Why should I invest in measuring the customer experience?

We get asked that question all the time and the pithiest, but perhaps the best, way we have of responding to it is by putting this graphic up on screen. This data comes from a leading Canadian aftermarket car care center and comprises feedback from close to 7,000 respondents.

This graphic always produces silence and stunned expressions from the audience!

As you can see, 65% of customers were driven to visit (and, in the case of a car care center, visiting usually means purchasing)  either because they were repeat customers or because they had hear positive word-of-mouth from another customer. In other words, 65% of visits were driven, either directly or indirectly, by a past positive experience–either a past positive experience of one’s own or someone else’s past positive experience, transmitted via word-of-mouth.

In terms of visiting and purchasing attribution, the customer experience dwarfs advertising by a score of 65% to 4%. Advertising spits out metrics (reach, share of voice, CPMs, CPCs, CPAs, etc.), which are religiously tracked, analyzed, and obsessed over.  Customer experience measurement programs spit out their own metrics (satisfaction, loyalty, likelihood to buy again, store attributes, etc.) that ought to be obsessed over comparable fervor.

After all, if companies pay such close attention to measuring the impact of the activities that drive 4% of visits and purchases, then how much attention and investment should go towards measuring the impact of activities that drive 65% of visits and purchases?

That’s why companies should invest in measuring the customer experience.