16 Early Warning Signs of Customer Experience…When Should a Company Take Action?

Have you ever driven by the scene of a car accident or seen a building engulfed in flames? Emergencies can happen to anyone, anywhere without warning! When it comes to ‘business emergencies’ this is not always the case. Often times there are warning signs, some blatantly obvious and others that are a little less obvious.

Customer experience should be a concern for many businesses. Are you recognizing the warning signs? I recently read this article and it inspired me to expanding on some of the content.

16 Customer Experience Early Detection Signs

There are several metrics you can use to diagnose customer experience concerns. One that we commonly use is the Net Promoter Score metric.

Below is a list of 16 customer experience warning signs. They can bring to light areas of concern where action may need to be taken. Take a few minutes to ask yourself these questions and do the research needed to get honest answers.

1. Do leaders at all level of your organization take a “customer centric” approach to decision-making?  Or do they choose the easiest path before asking the critical question, “What do our customers want?”  Putting the needs of your customers first will go a long way to avoiding costly customer experience problems.
2. Are your company leaders resistant to change? The leaders within your company need to challenge each other and be open to positive, forward thinking changes. Customer experience expectations are changing and you need to be willing to change with them.
3. Are the leaders of your company in constant, unproductive disagreements? Your employees look to your leaders for direction. Make sure you have engaged leaders that convey clear, consistent information.
4. Are you having a difficult time recruiting and retaining quality employees? Enthusiastic, knowledgeable employees make customer experience a priority. You must provide a nurturing environment, ongoing training, and the tools needed for these quality workers to thrive.
5. Have you had a recent increase in employees missing work? Employee morale is important! If your employees are unsatisfied, your customers will be as well. Your employees should be some of your best advocates.
6. Has the number of customer complaints increased? When calculating, be sure to include phone calls, emails, snail mail, live chat and any other avenues.
7. Are your product returns increasing? Customers return products or request a refund for a variety of reasons, including poor customer service before, during or after the sale.
8. Have you noticed an increase of complaints on your social media pages? Social media has become a popular way to vent about a negative customer experience. This can be devastating to a company, especially if they ignore or fail to address these concerns properly.
9. Are your social media accounts being properly managed? It’s important to respond to customers in a timely fashion and in a professional manner. Remember, it’s not only that person making the comment who is waiting for your response…the online community is as well.
10.  Are you experiencing price erosion? Customer have fallen out of love with your products, and in order to maintain sales levels you are offering more and more promotions, thus eroding profit margins.
11.  Have sales numbers been down? A decrease in sales can be a result of several factors. If customers are not satisfied, they will take their business elsewhere.
12. Is the length of your sales cycle increasing? A quick sale in normally a sign of a positive customer experience. Their questions were answered, needs were met and as a result they moved forward with the sale.
13.  Is your inventory growing? This could be a sign customers aren’t buying your products and in order to maintain product lines companies are building up inventory rather than selling the products.
14.  Are your expediting costs growing? This could be a sign of delayed or failing logistics processes, and in order to keep customers happy, products are expediter overnight.
15. Has production been running smoothly or experiencing delays due to equipment repairs, missing components or lack of communication? Customers may not be standing on your production floor watching what’s happening, but they will notice if their order is late or incorrect!
16. Are you experiencing an increase in product defects? This includes product defects caught in house and those that are shipped to the customer and returned.

Time to Take Action

Was this an eye opening experience for you? Did it help determine certain areas of your company that require some additional attention? There’s room for improvement within every company, and if you are willing to embrace this concept and take action, your customers will take notice! A positive customer experience starts with you!

What metrics have you used to measure customer experience? Please share in the comments below.