We made our case for benchmarking and covered the different things that your organization can benchmark against in part 1 of this series. Now, we’ll start looking at what your company should benchmark against.

What to measure?  Why understanding the relationships between various performance measures is a primary objective of benchmarking.

Simplistically, understanding the relationships between various performance measures means measuring the right things and making certain that a focus on those things measured does not negatively impact performance against other important metrics.

Regardless of industry or area of focus (the areas we have the greatest experience in include branding, customer experience and marketing performance), it’s critical to be clear on what you’re trying to accomplish, and why. You don’t need to (nor should you) measure everything. Just the right things.

To benchmark performance against competitive industry leaders dictates a certain approach. If you wish to benchmark functional performance against non-competitive functional leaders (e.g. mortgage broker experience and satisfaction at a financial services institution vs. meeting planner experience and satisfaction with Ritz-Carlton) it dictates another.

If you are interested in measuring your performance (e.g. importance vs. importance on key experience or perceptual attributes) you’ll need to understand which segments to measure against. For instance: is the benchmarked opinion of an entire industry (e.g. 50,000 plus brokers) the measure you should be tracking and improving? Or is it the opinion of the top 20% of the segment that are the most profitable? How do your customers deviate from the industry overall?

If you improve performance against key metrics industry-wide (let’s say – just for example – speed to negotiated quote and commitment letter for commercial mortgage brokers), will that make you more profitable? Or, should you focus on improving the experience on the metrics that matter to the segment that represents your most profitable customers?

In our opinion, benchmarking is relevant only in so far as the metrics you benchmark are linked to key financial, business and customer objectives, and the metrics that define success for your business in these areas.

Although linking various metrics can be difficult to do, it is critically important for several reasons. If the cause-and-effect relationships are identified and understood, then these measures begin to provide the ability to serve as predictors of future organizational and financial performance.

Understanding the cause-and-effect relationship is relatively easy. Identifying leading and lagging indicators is typically more difficult, though critical.

Direct response doesn’t mean you should ditch your brand platform for a few basis points. In fact, it may end up costing you way more.

Online and off, direct marketing exists for a primary purpose: to sell stuff. But whether products or services, many marketers lose sight of the potential for brand building in pursuit of higher open and click-through rates, greater response numbers, and more dollars generated.

The metrics are compelling: If you’re lucky enough to have response rates of 4% in a traditional DM program, the other 96% of recipients still see your message – and have the ability to be positively (or negatively) influenced by your brand as a result. By driving brand messaging, promises and key attributes throughout the visual and verbal elements of your letter, package or email, you can start building awareness, knowledge and preference.  Or, this touchpoint can help to drive prospects (or current customers that aren’t re-purchasing today) away from your brand.

In an online environment – let’s call it Google Adwords – an above-average (well performing) campaign, your click-through rate (CTR) should be around 2% or a little better. This means that for each click, 49 searchers – typing in keywords relevant to your business – have been exposed to your message. No, it isn’t much room. But you can make it work for you, and your brand.

By all means, sell your product or service. Testing will show you how to best do this. But be sure to educate all recipients on your brand. Though the results won’t show up on your ROI dashboard today, the seeds you plant may sprout when you least expect it.

Great strategy – whether brand, marketing customer experience or business management oriented (in our case, often all of the above!) – can only succeed if it’s actually implemented.

I’ve heard executives talk about the importance strategic planning is given within an organization, and I’ve seen much of the impressive output from expensive consultants.

And while it’s easy to bash these 100-plus page PowerPoint “paper bricks” that often end up gathering dust when some other consulting firm produces them, my tune changes pretty quickly when it’s our recommendations sitting neglected on the shelf.

The fact is, great strategy – whether brand, marketing, customer experience or business management oriented  – can only succeed if it’s actually implemented. When something goes wrong or nothing happens, it can leave the organization unchanged or (even worse) only partway through a critical process.

A recent engagement with a growing financial services firm drove this point home … again. Where does it go wrong? While we see our job as the planners and champions of change, it takes internal leadership and motivation to drive it. Great leadership is about implementing change as well as developing the strategies to create change. You can’t have one without the other.

But not all leaders are naturally equipped, or empowered, to deal with the challenges that this role will throw at them. Whatever their “official” role (whether you’re leading from the top or the middle), leaders need to be able to drive strategic change in their organizations, and motivate others to join them.

I’m thinking we need to add a role to our toolbox: just call me Coach!

Creating brand value is not a static process. A continual cycle of monitoring and assessment is key to maintaining relevance – and increasing value.

Building and maintaining a strong brand is not a simple task. In some companies, the hardest step is gaining a top-down organizational commitment. For those that do, the rewards are great. The following five steps can serve as an initial guide.

Step 1: Assessment

Understand your brand. What are the internal and external perceptions? How do your key audiences see you versus your competition? Are they aware? Engaged? Where are the gaps in your brands performance?  Brand research is the only way to effectively assess where you stand, and why.

Step 2: Strategy

Prioritize communication of rational and emotional perceptions that communicate key customer benefits, as well as the drivers of brand loyalty, repurchase and engagement.  Through a quantifiable understanding of what drives value for your brand, brand strategy will reinforce desired perceptions and behaviors.

Step 3: Architecture

Architect a strategic brand hierarchy that effectively communicates brand and messaging priorities through product and service lines, divisional and/or subsidiary relationships, geographies, segments and distribution channels.

Step 4: Application

Be relentlessly consistent with the delivery and control of your brand experience across all channels. Ensure that your brand is consistently – and effectively – delivered across all major categories of customer touchpoints, including static (such as print ads or direct mail), interactive (including web and online) and human (sales team, call centers, etc.).

Step 5: Monitoring

Brands must be maintained and monitored to ensure that they retain relevance and importance with key audiences. Assign explicit responsibility for custodianship and conduct periodic brand audits and tracking studies – leveraging your own methodologies, or a proven tool such as Brand Mapping – to provide ongoing market-driven feedback.

Ten considerations for naming your company, product or service.

The right name combines the strengths and significance of your company, product or service into a single word or phrase. So how do you create a name that is both intelligent and memorable, and sets you apart from the rest?

1. Is it informative? A name should help identify the company’s industry, or the application of its product or service. It should also suggest size. A company with a national presence should not have a “boutique” sounding name, but rather a name which says “we own the turf.”

2. Is it memorable? If a product or company has a memorable name, it will be easier for prospects and customers to request it or recall it. A memorable company or product name also facilitates sales through word of mouth, and is more easily found on the web.

3. Does it spark curiosity? Sparking human curiosity is the best way to grab and hold a prospect’s attention. Whenever appropriate, use elements of wit, mystery or humor to engage your audience.

4. Is it clearly differentiated from other product and company names? In markets flooded with new products or several similar sounding company names (such as high-tech or financial services), it’s critical to stand apart from the competition with a name that is distinctive.

5. Is it easy to pronounce and spell? If a name is easy to pronounce and spell, it helps the product or company project a customer-friendly image. This can be especially important in consumer and technology-related businesses, and can be key to “findability” online.

6. Does it work internationally? Many American brand names have failed in the international marketplace because they meant something absurd (“Nova” in Spanish-speaking countries) or offensive (“Supra” in Arabic countries) in other cultures. Check the meanings of name candidates in different languages.

7. Can it be protected? A name that is purely descriptive or generic in nature (such as The Moneysaver) is difficult to trademark and protect.

8. Will it be appropriate in five years? Ten? Twenty? Names tied to trends or that age quickly (remember “New Coke”?) are quickly outdated. Seek names that have a timeless quality.

9. How well can the name and visual brand work together as a unit? A great name is enhanced by a strong visual identity that supports its personality, its history, or the name itself.  (Think Apple, Wells Fargo and Google).

10. Do you like it? One of the most important tests a name must pass is the visceral one. It should appeal to your gut as well as your mind.

What is “strategic planning” – and how does it work?

While the phrases is used often (and often misused) Strategic Planning is critical to the success of any exercise. Bringing multiple perspectives into focus with an eye on defined objectives, it is the process an organization goes through to envision and achieve its future—identifying the steps and means necessary to leverage existing strengths and overcome identified weaknesses.

The benefits from a business point-of-view are clear. What are our revenue, growth and sales targets? What competitive and market forces can affect our future, for better or worse? What should (and what must) we do to achieve these goals?

While the level of involvement in creating the plan may vary depending on your product or service, timing and market situation, we believe that at a minimum you should ask for input from current customers, prospects and your in-house sales and marketing teams. Representatives from anticipated support functions (customer service, installation, and maintenance) should also be an integral part of the planning process.

The value of strategic planning for brand, marketing and customer experience.

Since both the value and revenue for virtually all organizations is driven by its customers, planning is critical when thinking about ways to connect with them. When it comes to meeting these business goals, your ability effectively market, relevantly brand and deliver customer experiences that drive customers closer are a few of core competencies required for business success.

Whether your objectives are to inform, persuade, sell, or reassure, you need a clear understanding of where you are, where you want to go, and what you need to do to get there. In this context, Strategic Planning serves as your road map, guiding and connecting every aspect of interacting with key audiences from awareness of your company, product or service to the creation and nurturing of loyal customer advocates.

It provides a framework for examining your customers, prospects and competition. It helps to drive innovation in products and services, and service levels, that allow you to pinpoint your brand, improve experiences, and focus marketing and related investments on the right customers, with the right offerings and the right messages.

Within the context of brand, marketing and customer experience, the strategic planning process can drive myriad positive end results. Among other benefits, the research-based definition and articulation of strategies and tactics will help your organization to:

• Determine and respond to shifts in customer wants and needs;
• Understand levels of current market awareness and position;
• Uncover competitive strategies and market trends, and evaluate the opportunities and threats they create;
• Refine relevant metrics to track ROI on your investments in all related areas, and improve that return over time;
• Understand target market perceptions of your strengths and weaknesses, and determine which to reinforce or address;
• Evaluate new product/service opportunities and the potential impact of external threats;
• Improve communications with your audiences, both internally and externally;
• Establish ongoing internal, market and competitive information-gathering procedures;
• Identify ways to accelerate and manage growth;
• And many others…

Establishing specific, measurable objectives and timelines against your plan also allows you to continually track—and adjust if necessary—your strategies, tactics, and investments. This creates appropriate expectations, accountability, and an effective means of measuring progress towards your goals.

How well is your organization doing at understanding – and improving – customer experience?

Where does your organization fit? Maybe you have it nailed. A leader, you know who your customers are and what they want – and they love you for giving it to them.

An inspiration, you set the standards in your industry for customer experience management. Your customers experience excellence at just about every touchpoint they encounter, and outstanding talent is clamoring to work for you.  You excel in comparison to your competitors, increasing sales and boosting retention for your best customers and employees.

Maybe you’re a “fast follower”, and your organization is benefiting from being slightly ahead of the curve. While you may be doing well, you’re finding it difficult to compete with the customer service leaders in your industry.

Maybe you’re a laggard –  you wish you could establish yourselves as customer service leaders… but are having troubles getting your hands around what this means (much less how to accomplish this). All the places where it interacts with customers? (“Touchpoints”)

Wherever you are on this continuum, there are some basic questions you can ask to help figure out where you stand.  Without getting too complex, answer these questions honestly on the 5 point scale (see below) and see how you’re doing.

Recognize that if your average score is 4 or better, you’re doing great by any measure. And if you’re not doing so well, know that if you focus on improving your performance on these questions, you’ll be a leader in no time.

The 6-Question Customer Experience Audit

How well is your organization doing at understanding…

1. Which customers are your most valuable, and why?
2. Which interactions (or “touchpoints”) these key customers most value, and why?
3. Your key customers’ needs, in each lifecycle stage with your organization?
4. The most common sequence of “pre-purchase” touchpoints, as prospects (or repeat purchasers) progress from awareness of your offerings to selection?
5. The influence of “post-purchase” touchpoints on satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy?
6. Whether your key customers are dissatisfied, satisfied, or loyal? And who your advocates are?

You can answer the 6-Question Customer Experience Audit using this scale

5 = Extremely Well (We have it nailed.)

4 = Moderately Well

3 = Just OK

2 = Not that well

1 = Not well at all (We have no idea!)

Customer Experience Mapping – A first step to creating more positive customer experiences.

In Proving ROI on Customer Experience Part 2, we presented four “experience investment” lenses to help you plan, measure and improve interactions with your customers, and prove significant ROI before you invest.

Job number one in improving customer experience is to identify the touchpoints you have, and create a map of where you are today.

Touchpoints are the places where companies interact with and “touch” customers, delivering value or driving customers away.

Experiences are defined at these touchpoints, and the opportunity for mapping ROI is based on finding out which touchpoints work, which don’t, and why. Then, improving them. In fact, most companies don’t even have a complete picture of existing touchpoints —even the ones they control. So where do you start?

A typical process for experience improvement can include these steps:

1. Audit individual customer touchpoints across the Customer Relationship Lifecycle stages (from awareness through to advocacy).
2. Map out the key processes for each of the lifecycle stages.
3. Understand how individual touchpoints work—in sequence or alone—to move customers through the lifecycle and closer to your company:
   1. Gaps where touchpoints should exist—and don’t
   2. Redundancies—where touchpoints do exist, and shouldn’t
4. Identify the specific interactions where touchpoints drive value across different segments, with regards to:
   1. Customer loyalty
   2. Value to your business, and to your customers
   3. Revenue generation (or cost savings)
5. Determine the gap between desired and actual experience, and desired and actual results at these points.
6. Construct a specific plan for moving forward – one that sets priorities, maps out the costs and benefits, and provides specific metrics for measuring the results.
7. Codify the optimal experience, and begin the process of operationalizing it.

Building an ROI case: Measuring Customer Experience
There is no doubt that improving customer experience is important. Whatever approach you take, knowing where to focus limited resources, and how to use experience as a competitive differentiator is key to justifying—and prioritizing—investment.

This understanding is at the core of our business and it’s why we’ve developed our suite of Customer Experience Mapping tools. Our perspective is that improving experience starts with an understanding of customer touchpoints and the emotions they drive. We identify, understand, measure, and improve the experiences that drive your customer relationships, with statistically precise approaches for gathering, listening to and acting on the voices of your customers.

This is why you must focus on what can be directly measured. There are many less tangible benefits (ranging from brand affinity and preference to employee satisfaction, to name but a few), but the case for Experience ROI should be made with a clear understanding of which measurable monetary and value levers can be moved—and how.

Four “experience investment” lenses to help you plan, measure and improve interactions with your customers, and prove significant ROI – before you invest.

In Proving ROI on Customer Experience Part 1, we discussed the background of Customer Experience, as well its critical nature of in business today.

Because the process of improving customer experience has the potential to be both involved and resource intensive, most businesses wonder how they can prove ROI before they start. To assist you in this initial assessment, we have developed 4 “Experience ROI Lenses” to help you begin.

Future revenue is affected—either positively or negatively—at every single touchpoint (or interaction) between your organization and your customers.

While by no means exhaustive, these “Lenses” are all examples of – and point places where you can find – real world ROI. Looking at your organization through them will help you speak the “language of investment return” and should give you ample ammunition to begin thinking about – and planning – your own experience improvements.

Experience ROI Lens No. 1: Increase loyalty (and reduce churn).

Increases in loyalty (and reductions in churn) are some of the most basic ROI models you can use. Armed with Net Promoter® (NPS) as a loyalty metric and Customer Lifetime Value to measure what a customer is worth, you can drive – literally – millions in savings for even a small to mid-size company.

Multiple studies have proven the value of loyalty, with benefits ranging from customer who spend more, cost less to service, and buy more over time. Both Loyalty and NPS are proven (and widely accepted) indicators of future revenue growth. Overall, the goals are to both increase retention, and reduce the cost of keeping the customer.

These are but a few of the ways that experience improvements can drive loyalty:

• By establishing a line of sight between your customer experience and increased Net Promoter® (NPS) scores, you can directly boost satisfaction and loyalty.
• You can pinpoint the individual touchpoints that affect loyalty, investing in those that improve it – and eliminating or modifying those that don’t.
• What if better delivery of “post-purchase” experience could reduce churn by 5% a year? For some companies, this can translate to a 60%+ increase in annual profits.
• Implementing a customer experience feedback loop could allowing you to deal with complaints more effectively, and improve delivery overall. In a $40M Retail Company, this could affect the $8M at risk from customers who have had a poor experience.

Experience ROI Lens No. 2: Reduce the cost of delivery.

Delivery cost can be reduced in several areas, including functional tasks, hard costs, and overhead. Ranging from reduction in marketing costs (or reallocation to more effective channels) to reductions in customer service staff or call center overhead, the potential is significant.

A few examples of the tangible benefits from reducing delivery costs can include:

• Eliminating a redundant marketing tactic or program that is both costly and ineffective. For one client, eliminating a single printed touchpoint saved millions – with over $500,000 in postage alone. Or eliminate an entire series of programs that don’t drive desired results. (Eliminating an ineffective touchpoint = lower cost/higher satisfaction).
• Reduce the cost of touchpoint delivery overall; by eliminating nearly 40% of all touchpoints. For another client, we were able drive up satisfaction and customer re-purchase as a result. (Fewer touchpoints = lower marketing/service costs).
• Migrate customer-facing tasks from the call center to the web; Adding a series of pages to your website could have the direct effect of reducing call center volume overall, decreasing handle time, and increasing first call resolution. (Decreased volume/increased speed = lower costs).

Experience ROI Lens No. 3: Speed movement through your Customer Relationship Lifecycle.

The potential for ROI in this area is huge. By understanding where experience can be improved in the “pre-purchase” stage of your lifecycle, you could boost your pipeline and conversions by 10%, 20%, or more. Improving experience in the “post-purchase” phase boosts satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy.

The benefits from measuring Relationship Lifecycle improvements include:

• See which marketing channels are most effective at driving brand awareness, and which are less effective. By shifting investment to the most effective channels, you boost awareness without increasing costs. (greater awareness = more prospects).
• Understand where your marketing is NOT driving desired behavior, and boost consideration. (more prospects = more sales).
• See where the sales process is bogging down to close more deals. (more customers = more revenue).
• Learn which individual touchpoints are most effective at driving advocacy (or influencing prospects) to boost positive Word-of-Mouth. (greater advocacy = increased awareness/improved loyalty).

Experience ROI Lens No. 4: Increase Customer Value.

Most organizations have a startling lack of knowledge when comes to the economics of individual customers. One study states that 85% of executives lack an understanding of acquisition or service costs, much less overall CLV (Customer Lifetime Value). Yet for virtually all organizations, their enterprise value springs entirely from their customers.

This value is driven by three things: 1.) The amount they spend on any given product or service; 2.) The amount of this budget that they spend with you, and; 3.) What they are willing to pay for your product or service. By looking at experience improvement as a way to boost CLV, you’ll be able to look at experience based on actual customer behavior, vs. intention.

Some of the benefits of looking at experience improvements through this lens can lead directly to increased CLV by:

• Reducing the cost of sales leads: By driving down the initial cost of getting customers (lower cost through more effective marketing or sales touchpoints) you boost overall customer value.
• Lowering service costs: By decreasing the cost of servicing customers (through web, call center, in-person or other touchpoints and channels) you increase CLV.
• Reduced cost of acquisition: By having more leads at a lower cost, you indirectly affect the sales metric. If the cost of closing a deal can be reduced as well, you benefit twice over. More efficient contracts, environments, sales pitches and more – all designed around the experience of turning prospects into customers – reduce costs.
• Increased purchase activity: A more efficient experience can be targeted towards getting existing customers to either spend more at each purchase, or purchase more often. The result? You guessed it. Increases in overall revenue (and value) per customer.

• Improved retention: As discussed in Experience ROI Lens No. 1, above, increases in loyalty boost retention. The longer a customer stays with you, the greater their value.

Once you’ve developed a hypothesis around prospective ROI on customer experience, what next? In Part 3 of Proving ROI on Customer Experience we talk about ways to identify the touchpoints you have, and create a map of where you are today – helping you find out which touchpoints work, which don’t, and why. Then, improving them… (Continue to Part 3…)

Better understand how to derive the greatest return from your customer experience investments.

Just as with financial performance, measurement is critical to customer experience improvement. Creating a culture of measurement-driven customer experience initatives will help executives better understand how to derive the greatest return from their investments.

And moving past the fundamental first step of understanding that customers do have inherent value, a measurement-driven customer culture will maximize the effect on tangible business results in critical areas including brand awareness and preference, customer retention, loyalty, profitability and value.

Moving into these areas in an incremental manner will begin to provide marketers with the baseline data needed to pursue key management support as well. For example, the ability to quantify gaps in organizational alignment behind your brand, or discontinuity in the customer experience, can have a profound impact at the executive level.

This is the kind of data that your “C Suite” can see, understand and react to.  More importantly, it has the potential to drive the types of improvements that can markedly improve your investments, and your overall business performance.

After all, virtually all enterprise value flows from the same source – your customers. Measuring and improving their experience can only benefit your top (and bottom) lines.