How to create Customer Experience dashboards

How to communicate complex CX information clearly and effectively using dashboard visualisations.

Get your data in good shape

Your data is likely a mix of structured and unstructured, qualitative and quantitative, and internal and external data. The key thing is to be confident that it is reliable, comprehensive and current because it is the very foundations of your analysis.

Understand your audience

Think about the questions your dashboard should answer for your audience, and choose and pitch your information carefully with this in mind. Wherever possible, create a personalised view relevant to user job role, hierarchy, location, and areas of responsibility.

Define key objectives and meaningful metrics

Objectives provide the context or ‘big picture’ for your data and prompt you to ask the right questions. So make sure the metrics and KPIs you use in your dashboard are connected to key business objectives.

Think about your data’s story

Does your dashboard tell a reporting story about the past, or one about the future? Is it a tale of correlation, or causation? A story will help shape the layout of your dashboard and will help your audience navigate their way through the information without losing sight of the big picture.

Use the right charts/graphs

Think carefully about your choice: which chart provides the best level of information for your data metrics, while being easy to interpret? Pie charts are familiar and popular, but is it too simplistic for the level of info you wish to convey?

Make it actionable and forward looking

The clearer the evidence in your dashboard, the easier it is to see the action required. Too little information in your dashboard will limit actionability, too much will make it painful to view. Keep it clear and concise to drive action.

Make it interactive

Help your audience really engage with your dashboard and the information within by enabling them to explore the underlying nuts-and-bolts detail themselves. But make sure it’s easy to use and navigate.

Make your dashboard visually appealing

Your audience will be more likely to read and remember it. But apply the ‘less is more’ rule of thumb, and try to keep it to one screen. Overly decorated displays, the illogical arrangement of charts, and visual clutter can dilute or even misrepresent the information.

Make it easily accessible

Stakeholders may need to access dashboard information across a variety of devices ‘in the field’ or in meetings, so web-based delivery is most convenient. Accessibility also helps to facilitate greater collaboration