Big Events That Happen to Customers are Most Likely to Cause Changes in Loyalty and are Critical for Tracking
There has been debate over time as to how customers’ opinions and perceptions of the companies and products they utilize or purchase are developed mechanically. Some favor the idea that perceptions of satisfaction and corresponding loyalty behavior is shaped gradually, and is the sum of a customer’s experiences with the company overall. Others believe that big events occur in the relationship, which have a greater influence over customer buying behavior. Now, science may be able to shed some light on this important distinction.
What is not in question is that customer satisfaction and loyalty are identified, well-known keys to growth, and measuring them is a very important activity for any company who engages customers. Knowing how best to engage customers for feedback, and knowing which interactions to record regarding customer experiences is the primary value any market research firm brings to the research design effort.
In order to create actionable customer experience measurement data in a time series, it is critical to offer customers an opportunity to log feedback that includes
1) the nature of the issue generating feedback (e.g., a printer cartridge failing in a big way)
2) notes from the department which is primarily responsible for the issues experienced by the customer (e.g., the quality team responsible for printer cartridge production or design)
Why is it better to keep track of any customer event from both the customer’s and internal company’s perspective? Because the way people create memories has a great influence on their overall decision making.
Episodic vs Semantic Memory
Simplified, human beings create two main kinds of declarative memories, semantic and episodic memories. Semantic memories are about ideas and concepts, while episodic memories are about episodes or events in our life. Apparently episodic memories are encoded by the hippocampus, a much more emotional player than the frontal and temporal cortexes, which are primarily responsible for encoding semantic memories. People tend to see themselves as actors in their episodic memories and they are very powerful for changing behavior.
Actionable Research is Event-Driven for Customer Experience Measurement
This simple fact about memory has led to the development of Event-Driven Customer Experience Measurement. Companies who decide to track customer events using the Event-Driven methodology set up 4 basic components to their data collection infrastructure:
- A trigger, which is initiated by either an inbound inquiry or feedback offer, that also classifies the inquiry or feedback;
- A matching engine which matches the inbound inquiry or feedback to the department where it is most relevant;
- An internal data entry field which allows the internal business to offer their feedback regarding the reported situation;
- Analytics which allow the company to understand which types of events and issues have the greatest impact on customer willingness to recommend to a colleague (Net Promoter Score).
The Value of Event-Driven Data Increases Over Time
Perhaps most important, the associations between customer events and the main departments who are responsible for them can be mined and analyzed to better understand what the company should change to offer the greatest positive impact on customer’s stated willingness to repurchase or recommend.
This data can be used to train algorithms with the ability to direct traffic from inquiries, to drive internal operational improvement efforts, or to better direct new product development efforts.
Science Says Event-Driven is Actionable
When investigating customer experience measurement systems, it is best to include a way to understand which events drive your customer’s most memorable experiences that is backed up by the science behind human nature, so you can ensure your research activities are actionable.
We Know Actionable
Our team is prepared to help your company set up the procedures and data collection infrastructure needed for Event-Driven Cusotmer Experience Measurement, as well as provide you with actionable anaylsis and recommendations for improvement. To learn more about this process, contact us today.
