Table of Contents
In brief
Measuring without purpose is worse than a waste of time and money, while KPIs with use cases can initiate a virtuous cycle by creating accountability and signalling the required action. In this article, we list the Benchmark’s 28 CX KPI use cases along with their goals and owners. Its purpose is to enable asset managers to assess the practical application and ROI of CX metrics within their organizations, serving as a precursor to developing actionable KPIs and evaluating their readiness through Accomplish’s CX Data Maturity Audit.
Problems with KPIs that lack use cases
When an organisation tracks KPIs that lack clear use cases, the disadvantages can pile up into a vicious cycle well beyond wasted time and money.
False sense of control – intentionally or not, departments can track KPIs that suit their own goals rather than the organisation’s strategy. Common examples include Marketing chasing clicks, while Sales wants conversions. Less discussed scenarios include the RFP teams that can tell you how many RFPs they’ve completed, but not how many were successful.
KPI theatre – this occurs when internal reporting becomes an end in itself, rather than a chance to identify risks or opportunities. A typical example includes “green dashboard = we’re fine,” without asking whether the threshold for ‘green’ remains appropriate, whether the KPIs themselves are still relevant or, worse, why things don’t feel fine despite the green KPIs.
Lost credibility and decision paralysis – when dashboards multiply, they can create an intimidating wall of information that can distract rather than drive action. And yet, without action, you can have no hope of achieving change or even a positive ROI on your internal reporting. As a result, this situation can cause staff to disengage while executives can doubt the value of the data and those who create it.
Practical KPIs trigger decisions, action, and learning
Conversely, a business intelligence framework that supports KPIs with use cases – “who wants to do what with the metric, and why?” – can initiate a virtuous cycle by creating accountability and signalling the required action.
KPIs incentivise strategic alignment, making them a vital incentive mechanism because they forge a link between strategy and day-to-day activity. For example, if being client-centric is part of your strategy, then reviewing CX KPIs (i.e., engagement, conversion, and service delivery) will confirm whether the strategy is working and whether resources are correctly aligned, or whether adjustments are needed.
Problems identified early are easier to fix – together, Marketing and Sales own the sales funnel and need to identify issues before their commercial impact becomes significant, especially those related to hand-offs between the two areas. Meanwhile, delivery teams monitor service performance to identify any issues early enough to prevent reputational damage.
Decisions get faster and better – executives have a pyramid of business intelligence, the top of which is a summary dashboard of the end-to-end client journey on a screen that enables leaders to drill through to investigate and support a KPI’s latest performance in the context of its use case: “who wants to do what with the metric, and why?”
CX KPI use cases for asset managers
The ~30 KPIs in the asset management CX Benchmark are the result of a five-year Darwinian process that has focused on ensuring each metric makes an attributable contribution to whether a firm’s CX helps or hurts its bottom line.
Employing behavioral science, the goal is to stimulate various forms of client engagement (scrolling, clicking, reading, watching, listening, etc), convert them into transfers of money (did clients buy, stay, and buy more?), and ensure high-performing post-sale services.
Explore the Benchmark’s end-to-end CX KPI use cases in the table below:
CX KPI use cases for asset managers - by ownership
1. Digital engagement
| CX KPI | Goal | Use case(s) |
|---|---|---|
| LinkedIn engagement rate | Engagement | Evaluate the performance of your posts at engaging clients on LinkedIn. |
| Proportion of web visitors from social | Convert engagement | Evaluate your ability to escalate client engagement from social media to your website. |
| E-mail open rate | Engagement | Competition for inbox attention is hot, so set targets and learn from any out- or underperformers. |
| Email click-through rate | Convert engagement | Target an above-average CTR and examine and learn from any out- or underperformers. |
| Web visit length and active engagement time | Engagement | Active engagement is less than visit length, so have a plan for using it and reducing disengagement. |
| Time spent on thought leadership and active engagement time | Engagement | Active engagement is less than visit length, so have a plan for using it and reducing disengagement. |
| Scroll depth on thought leadership | Engagement | Ensure the most important points and CTAs sit above your average scroll depth. |
| Video viewing volumes | Engagement | Giving time to your videos indicates interest: nudge viewers to engage further, e.g download, register for an event, or request a meeting. |
| Listen rate per podcast | Convert engagement | Competition ‘for their ear’ is hot. Nudge listeners to engage further, e.g engage in other content, register for an event, or request a meeting. |
| Podcast listen-through rate | Engagement | Actually listening shows follow-through. Evaluate which episodes have this effect. |
| Web visitor return rate | Engagement | Returning for more shows deeper interest in your offering: set targets and monitor content changes. |
2. Consultant Relations
| CX KPI | Goal | Use case(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Strategies with 1 or more buy rating | Engagement | Consultants influence asset managers' reputations: set targets, leverage ratings to gain new ones, and inform product rationalisation. |
| Buy ratings per rated strategy | Engagement | In addition to the use cases for 4.01, identify key consultant dependencies. |
3. Events
| CX KPI | Goal | Use case(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Event attendance | Engagement | Target an attendance level that your sales team can feasibly manage and hold follow-up meetings with. |
| Event turn-up rate | Convert engagement | Actually turning up demonstrates commitment to your chosen topic. Use it to evaluate an event's effectiveness. |
4. RFPs
| CX KPI | Goal | Use case(s) |
|---|---|---|
| RFP / RFI success rate | Convert engagement | Target the Benchmark average or more. More implies effective RFP selection and quality, and vice versa. |
| Time to complete an RFP | Service delivery | Plan your capacity and exceptions around an average RFP delivery. |
5. Sales conversion
| CX KPI | Goal | Use case(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Buy: sales conversion rate from RFP | Transfer of money | Sales conversion capability needs to be average or better: set targets and conduct win/loss analyses. |
| Buy: pitch win rate | Transfer of money | Evaluate sales staff and assign the best pitchers to the growth accounts. |
6. Onboarding
| CX KPI | Goal | Use case(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Onboarding median duration – pooled | Service delivery | A day in onboarding is a day of foregone revenue. Use the median to plan resources and cash flows. |
| Onboarding median duration – segregated | Service delivery | A day in onboarding is a day of foregone revenue. Use the median to plan resources and cash flows. |
7. Reporting
| CX KPI | Goal | Use case(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Investment report fulfilment and timeliness | Service delivery | Timeliness and fulfilment can and do deteriorate. Act fast to minimise issues for clients and distributors. |
| Factsheet fulfilment and timeliness | Service delivery | Timeliness and fulfilment can and do deteriorate. Act fast to minimise issues for clients and distributors. |
8. Client portal usage
| CX KPI | Goal | Use case(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Client portal visits per user | Engagement | Evaluate your digital experience by comparing average visit frequency against portal functionality. |
9. Relationship management
| CX KPI | Goal | Use case(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Top tier client meeting volumes | Convert engagement | 4 meetings per year = quarterly investment reviews. >4 = discretionary meetings that influence client retention and cross-selling. |
| Complaints per client | Convert engagement | Act fast if your level of complaints exceeds the industry norm. |
| Stay: client tenure | Transfer of money | Aim to be just above average: too low and your cost of sale may be high; too high and you may not grow. |
| Buy more: mandates and products per client | Transfer of money | Aim to be just above average: higher if you are on the defensive; lower if you are on the offensive. |
From KPI theory to ROI
If these CX KPI use cases apply to your organization, then the Benchmark will add value by showing you the levels you need to attain in order to meet the goals in the use cases. This assessment of applicability is something that firms evaluate through their CX Data Maturity Audit when they join the Benchmark.
Once in the Benchmark, we also map each use case to the most common components of CX strategies:
- Be client centric.
- Deepen client engagement.
- Stand out.
We have chosen not to include this mapping in the table above as it would make it unnecessarily busy. But if you would like to learn more about this, book a personal tour and we show you this in action.
Developing this theme that not all CX KPI use cases are equal, never forget that CX is about the interplay between time and money. This makes a few metrics dollarizable (high-ROI) and enables you to focus on changes to whether clients buy, stay, and buy more as a result of your engagement plan.
Only action will create ROI
To conclude, while data is valuable and insights are vital, we should all remember that, no matter the topic, only action will create ROI.
Talking of action, to see the Benchmark’s CX KPI use cases in action, check out the demo video for an example of the value of ‘use case-driven client insights’.
If you still have questions on this subject, please send us an email or book a personal tour.
Frequently asked questions
1. Why do KPIs need use cases?
Without use cases, KPIs become reporting theatre – data without decisions – wasting time, money, and credibility. When you develop KPIs with use cases, they can initiate a virtuous cycle by creating accountability and signalling the required action.
2. What makes a KPI use case valuable?
A good use case links the metric to an owner, decision, action, and learning, ensuring strategy turns into measurable results. Here is a practical template: for each KPI, specify “who wants to do what with the metric, and why.”
3. How many CX KPI use cases should asset managers track?
The Accomplish CX Benchmark identifies 28 proven use cases and summarizes them in an executive scorecard covering the pre- and post-sale client experiences.
4. How do KPI use cases connect to ROI?
Converting data into insight is vital, but it is not the same as creating ROI: only action in response to the insight can generate ROI. Some use cases relate to ‘gifts of time’ (also known as ‘client engagement’), while others relate to transfers of money, such as when a client buys, stays, or buys more, making them directly relevant to ROI calculations.
5. How can firms strengthen their CX KPI use cases?
Download Accomplish’s CX Data Maturity Audit, copy the use cases, and start measuring. Don’t forget to run your numbers through the CX Benchmark; once you have them, you will want to find out if they are outperforming or not.
