XM Knowledge Base
Measuring the B2B Customer Experience
When it comes to measuring the experience for your customers, small sample sizes make NPS a difficult metric in B2B. Instead, focus on using feedback to inform your closed-loop activity and consider alternative metrics that can tie back to financial performance.
- Use the NPS question primarily as a guide for when to follow-up, not as a calculated score unless you have at least 1,100 responses
- Use the verbatim NPS feedback and use it as a tool when closing the loop with individual customers
- Consider using an average (mean) for NPS rather than dividing the scale by ‘Promoters, Passives, and Detractors’
- If calculating the score for NPS, collect at least 1,100 responses to achieve stability
- Consider alternative metrics like overall satisfaction (OSAT) and customer effort score that can be tied to operational metrics through the Wallet Allocation Rule
B2B Customer Experience Benchmarking
When comparing your performance internally or with competitors, follow these best practice guidelines to make sure your comparisons are accurate and valid.
- Within-country comparisons are typically more valid than cross-national comparisons, even within the same business unit
- Focus on rates of change across benchmarked units rather than absolute values across units
- When possible, use relative metrics rather than absolute metrics
- It can be important to ensure that the respondent samples are similar when attempting to make benchmark comparisons
To see the full findings of our B2B panel and more detailed recommendations in each of these areas, please download the full B2B whitepaper.
Free whitepaper: The Complete Guide to B2B Customer Experience