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Why you need measurement for successful change management

Posted by Perceptive Insights Team - 31 August, 2015

"If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”. This maxim was originally attributed to Peter Drucker—the original management consultant—and has been a source of great debate for managers ever since. But how true is it for change management in particular? To understand how your new customer-focused business strategy is working for you, you’ll need to put some measurement behind it.

Here's why:

1. Measuring to manage

Customer experience management hinges on the ability of stakeholders to know what is happening, why it is happening and how to change it if it isn't meeting expectations. 

The question is no longer about whether or not to measure customer experience, but rather when and how.

The answers are "regularly" and "through surveys", respectively. Regular surveys through an established system, such as the Net Promoter Score favoured by Customer Monitor, gives a business the up-to-date information they need to succeed: a rating, a reason, and a suggestion for improvement.

In short, it provides everything you need to know about how your customers experience your brand, and what you need to change to improve it.

The same goes for employee feedback surveys. An engaged employee is an effective employee, and uncovering strengths and weaknesses from your staff as well as your customer base allows you to fix morale and process problems before they become major hurdles to providing great customer experience.

It also ensures that everybody is on-board with the changes being implemented, and that all staff members are in the right frame of mind to make these changes succeed.

 

Related content: 3 steps to measure your employee feedback for change management

 

Why you need measurement for successful change management

2. Measuring to grow

Peter Drucker is also quoted as saying “what gets measured gets improved”.

The simple act of comparing your performance against your growth goals can be enough to motivate new thinking, new solutions and new strategies in order to achieve them—especially if the business is currently falling short of expectations.

Consider the following scenario: your business is going through a series of changes that you expect will help improve your customer experience. This is intended to generate more happy customers, more referrals and, ultimately, more business revenue.

An admirable goal. But without measurement, ultimately one that you don't know will be successful.

Instead, consider the same scenario, but where these referrals and customer experiences are being measured. You soon discover that the new processes being put in place aren't having the effect you expected, and that key KPIs aren't being met by your staff as a result. 

You bring this to the attention of your team. Along with the downward trend, you also reveal the other measurements of customer commentary and suggestions for improvement. This spurs your team into new ways of thinking about the business problems, and down new avenues towards growth.

When you’re measuring, you're gaining insights to ensure you are in-line with your business strategy and heading towards your goals—and encouraging creative thinking to resolve issues if you aren't.

 

Related content: How to innovate in your business with design thinking

 

3. Measuring to compete

One of the main problems with measuring customer experience is that it can be difficult to compare—especially across industries. A customer purchasing a children's toy from a retailer will expect a very different experience from when they are purchasing a new life insurance policy, for example.

While the experience itself may be different, the baseline expectation of experiencing "excellence" isn't. Customers want the best, no matter how they are interacting with a business. Failing in this regard pushes them towards competitors instead.

Businesses are left with a conundrum. They need to improve their customer experience to outperform the competition and secure their place in the market; measurement is clearly a part of that process. But how do you measure something as intangible as "a good experience" when the definition of "good" can be so different across your industry?

The key is not to overcomplicate. When customers have a good experience, they are likely to tell their friends and family, no matter what the business does—insurance, retail, hospitality, you name it, if people have a good experience, they'll recommend it.

This is the key to outperforming the competition, then: getting an indication on the chance of referral or recommendation.

This is the metric that the Net Promoter Score is built upon, and allows businesses to compare themselves across their industry (and even between their industry and another). It's a tangible, easily digestible number that gives you an instant read of how you are performing against your competitors.

Change management is about performance—more specifically, out-performance. Measurement using NPS provides a benchmark to work towards and, ultimately, surpass.

 

Related content: What is a good Net Promoter Score?

 


Check out our e-book on change management and why customer experience is such an important component of any change management initiative.

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