A practical guide to which metrics to use, and which questions to ask, in a Voice of the Customer (VoC) programme

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How to choose the right metric for your Voice of Customer program
Futurelab Research self-help guide

2. FUTURELABRESEARCH. Insights into actions.FUTURELABRESEARCH. Insights into actions.
1. Get acquainted with the most popular Voice of
Customer metrics:
Customer Satisfaction (CSAT, OSAT)
Customers express their satisfaction /
dissatisfaction with a particular product /
service / transaction, or even overall with the
whole company (OSAT).
How satisfied are you with our product? (Not
Satisfied – Completely satisfied)
Repurchase / Retention forecast
Customers claim their likelihood to
repurchase, expand, or renew with your
company for products or services in the future.
How likely are you to purchase from us again
in the future? (Not likely at all – Very likely)
Customer Effort Score (CES)
Measures the effort a customer must put forth
to complete a transaction to the desired state.
How much effort did you personally have to
put forth to buy our product? (No effort at all –
Very much effort)
Net Promoter Score ® (NPS)
Measures the customer's willingness to refer
your business to a friend.
How likely are you to recommend our
company to a friend or colleague? (Not likely
at all – Very likely)
Compound loyalty indices
Complex index that may combine various
loyalty / retention metric, which may
include satisfaction, repurchase,
recommendation, share of wallet, brand
preference, etc. Examples: TNS TRIM,
Ipsos Loyalty Index, etc.
Customer Expectations (CExp)
Measures the balance between a customer
expectation from a transaction and the actual
performance (as a variation - perceived worth).
To which extent have we met your
expectations this time? (Have not met at all –
Greatly exceeded)

3. FUTURELABRESEARCH. Insights into actions.FUTURELABRESEARCH. Insights into actions.
Delighters / Excitement
2. Use Kano model of CX to clarify what exactly
you would like to measure
Happy
Unhappy
GreatPoor
Minimum Standards /
Regular performance
Hygiene / Must-be
Read more about Kano model here or here

4. FUTURELABRESEARCH. Insights into actions.FUTURELABRESEARCH. Insights into actions.
What are you measuring at any level?
Read more about Kano model here or here
Delighters / Excitement
How does your company connect to the customers on the highest level of
emotion; exceeding their expectations, and creating delight?
Minimum Standards / Regular performance
How does your company fulfil its main promises to the customer:
something for which they have come to you in the first place?
Hygiene / Must-be
How does your company answer to the customers’ most basic needs?

5. FUTURELABRESEARCH. Insights into actions.FUTURELABRESEARCH. Insights into actions.
What does each metric reflect? This is how the metrics
map against the Kano model:
CSAT
CES
Rep.
CExp
NPS
NPS
NPS
NPS represents 3 customer segments – Detractors, Passives and Promoters, and therefore can measure all 3

6. FUTURELABRESEARCH. Insights into actions.FUTURELABRESEARCH. Insights into actions.
The right metric should be…
• Relevant: a metric should be a direct reflection
of your objectives. What are we trying to
learn? What do we want to do with the data?
• Universal: it should be able to accurately and
precisely reflect reality in all possible
situations. Will it reflect good and bad
conditions equally? Will it quickly react to
changes?
• Applicable: it should be easy to calculate; we
should be able to use it everywhere, and make
everyone understand it (better intuitively).
• Comparative: across time periods, groups of
customers, business units, competitors, etc.
2. Understand your
criteria for the metrics

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• Actionable / Behavior changing: once we have the metrics, what are we
going to use it for? Can it call direct action? Will it drive change?
But most importantly, the best metric is…

8. FUTURELABRESEARCH. Insights into actions.FUTURELABRESEARCH. Insights into actions.
Rate all metrics to see how they all work for your company
Relevant Universal Applicable Comparative Actionable
CSAT
CEffort
CExpect
Repurchase
Compound
metrics
NPS
-
Does not
work
~
Works
somewhat
+
Works very
well

9. FUTURELABRESEARCH. Insights into actions.FUTURELABRESEARCH. Insights into actions.
3. Pilot it!
Any metrics should be piloted first to see how
it really works for you:
1. Are the results easy to understand and
communicate?
2. Does the leadership understand the value
easily?
3. Do people actually use it?
4. Does it demonstrate connection to your
financial parameters?
5. Does it drive action?

10. FUTURELABRESEARCH. Insights into actions.FUTURELABRESEARCH. Insights into actions.
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