As we discussed last week, the traditional way of measuring website success, namely by website leads, is a flawed approach that ends up in frustrated potential buyers abandoning a dealership. So if the focus on traditional metrics isn’t bringing in more customers – either in web leads or foot traffic, what measurement should dealers be focusing on?
The answer is deceptively simple. Customer Experience.
As lovely and neat as that answer is, it raises another question.
How do you measure customer experience?
Well buckle up, because we are going to take you on the endlessly thrilling rollercoaster of excitement that is the measurement of CX.
Alright that last sentence may have been hyperbole, but honestly it isn’t that much of an exaggeration. CX is really exciting (at least to us). CX means being able to make way more money and have way happier customers. It’s the ultimate win-win. And measuring CX is a great way to establish the strengths and weaknesses of a dealership. Instead of web leads, in which the only feedback can really be “get more web leads,” CX measurement can give a wide view of everything from dealership trustworthiness and first-impression to the quality of its website design.
To aid you in your CX quest, we’ve laid out the various questionnaires and metrics that will help you measure your website.
SUS
System Usability Score
Usability is a major part of CX, and the System Usability Score has long been the recognized champion of measuring usability. It was designed to measure the efficacy, efficiency, and satisfaction from using a system, in our case, a website. The SUS uses the Likert scale to frame its questionnaire – a short list of statements that the user can answer with a 5-point scale ranging from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree.
SUS Questionnaire:
1. I think that I would like to use this system frequently.
2. I found the system unnecessarily complex.
3. I thought the system was easy to use.
4. I think that I would need the support of a technical person to be able to use this system.
5. I found the various functions in this system were well integrated.
6. I thought there was too much inconsistency in this system.
7. I would imagine that most people would learn to use this system very quickly.
8. I found the system very cumbersome to use.
9. I felt very confident using the system.
10. I needed to learn a lot of things before I could get going with this system.
As great as the SUS is, it really only covers usability, which, though immensely important, is only part of the whole picture. What we want to measure involves a wider scale of emotion and experience than just usability. We want to measure CX, and for that, the best method is the SUPR-Q system.
SUPR-Q
The SUPR-Q – Standardized User Experience Percentile Rank Questionnaire is a questionnaire formulated specifically to measure user experience, and brings new and essential metrics beyond usability into the equation. Specifically, credibility, loyalty, and appearance.
Credibility (Trust): Do your shoppers trust your dealership as it is represented on your website? Do they feel that the information on your site is correct, legitimate, and trustworthy? If they see a price online, how confident are they that they can take that price to the dealership?
Loyalty: What kind of things are your customers saying about you to their friends and family? Will they return to your website if their car search isn’t quite over yet? Would they recommend your website to others who are car-shopping?
Appearance: Does your website appearance live up to customer expectations? Do design issues interfere with usability, or does great design create an emotional bond between the customer and the dealership?
Usability: How easy is it for users to complete their desired tasks? Do they get frustrated, or do they barely think about it?
All of the above are questions dealers should desperately want to know the answers to. After all, these are metrics that directly connect dealers to customers, and understanding the experience of your customers means that you can improve it.
One of the best things about the SUPR-Q questionnaire is that it has Net Promoter Score built right in. If you don’t automatically recognize the NPS name, you still probably know what it is. We’ve all see the question: “On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this product/business/website to a friend or colleague?” NPS is consistently one of the best indicators of customer loyalty and growth for any business.
NPS equation: % Promoters – % Detractors = Net Promoter Score
The Questionnaire
1. This website is easy to use.
2. It is easy to navigate within the website.
3. The information on the website is credible.
4. The information on the website is trustworthy.
5. I will likely visit this website in the future
6. I found the website to be attractive.
7. The website has a clean and simple presentation.
8. How likely are you to recommend this website to a friend or colleague?
SUPR-Q has a percentile score that, when you buy a license, you can compare to a multitude of other companies in a wide variety of industries. But even without the license, you can still use the SUPR-Q questionnaire to evaluate your website and fix areas of weakness.
Beyond Questionnaires
If you don’t want to launch a whole questionnaire project, there are smaller things you can do to measure the CX or usability of your website.
NPS: Part of the SUPR-Q, the NPS is a great metric just on its own, and only requires a few seconds to answer. Including this as a small exit-intent triggered pop-up on your website can give you an idea of how well your website performs on CX in general. The downside is that, without a more lengthy questionnaire, you might not be able to make improvements as easily.
CES: Want to measure basic usability? The Customer Effort Score is a great way to get a general usability score without a major questionnaire process. Measuring CES is done by posing a statement about the task the customer just completed. For example, “The website made it easy for me to find the car I was looking for,” and providing a 7-point Likert scale answer (Strongly Agree, Agree, Somewhat Agree, Neutral, Somewhat Disagree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree). As easy as this is, it can again, be hard to know exactly what you might need to change in order to improve low scores.
Session Recording: One of the best ways to get an inside look on customer experience is to literally look at your customer’s experiences. There are a variety of services which record random user sessions on your website and will let you watch what as they go about their business. Sure, it’s a bit creepy, but it’s a fantastic way to pinpoint things that are causing your customers frustration.
Now you’re equipped with the best in CX measurement. With this information, you can begin to combat the damage done by an exclusive focus on traditional metrics.