Top 10 customer experience KPIs and metrics for 2024

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the number of key performance indicators (KPIs) applicable in customer experience environments. When thinking about customer experience and how it leads to business success, it might make sense to break the total experience down in smaller insights based on your company’s unique goals and different parts of the customer journey. This way, you can develop a goal-oriented approach to determine which KPIs are better suited to measure your performance.

If, for example, you identify customer attraction, engagement, and retention as three strategic aspects of the customer experience, consider starting with these key KPIs to benchmark your performance:

Customer Retention

1. Customer churn rate

The percentage rate at which customers stop subscribing to a service over a given time-period is referred to as churn. Reducing churn rates is the first step towards learning how to retain an existing customer and increasing revenue streams. Low churn rates reveal satisfaction with your level of service and, therefore, a superior customer experience and customer loyalty. One key factor that affects churn rate is the customer effort score, which measures how easy or difficult it is for a customer to complete a purchase, return an item, and so on. Be sure to keep an eye on that metric.

2. Net Promoter Score

Net Promoter Scores (NPS)℠ are vital for assessing where you stand with your customers. A lower NPS indicates that you need to put work into swaying your customers’ opinion of your company. Implementing Voice of the Customer programs is a great starting point to begin incorporating customer feedback into your products and services to boost Net Promoter Scores. This assessment can play a significant role in boosting your customer retention rate.

3. Customer Satisfaction

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) is another customer experience measurement, often measured by interaction type. High satisfaction scores demonstrate a customer-centric culture and indicate that you have met or surpassed your customers’ expectations in any given experience. And research by Zendesk and ESG revealed that companies with high customer satisfaction scores also experience improved customer retention.

4. Average Resolution Time

The average resolution time is a customer service KPI that refers to the average time it takes for a customer care agent to resolve a customer issue. This customer support metric directly correlates to customer satisfaction and reflects your team’s efficiency. Your time to resolution matters as 73 percent of customers say fast resolutions are the top component of a good customer service experience, according to Zendesk’s Trends Report.

Customer Engagement

5. Customer Acquisition Rate

Providing a better experience throughout the buyer journey will help you keep prospects engaged and moving towards a purchase decision. The lower the customer acquisition rates the more likely you are to make a return on investment from your marketing and sales campaigns and win a new customer.

6. Conversion rate

The customer experience is critical for the buying process. Optimizing the experience across the buyer journey helps boost conversion rates at every touchpoint. Increased conversion rates mean that prospects are moving along the buyer funnel incentivized by the customer experience.

7. Cart abandonment rate

According to Baymard Institute, the average shopping cart abandonment rate is 68.53 percent. There are many reasons behind cart abandonment but many of them can be fixed just by redesigning the experience. For example, if potential customers are abandoning their carts due to lingering questions, you might deploy a chatbot or embedded messaging on your checkout page so they have an easy way to reach support, without having to leave the experience. Reduced cart abandonment rates are an indicator of a well thought out user experience, potential repeat customers, and increased sales.

Customer Attraction

8. Marketing campaign effectiveness

This KPI is defined as the return on investment (ROI) for any given marketing campaign initiative and helps you evaluate the overall growth rate of your company. Marketing is no longer about advertising, it is about reflecting the voice of your customers in the business and satisfying their needs. The more effective the marketing campaign, the better the customer experience is represented.

9. Direct traffic

Direct traffic is a CX metric resulting from any interaction specifically identified to a certain company activity intended to drive traffic. Direct traffic goes hand in hand with brand awareness and generates opportunities for future growth.

10. Pages per visit

The amount of time your visitors spend on your site is an indicator that your content is relevant and appealing. Enhancing the customer experience on site is one of the best ways to ensure visitors don’t lose interest and learn more about your brand and its products.

Measuring customer experience

According to Zendesk’s 2021 Customer Experience Trends Report, 75 percent of customers will spend more to buy from a company that offers good CX. Bearing this in mind, it’s no surprise that businesses are increasingly investing in a customer experience platform to attract, retain and engage customers. As companies allocate large chunks of their budgets to improve customer experience initiatives, they need a way to measure the results of their efforts.

While there is no out-of-the-box solution to measure your efforts at optimizing the customer experience, a comprehensive approach that combines different customer experience metrics might make the most sense. As mentioned earlier, try thinking of the metrics through the perspective of your company’s objectives and use these fundamental KPIs as the starting point. Learn more tips for measuring the customer experience here.

Net Promoter and NPS are registered U.S. trademarks, and Net Promoter Score and Net Promoter System are service marks, of Bain & Company, Inc., Satmetrix Systems, Inc. and Fred Reichheld.