Assessing Global Interest in Customer Experience

I often look at the statistics for this blog to gauge the demand for my content in different countries. I decided to share a little analysis I did looking at the volume of blog readers by country over the last 90 days and comparing that with the GDP levels of those countries. This chart shows the top 15 countries in terms of my readership.

I think this is a relatively good gauge of global interest in customer experience, although it probably underweights some regions where there might be more non-english activities around CX. Here are some observations:

• U.S. is by far the largest market for CX, followed by the UK and then Canada
• New Zealand has the most active CX interest for its size, followed by UK, U.S. and Singapore
• Germany, Italy, France, and Spain have low relative levels of interest in CX
• China, Japan, Russia, Mexico, and South Korea are in the top 15 in GDP, but not in the top 15 for my blog

The bottom line: U.S., UK and New Zealand show the strongest interest in CX Matters

Report: The Economics of Net Promoter

We just published a Temkin Group report, The Economics of Net Promoter, which examines the link between NPS and loyalty across 19 industries. Here’s the executive summary:

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a popular metric, but how does it relate to loyalty? We analyzed responses from thousands of consumers and examined the connection between NPS and three areas of loyalty: likelihood to repurchase, likelihood to forgive, and the actual number of times they recommend a company. Compared to detractors, promoters are almost six times as likely to forgive, are more than five times as likely to repurchase, and are more than twice as likely as detractors to actually recommend a company. Examining the data, we also found that consumers who gave a score between 0 and 4 have particularly low levels of loyalty. The analysis examines 19 industries: airlines, appliance makers, auto dealers, banks, car rental agencies, computer makers, credit card issuers, fast food chains, grocery chains, health plans, hotel chains, insurance carriers, Internet service providers, investment firms, parcel delivery services, retailers, software firms, TV service providers, and wireless carriers. Promoters who are likely to repurchase range from 87% for grocery chains to 73% for TV service providers, those who are likely to forgive range from 72% for rental car agencies to 59% for TV service providers, and those who actually recommended a company range from 80% for retailers to 47% for parcel delivery services.

Download report for $295 (includes Excel dataset)

Here’s the first figure from the report. It has a total of 43 figures that include specific graphics for each of the 19 industries in the study.

Here’s an excerpt from the first section that examines the data cross all industries:

To understand how NPS relates to customer loyalty, we examined NPS scores for companies across 19 industries based on feedback from 10,000 U.S. consumers. The analysis covers more than 95,000 pieces of feedback from consumers about those companies. Examining three areas of loyalty across industries, looking at promoters versus detractors, we found that:

• Promoters are almost six times as likely to forgive. We asked consumers about their likelihood to forgive a company if it delivered a bad experience and found that 64% of promoters are likely to forgive compared with 11% of detractors.
• Promoters are more than five times as likely to repurchase. We asked consumers about their likelihood to make additional purchases from a company and found that 81% of promoters are likely to repurchase compared with 16% of detractors.
• Promoters are more than twice as likely as detractors to actually recommend. In a separate study of 5,000 U.S. consumers, we asked consumers how many times they actually recommended each company. It turns out that 64% of promoters have recommended the company compared with 24% of detractors.

We also examined the level of loyalty across each response on the NPS scale between 0 and 10. This analysis shows that:

• Super detractors are much less loyal. Forgiveness and repurchase loyalty stay at a consistent low level between 0 and 4 on the scale. Actual recommendations begin to increase after 5.
• Midpoint attracts low recommenders. When we examine the actual quantity of recommendations across the NPS scale it turns out that there’s significant drop in recommendations at the midpoint of the scale, when 5 is selected.
• Text anchors attract responses. We analyzed the volume of responses across the 11 point scale. Consumers appear to select the three responses with text anchors at a disproportionately high rate: “0,” “5,” and “10.”

Download report for $295 (includes Excel dataset)

The Excel file provides all of the data from the 43 figures.

Note: See our report, Net Promoter Score Benchmark Study, 2012 and the post 9 Recommendations For Net Promoter Score along with all of my other posts about NPS.

The bottom line: Promoters are more loyal than detractors.

P.S. Net Promoter Score, Net Promoter, and NPS are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Satmetrix Systems, and Fred Reichheld.

The State of CX Vendors

We recently published a report looking at the state of CX management from the practitioner’s stand point. But what about the vendors in the market? To find out, we surveyed 98 CX vendors about their businesses (see graphics below). Here’s some of what we found:

• Prices are on the rise. About one-quarter of CX vendors say that their average selling price is increasing, which is more than three times the number that see prices dropping.
• Field and product marketing are key weaknesses. Only 20% of CX vendors think they are strong at field marketing and 24% feel that way about product marketing. Almost all CX vendors are growing, with 31% expecting to expand by more than 50% this year.
• Sales is key areas of focus. Over half of CX vendors see sales as a key area for improvement, next on the list is corporate marketing at 32%.
• Innovation is the path to success. Seventy-eight percent of CX vendors think that the innovation in their offerings will impact their business over the next two years. At the other end of the spectrum, they aren’t very worried about new entrants or pricing pressure.
• M&A is in the air. More than one-third of the companies that gave us an answer expect to make an acquisition or be acquired over the next 18 months.
• There’s a lot of growth. Nearly all respondents expect to increase their revenues this year and 31% expect to expand by at least 50%.
• Telecom and retail are hot markets. When we asked where they see growth, the two industries with the most momentum are telecom/media services and retail.
• U.S. is largest CX market. Nearly nine out of 10 CX vendors sell in the U.S. and 78% expect their sales to grow this year. Next on the list of growing markets are Asia, Canada, and Western Europe.

The bottom line: Companies are spending money on CX vendors

Cool Happenings From the CXPA MIE

We’re having a great day at the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA.org) Members Insight Exchange in San Diego. Lots of wonderful sharing, learning, and networking amongst our CXPA members.

My update started by highlighting that the state of our association is STRONG. This slide has some facts and figures on the association (great stuff for only two years!).

Here’s the slide that I’ve presented at each of the three MIEs about why the CXPA is so important: We are all stronger as a community!

We also made some very cool announcements:

• CX Professional Certification. We have started work on the development of a professional certification program for CX management called the “Certified Customer Experience Professional” (CCXP). Think of it like the CPA is for accountants. The CXPA, as a non-profit, independent professional association is uniquely positioned to deliver on this great evolution for the marketplace. We plan on beginning certifications in Q4.
• CX Day: October 1, 2013. Mark your calendars for 10/1/2013 for Customer Experience Day! It will be a day for celebrating the profession. Some of the elements include Local Networking Events throughout the world, several live online events, announcements of awards for CX professionals who are making a difference, and a contest to see which companies are the most innovative in celebrating CX Day within their organization.
• MIE 2014. We also announced another important date, we will be holding next year’s Member Insight Exchange on May 13 & 14 in Atlanta.
• CXPA Extra Mile Award Winners. The CXPA is fueled by the passion and effort of our members. While many, many people contribute, we identified three fthat have gone well above and beyond the call of duty: Desirree Madison-Biggs, Karl Sharicz, and Yvonne Nomizu. Thank you to our winners and to everyone else who contrinutes their time to the CXPA.
• CX Innovation Award Winners: This is the second year that we are giving awards for innovative CX practices. This year’s winners are Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Sage. The other finalists are Autodesk, Barclaycard US, and Oklahoma City Thunder. Awesome job! You can see more of their stories on the CXPA site.

Here’s a photo from one of the favorite activities at the MIE, Show & Tell. Attendees go from table to table as a member at each table explains a specific CX Tool that they are using. This type of member to member sharing is one of the things that makes CXPA events so distinctive.

The bottom line: CXPA is thriving, all CX professionals should join us!

Report: The State of Customer Experience Management, 2013

We just published a Temkin Group report, The State of CX Management, 2013. The research shows where large companies are along their customer experience journeys. Here’s the executive summary:

We surveyed more than 200 large companies and found an abundance of Customer Experience (CX) ambition and activity. Most companies have a CX executive leading the charge, significant CX activities being coordinated by a central team, and a staff of six to 10 full-time CX professionals. Using Temkin Group’s CX competency assessment, we found that only six percent of companies have reached the highest two levels of customer experience maturity as firms struggle the most to master Employee Engagement and Compelling Brand Values. When compared with CX Laggards, CX Leaders have stronger financial results, more CX ambition, more CX leadership, and they are more successful with their employee engagement efforts. Executives in companies with stronger CX competencies also focus more on delighting customers and less on cutting costs.

Download report for $195

Here are some of the findings from the research:

• While only eight percent of companies believe that they are leading their industries in CX today, 62% have goals to be the best within three years
• Sixty-one percent of respondents have a senior executive in charge of the company’s overall CX efforts and 71%  have a centralized CX group
• The median firm in our study has six to 10 full time CX employees
• Seven out of ten respondents identified “other competing priorities” as a significant obstacle to their CX efforts
• Only six percent of the companies that completed our CX Competency and Maturity Assessment have made it to the top two levels of maturity, Align and Embed
• We compared companies with leading CX efforts with other firms and found that they have better financial performance, more centralized CX activities, better employee engagement, stronger employee engagement, and more management attention to corporate culture

Download report for $195

The bottom line: Most companies remain in the early stages of CX maturity

Examining the Happiness of Mothers on their Day

First of all, Happy Mother’s Day to all of the mothers that read my blog. Given the day, I decided to examine our consumer research to find out if mothers are, in fact, happy. My previous analysis already shows that females are happier than males. But what about if they are mothers or not? I examined happiness levels of more than 5,000 U.S. females based on their family situation.

As you can see in the chart below, married moms are by far the happiest females.

The bottom line: Happy Mother’s Day!!!

Report: Employee Engagement Case Studies: Five I’s in Practice

We just published a Temkin Group report, Employee Engagement Case Studies: Five I’s in Practice. It’s a deep dive into how companies are systematically improving employee engagement. Here’s the executive summary:

Engaged employees create engaged customers, kicking off what Temkin Group describes as a virtuous cycle. More and more organizations are paying attention to the connection between employee engagement and customer experience through a variety of efforts spanning five areas that we call that Five I’s of Employee Engagement: Inform, Inspire, Instruct, Involve and Incent. We’ve compiled case studies of three organizations that are engaging employees and driving results: BMO Financial, Hampton brand, and Safelite AutoGlass.

Download report for $195

Here is an overview of how the three companies we examine are addressing the FIve I’s of Employee Engagement:

Download report for $195

The bottom line: Employee engagement is worth the effort of learning best practices