Every business needs an effective customer dashboard, which should measure how the business is delivering on its promise to customers (or consumers), and not how well the marketing department is spending its marketing budget (see Dashboard schmashboard). Every function is responsible for managing and spending its budget wisely. Marketing communications budgets may be subject to board scrutiny from time to time, just like other large budgets, but that’s nothing to do with the customer experience. Great advertising isn’t what customers pay for.

Here’s what I suggest.

I don’t believe there’s a neat and tidy solution with a clean objective set of measures on a chart. Listening with an open mind, both to colleagues and to customers, remains essential. Value your own experience as a customer too, and your instincts and judgement. Absorb what you’re hearing from these multiple sources, and act on what’s important. This may mean sharing the information and getting others to devise the solution.

For quantitative metrics, I support the Barwise approach (as per the book reviewed here), of starting with the key drivers of customer dissatisfaction. Find out which failures or pinch points upset customers most, and track how well the business is delivering against these. Each product or service refinement – large or small – should be addressing an unmet customer need – large or small – so looking at dissatisfaction is also a great springboard for continuous improvement and innovation.

Related posts on consumer metrics; listening with an open mind; sources of inspiration; what makes an insight.