Hi, you are right, if you ask customers about needs, they will be disparate. In fact, there are around 300 driver of consumer change. To be able to filter out those which are claimed to change behaviour from those which do is the difference between scientific based CX and luck and judgement. The work completed by Prof Dr Phil Klaus over the past 10 years has identified what matters most to customers. He found there are 25 drivers, which have been refined from an initial set of 300, which we call behaviour drivers. These 25 have reliably accounted for 90% of decision making, with the other 275 making up the remaining 10%. With 1,200 case studies to prove their reliability they provide you 90% accountability of customer decision making. The model is called EXQ (experience quality measure) and we find it transforms how companies prioritise their CX - if you are interested I can share more

Stephen,

Thanks for this article. There's more and more discussion in this area now.

NPS has helped put customer experience on the agenda and we should be grateful for that. But with time and application, we do realise that measuring 'intention' is a weak proxy for profitability. And whilst NPS was never designed to measure profitability, that is what the modern expectation of the CX Director is - to demonstrate the incremental and sustainable advantage CX investment delivers in terms of profitability.

Perhaps we shouldn't circle in on just NPS. I've seen the less informed commentators promote C-Effort over all others too. Yes 'ease' is important, but it's one of an array of drivers. These commentators need silver bullet measures to support their narrative of 'keep it simple stupid'. But humans are deeply complex and drivers of decision making are unfortunately for podium players earning their crust by telling everyone that CX is a no-brainer, it's complicated.

As you highlight, the needs of customers are multi-layered. How can 'recommendation', 'satisfaction' or 'ease' be a catch all for that!

So, to your point, thinking on CX measurements needs to advance too.

I'll look forward to seeing the progress of NetCNS. We've been working with EXQ (Experience Quality Measure). Using award winning research into identifying behaviours which drive customer decision making, it accounts for 90% of what drives decisions. The outcome it's measured against can be NPS or CSAT, but we have found that 'share of category' is the most relevant for clients, as it shows how to steal share from competitors through improved customer experience. Some 1,200 case studies have been completed to establish it's reliability. The same work highlights that whilst NPS customers demonstrate a high intention to change behaviour, NPS accounts for just 1% of what actually drives decision making.

With NetCNS, EXQ and e-score (the 'okay' index), choices will need to be made because what gets measured gets managed.

I've seen NPS used a a proxy for loyalty. Any business unit can grab a KPI and use it as a proxy for another, it will come undone. Unless CX demonstrates a direct impact on the most commercial of measures for a company, it's importance will be marginalised.

I look forward to reviewing more of your content on this Stephen.