Four layers of CX measurement

Customer experience metrics and KPIs work best as layers, from what customers feel down to what the business can change. Most organisations measure the first layer heavily and the others hardly at all.

  1. Outcome scores: how customers feel overall. CSAT, NPS, CES, star ratings.
  2. Voice of the customer: what customers talk about and how they feel about each topic. Topic volume, negative share and change from reviews and comments.
  3. Operational drivers: what the business controls. Wait times, order accuracy, first-contact resolution, stock availability, delivery times.
  4. Loop measures: whether feedback leads to change. Issues with owners, actions checked, issues fixed and stayed fixed.

Outcome scores

  • CSAT after interactions.
  • NPS for the relationship.
  • CES for service and process moments.
  • Google rating and recent-window rating by store.
Choosing scores

CSAT vs NPS vs CES: which metric to use.

Csat vs nps vs ces

Voice-of-customer measures

  • Volume of mentions by topic.
  • Negative share by topic: negative mentions divided by mentions with known sentiment.
  • Change in negative share since the last period.
  • Coverage: how much of your feedback is classified, and how much is unclear.
Review-based metrics

Review-based CX metrics: negative share, change and coverage.

Review based cx metrics negative share change coverage

Operational drivers

Drivers are the levers. Choose the ones your feedback says matter most: if reviews complain about billing waits, measure billing wait time; if they complain about delivery, measure on-time delivery and order accuracy. A driver earns its place by explaining an outcome.

Loop measures

  • Share of rising issues with a named owner.
  • Share of actions checked on their follow-up date.
  • Issues whose negative share fell after the fix and stayed down for a quarter.
  • Reply coverage and time for negative reviews.

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Choosing a small set

  • One or two outcome scores the business already trusts.
  • Negative share for the five to ten topics that matter most.
  • Three to five operational drivers linked to those topics.
  • Two loop measures.

Write a definition card for each: name, formula, source, frequency, owner, target or comparison.

Examples

Customer experience KPI examples.

Customer experience kpi examples

Common questions

What is the difference between a metric and a KPI?

A metric is anything you measure. A KPI is a metric you have chosen to manage, with an owner and a target.

How many CX KPIs should we have?

Few enough that each is discussed monthly; usually ten to fifteen across all layers.

Which CX KPI matters most?

The one that explains your outcome scores best in your own data. For many store businesses, a few topic negative shares do.

How often should we review them?

Monthly for most; weekly for drivers that change fast.

An example set for a store brand

  • Outcome: visit CSAT; 90-day Google rating per store.
  • Voice of customer: negative share for staff, waiting, stock, returns and cleanliness, per store and month.
  • Drivers: peak queue time, size availability, exchange approval time.
  • Loop: rising issues with owners; actions checked on time.

Ten measures, each with an owner, discussed monthly. When visit CSAT falls at a store, the voice-of-customer layer shows which topic moved, and the driver shows what changed in operations.

Pitfalls

  • Only measuring outcome scores, so nobody knows why they moved.
  • Drivers chosen because they are easy to measure, not because they explain anything.
  • No loop measures, so nobody sees whether feedback changes anything.
  • KPIs with no owner.

Doing this with Falcon

Falcon adds the review-based measures to your CX metrics: for every theme and store, the volume of mentions, negative share, its change month to month and the number of reviews behind it, from Google Maps reviews of your stores and Google Play reviews of your app. Every number opens the reviews that explain it, which survey scores alone cannot do.