The Feedback Flywheel
Written by: Sandra Ditski – Digital Efficiency Consulting Group – DECG
Read Time: 3 min
If metrics are your only feedback tool, you end up with a dashboard full of numbers and a room full of guessing. If verbatims are your only tool, you end up with a wall of opinions and no sense of scale. The trick is pairing the ‘what’ and the ‘why.’
The three core signals (and what they’re good for)
- NPS: Relationship health. Would someone recommend you, and are they willing to attach their reputation to your brand?
- CSAT: Interaction quality. Did this specific experience meet expectations?
- CES: Friction. How hard did you make it for someone to get value?
These are not competing religions. They’re lenses. Use NPS to spot relationship drift, CSAT to diagnose specific touchpoints, and CES to hunt friction like it owes you money.
The missing half: verbatims
A score can tell you the temperature. A verbatim tells you which room is on fire.
- Add a single follow-up question: “What’s the main reason for your score?”
- Tag responses by theme (billing, onboarding, speed, clarity, product gaps).
- Trend themes monthly so qualitative data becomes measurable.
A simple scoreboard that won’t eat your life
Here’s a lightweight structure that works for most teams without turning your calendar into a spreadsheet hostage situation.
- Pick one primary metric for the moment (e.g., CSAT for support, CES for onboarding).
- Define ‘moments of truth’ and measure right after them.
- Review trends weekly (15 minutes), and themes monthly (45 minutes).
- Share one slide: one chart + three themes + one action you’re taking.
What to watch for
- Score stable, churn rising: you’re not hearing from the silent majority. Improve sampling and exit feedback.
- Score down, verbatims unclear: your questions are too vague. Tighten the prompt and timing.
- Score up, cost-to-serve up: you’re buying happiness with manual heroics. Fix root causes.
CTA: Pick one moment of truth and run NPS or CSAT for 30 days with one open-ended question. Tag the verbatims and see what repeats.
When to use which metric
Here’s the cleanest way to avoid ‘metric soup.’ Tie each metric to a specific decision and a specific team.
- NPS: executive + product/ops, quarterly trend, churn risk and loyalty themes.
- CSAT: support + onboarding, weekly trend, interaction quality and coaching.
- CES: ops + product, weekly trend, friction reduction and self-serve.
Examples that keep it simple
- Support CSAT: “How satisfied were you with the resolution?” (1–5) + “What could we do better?”
- Onboarding CES: “How easy was it to get started?” (1–5) + “What slowed you down?”
- NPS: “How likely are you to recommend us?” (0–10) + “What’s the main reason?”
The ‘don’t game it’ rule
If you reward people for the score, you’ll get the score. You’ll also get some creative behavior that belongs in a museum of unintended consequences.
- Reward teams for improvements shipped, not scores alone.
- Use verbatim themes as the coaching tool, not the scoreboard.
- Treat outliers as investigations, not punishments.
Theme tagging cheat sheet
If you don’t tag verbatims, you can’t trend them. Start with a short list and evolve it.
- Clarity: customers didn’t understand what to do next.
- Speed: response time, turnaround, waiting.
- Handoff: ‘I had to repeat myself’ or ‘I got bounced.’
- Billing: surprise charges, invoices, terms.
- Product gap: missing feature, broken behavior.
- Trust: ‘I’m not confident this will work’ signals.
Limit themes to 8 or fewer. If you need 42 themes, you’re writing a novel, not running a program.
CTA: Run one metric + one verbatim question for 30 days, then tag themes and act on the repeat offenders.
Footnotes
- Jeannie Walters, “3 Core Customer Experience Metrics” (LinkedIn Pulse; accessed Jan 9, 2026). URL: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/3-core-customer-experience-metrics-jeannie-walters-ccxp/
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