Measuring Customer Engagement
In this third and final instalment in our customer engagement blog series, we turn our sights towards measuring customer engagement. After all, when your business is heavily investing time, energy and precious resources into the long-term nature of customer engagement, you need to evidence a clear return.
The early advantage
Many businesses are not yet approaching customer engagement as a strategic priority. They are focusing instead on lead generation and acquisition activities. Those that do can strengthen their position in the marketplace and look forward to long-term sustainable growth.
Varied measurement approaches
Measuring customer engagement may be approached in a variety of different ways, often using an array of internal data and metrics that are analysed and presented in a dashboard for a leadership review. Increasingly, a best practice methodology will be used in order to provide a robust, proven and manageable means of structuring this measurement activity.
The Balanced Scorecard approach
The Balanced Scorecard methodology is widely used in business to aid strategic planning and management. In fact, figures suggest it is used by over half of all large US organisations. A highly usable and adaptable system, it allows organisations to:
1. Align daily operational activity to strategic priorities
2. Effectively communicate goals, customer engagement progress and milestones
3. Prioritise deliverables within the customer engagement strategy
4. Measure and monitor progress against objectives.
Linking the business together
The beauty of the Balanced Scorecard system is that it works to seamlessly connect big picture elements with operational activity – bringing together all parts of the business. This is essential for customer engagement, which should be a focus for all employees in their respective capacities, rather than a discrete project that is managed solely by marketing.
Software that makes customer engagement measurement easy
Businesses can also benefit from Balanced Scorecard software and KPI software that makes it far easier to gather, analyse and report on customer engagement activity and progress. It allows business to:
– Automate reporting by integrating the cloud-deployed software with internal business systems, so that identified corporate data can be extracted and presented in a readable format.
– Create meaningful dashboards that are based on the objectives the business has chosen. Dashboards, scorecards and reports can all be generated to aid management decision-making.
– See progress on KPIs over time, presented in ways that users find most useful – from visual dials and graphs to spreadsheets.
– Set triggers that automatically flag when a threshold or goal has been achieved – to enable rapid response.
Even better, these systems are cloud-deployed, for rapid license-based access, real-time software updates and instant technical assistance when needed.
What sort of customer engagement metrics can be used?
Each organisation will have metrics which best align to broader strategic objectives. Common examples span customer services and marketing functions and include service accessibility metrics (contact success, non-contact and abandonment rates), customer complaints, customer survey data, operational metrics, social media analytics, employee views, sales, customer escalations and so forth. Often the data will reside in different parts of the business, but BSC/KPI software accesses it centrally and automates its capture for analysis.
How many metrics?
Around 10-15 metrics are common for a customer engagement management dashboard, and a monthly presentation of this data provides decision-makers with the facts and insights that they need to continue to steer activity; allowing them to reallocate resources and tweak priorities quickly and with the customer always in mind. Even better, the interactive and real-time nature of the KPI software means that the latest data sets can be accessed at any time so that any short-turnaround opportunities or challenges can be handled effectively.
With the right strategic approach, supported by sound measurement, good customer engagement will reap valuable bottom-line rewards and sustainable business growth that more than justifies the financial outlay.
Find out more
To learn more about the KPI Software you can use when measuring customer engagement to help your business grow long-term customer value.
