CGA’s innovative Customer Heartbeat™ technique pinpoints where and how a business can increase the value of its customer relationships, both the value perceived by the customer and the value realised by the business provider. Its power lies in its ability to assess the functional and emotional needs of customers, and quantify the gap between these needs and the customer’s perception of how the business is currently delivering. In doing so, Customer Heartbeat™ can predict where future intervention will offer the greatest value through increased revenue, higher margins and better relationships and uniquely provides a method for delivering desired brand experience through the organisation into a consistent customer experience.



What is it?
At the core of Customer Heartbeat™ is the simple retail idea of a Customer Journey. Such journeys convert visitor experiences – within a store, website, call centre or venue – into a series of replicable steps from Arrival and Awareness through to Purchase and Recommendation.

Customer journey evaluation was originally developed to serve the Retail industry, to help structure the operational skills and deliverables required at each stage. As differentiation based on product and service has become increasingly difficult, providers have begun to differentiate their offer by a broader ‘customer experience’, including experiences such as ‘discovery’, ‘relaxation’, ‘learning’ and ‘excitement’.

How do we do it?
CGA’s Customer Heartbeat™ process measures the quality of a customer’s (or segments of different customers) experience through their journey. At each stage in the journey, the Heartbeat methodology measures and compares the importance of the customer’s functional and emotional needs, with their evaluation of how the client currently delivers to these. This methodology is brought visually alive through innovative graphs and illustrations.

“When they (CGA) showed me the Heartbeat model it immediately struck home and I could see that it would be insightful, applicable and would engage the business in grappling with a difficult issue – and I’ve been delighted with the results”
Ken Lee, Group Marketing Director - Inchcape

The information used in Heartbeat analysis varies according to client requirements, but typically blends existing and new quantitative data (such as mystery shopping scores and exit surveys) with qualitative insight (for example, from experienced observers recording customer’s reactions or from focus groups). To further help internal understanding and communication, the Heartbeat process pinpoints crucial customer ‘Moments of Truth’, the defining moments in the interaction with the customer that drive their overall perception of and loyalty to the provider, and their readiness to advance along the journey.

The Heartbeat output details precisely where efforts to influence customer recruitment, acquisition, spend and retention should be focused. CGA work with senior client teams to design and implement commercially-realistic initiatives that address these Heartbeat findings and these initiatives have consistently delivered double-digit growth for our clients across a range of industry sectors.

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Testimonials
Case Studies