORT.COM

CompanyA leading broadband &

mass media broadcasting companySolution

•Identified onboarding challenge and focused on customer effort•Created separate support team for new (installation in last 30 days) customers•Started to automatically route calls from new customers to separate support team (IVR updated based on customer product & installation date)

Benefits•Reduced contact rates for new customers from ~25% to ~20%•Reduced number of tickets logged in first 5 days from 1.8 per account to 0.54 per account•Improved Voice Of Customer score by 3 percentage points

ChallengeImprove onboarding experience

for new customers

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Customer Effort Score: Case Study

Issue Resolved? Level of Effort CSAT Recommend?

Yes 84%Low 93% 87%

Neutral 82% 71%

High 61% 51%

No 16%Low 47% 41%

Neutral 41% 34%

High 25% 22%

12Source: Global Tech Company, 170k+ responses

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How to Analyze Customer Effort

13Source: The State of Support Services 2016, TSIA

© 2016 SUPPORT.COM, INC.

UseProduct

Your Typical Customer JourneySUPPORT.COM

Call Agent Wait Repeat Self

Help StepsTrial & Error with Agent

EncounterIssue

GoogleSearch

TrySelf-Help

Switch toAssisted

Help

Give Up

Customer Effort

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© 2016 SUPPORT.COM, INC.

Your Customer Journey OptimizedSUPPORT.COM

Embedded SupportIn the Product

Embedded SupportIn the Product

Intuitive, ContextualSelf-Support

Intuitive, ContextualSelf-Support

Seamless TransitionAcross Channels

Seamless TransitionAcross Channels

Optimized GuidanceBased On Data

Analytics

Optimized GuidanceBased On Data

Analytics

UseProduct

Escalate to Agent

Use Effective New Steps

EncounterIssue

Get Relevant Self Help

UseProduct

Call Agent Wait Repeat Self

Help StepsTrial & Error with Agent

EncounterIssue

GoogleSearch

TrySelf-Help

Switch toAssisted

Help

Give Up

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Embed Support in the Product ExperienceSUPPORT.COM

© 2016 SUPPORT.COM, INC. 16

© 2016 SUPPORT.COM, INC.

Embed Support in the Product ExperienceSUPPORT.COM

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© 2016 SUPPORT.COM, INC.

Leverage Context for an Omni-Channel ExperienceSUPPORT.COM

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© 2016 SUPPORT.COM, INC.

1. Start with the customer journey– A lot of vendors have their own pre-conceived version of your customers’ journey, but is it

true?2. Focus on friction points for the more complex interactions

– Transition points across systems or processes are good candidates3. Develop & optimize specific use cases

– E.g. embedded support, contextual guidance, singular omni-channel experience, continuous optimization

4. Measure what matters to you– It’s not CES vs. CSAT vs. NPS– Some companies phrase the CES qualifying question differently: How easy is it to do

business with the company?– Some others are trying to link Customer Effort to Net Promoter Score: Based on the effort

required to do business with us, how likely are you to recommend our company?

How to Reduce Customer EffortSUPPORT.COM

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© 2016 SUPPORT.COM, INC.

CES NPSLeading indicator of customer loyalty Trailing indicator of customer loyalty

Leading indicator of company growthProvides actionable data for thecustomer experience

Provides insights from thecustomer experience

Helps predict behavior Helps validate behaviorFocuses on service interactions with the brand

Able to assess the overall relationship with the brand

Can be subjective (value, perception) Can be subjective (reputation, perception)Low effort leads to brand loyalty Brand loyalty leads to advocacy CES NPS

CES vs. NPSSUPPORT.COM

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