Startup CXO

Chapter 89Understanding Customers Through Metrics

In Chapter 88, I wrote about qualitative feedback you should obtain from customers (and publish widely inside your organization) to develop an understanding of the client. You can also develop a deep insight about customers through looking at product and process metrics. I find the best way to develop and understand metrics is by aligning these metrics with the customer lifecycle stages. For each stage, you can choose to look at inputs, client actions, client outcomes, and client attitudes.

• Input metrics. Did we do the required work to drive desired client actions? For example, did we hold a training session for a client?
• Client actions. Did the client take the desired actions that set them up for success? For example, did the client attach our product to a particular data source?
• Outcome metrics. Are we driving the results we expect for our clients? For example, do email marketing systems drive opens, clicks, and conversion for our clients?
• Attitude metrics. How does the client feel about the results? Within each stage we will do surveys of clients either in the product or via email solicitation, to ask them how they feel about us in different stages. This is frequently a Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey.

Beware of the vanity metric. By vanity metric, I mean measuring things that make you look good instead of things that are important. What I find frequently is that people will report on things that are only tangential to ...