It’s that time of year again. We’re not talking about back-to-school season (although there are probably many parents excited about that milestone). No, we’re referring to the annual planning cycle: reviewing performance against OKRs and supporting KPIs, plus subsequent budget planning. For customer experience (CX) professionals, it can be a particularly stressful time as CX metrics are scrutinized by leadership.

Do You Have The Right CX Beacon Metric?

During this planning period, Forrester sees an increase in questions about CX metrics, particularly beacon metrics: Do we have the right CX beacon metric? What are companies like us using as a beacon metric?

As an aid to those of you facing these questions, here’s a review and some recommendations for managing your CX beacon metric.

Why Do You Need A CX Beacon Metric?

A CX beacon metric is the CX metric that serves as an organization’s key performance indicator for CX success. This metric helps you and your organization gauge the overall success of your company’s CX efforts and whether you’re delivering high-quality experiences that affect business success.

What Are The Most Popular CX Beacon Metrics?

Many companies use Net Promoter Score℠ (NPS) as their beacon metric. Some use satisfaction or effort. Very few use alternatives like custom indices. All potential beacon metrics have pros and cons.

Which CX Beacon Metric Should You Pick For Your Organization?

Worry less about finding the perfect beacon metric and more about finding an effective one for your organization. To find it, ask these questions for each potential beacon metric:

  • Is the metric a leading indicator of your organization’s important financial and strategic goals?
  • Does the metric capture changes in CX performance, as seen in other metrics in your framework?
  • Does your beacon metric make sense to your customers? That is, are you asking about a behavior or perception that fits the situation?
  • Is your metric easy for all employees to understand and rally around?
  • Can you benchmark your beacon metric to understand your position within a broader landscape?

By evaluating your CX beacon metric against these criteria, you can be more confident that your measurement system is aligned with the business strategy, accepted by leaders, and relevant to customers. You’ll be able to better align all your other CX metrics, which will lead to more relevant use cases and ROI calculations. And you’ll be ready to face this year’s planning process.

This will set you up to do the work that really matters: Building a measurement architecture below the beacon metric that helps you drive CX improvements. Now, if you could only find a good sale on kids’ backpacks!

To learn more about Forrester’s CX measurement framework, or to get more tips on picking the right beacon metric, Forrester clients can access the three reports listed below or schedule an inquiry with either myself or Pete. Non-clients can check out the complimentary guide Revitalize CX Measurement & Prioritization.