How I Hacked Credit for Business

Building credit for business purposes can seem like an unbreakable barrier. You need to get accounts reporting on-time payments to at least one credit reporting agency to build a strong business credit score. Yet, credit providers want to see a strong business credit score before they will approve you for a credit account.

If you know the secret formula you can hack the cycle, skip over a ton of wasted time and energy, and jump straight to the business of building credit for your business.

Here are 5 ways I hacked my way to building business credit.

Hack #1: I Set Up a Fundable Foundation

A business credit report and a personal credit report are different in a number of ways. One of the biggest differences is that your personal credit builds passively. You can bet with your first credit account, that account is reporting your payment history to your credit report. It’s just there, and it builds passively.

Reporting Credit for Business Is Different

Credit for business is completely different. Just having a business and having debt that you make payments on doesn’t mean you have a business credit report. Where are those payments reported? Well, if they are reported at all, it’s likely on your consumer credit.

Before a credit provider will report to your business credit report, you have to set up your company properly.

Building a Fundable Foundation

This began with making sure the business had its own contact information, separate from my personal information. Next, I got an EIN for free from the IRS. The next step was to incorporate. Operating as a sole proprietor or partnership doesn’t offer the separation you need for Fundability.

After that, I opened a separate bank account for my business and got a D-U-N-S from Dun & Bradstreet. Then I hired a professional to ensure my website was awesome, and made sure my business email had the same URL as the website.

Hack #2: I Took Charge of My Personal Credit Score to Help Build My Business Credit Score

I got my free copy of my consumer credit reports from the business credit reporting agencies. I needed to be sure my consumer credit scores weren’t being dragged down by poor payment history or any other negative entries.

Also, remember that there are a lot of things that can affect your personal credit score. Business credit scores, once established, are pretty much only affected by payment history. The more on-time payments reported to the business credit reporting agencies, the better your score gets.

In contrast, personal credit is affected by:

Hard inquiries
How much credit you are using versus how much you have available to use
Average age of credit accounts
Even the account mix, or how many different types of accounts you have

This is all in addition to payment history. Why is personal credit important if credit for business is separate? First, most traditional lenders will check both scores. But also, at least two business credit bureaus, FICO SBSS and Experian, use personal credit in their formula for calculating business credit score.

Both Types of Credit Score Are Important

As a result, it is just as important to your business credit file as it is to your consumer credit file to keep your personal score strong. First and foremost, make those payments consistently on time. But also, watch how much available credit you are using at one time. Don’t keep balances too close to limits.

Then, try to have a good mix. All credit cards or all auto loans can have a negative impact. A mortgage, an auto loan, a couple of credit cards and maybe a HELOC could be a good mix.

And remember, every time you open a new account, you get a hard inquiry and the average age of accounts goes down. That doesn’t mean never opening anything new, but definitely be mindful of the impact.

Hack #3: I Checked My Business Credit Reports

First I had to be sure I even had one. Then, I knew that even without much of a payment history, my business credit reports could potentially show a low PAYDEX score or Financial Stress score. I wanted to be sure my Dun & Bradstreet credit reports were correct and complete.

Also, I wanted to see if my Equifax business credit scores were right, and my Experian business credit score was correctly reflecting my company’s credit history. I figured I could deal with the other credit reporting agencies later. First, I needed to see what my credit history looked like at that moment.

Monitoring Business Credit

Business credit reporting is a different animal altogether. You do not get free business credit reports from a business credit reporting agency. You can pay individual credit bureaus, but it can be pricey. Credit suite offers a monitoring package for a fraction of what you would pay with an individual business credit reporting agency.

It allows you to keep up with your business credit score from the top three business credit bureaus. Those are Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, and Equifax. You should be able to see your PAYDEX from Dun & Bradstreet, and any other score these three offer, such as your business credit risk score and your business failure score.

What To Look For

At the first look, scan for anything that could be blocking you. Any inconsistent or inaccurate information can cause a problem. Then, note how many accounts you have reporting so you know where you stand.

It’s important to note there are other business credit bureaus, but the only other one that is used with any regularity is FICO SBSS.

Other Important Agencies

There are other agencies that collect information that can affect your credit for business. For example, the Small Business Finance Exchange and LexisNexis both have information relating to public records and even insurance. Though they do not issue credit reports directly, business credit bureaus have access to this information. If it’s out there, they know, and it can make a difference in funding approval.

You can’t really do anything about the information they have. But start now ensuring they get only positive data. That will help counteract any old negative information.

Hack #4: I Got Accounts Which I Knew Would Report to One or More Credit Bureau for Business

Getting vendor accounts and business credit cards that report to one or more business credit bureaus is a proven way to build business credit. Still, it is easier said than done. Most vendors and credit cards do not advertise that they report to a business credit bureau.

How to Find Accounts that Report

Credit Suite keeps a database of fully vetted vendors that they know report. This includes which credit reporting agency or agencies they report to. Better yet, they divide them by which ones you can qualify to get at each stage of building credit for business.

For example, the first set of vendors, called Tier 1, or starter vendors, will not do a credit check. They base approval on other factors, such as time in business and revenue. That means they are perfect for businesses that are just starting the process.

Of course you can do it on your own, but it can take forever and may not even work. Applying to accounts randomly and hoping you meet approval requirements, then if you do meet them hoping they report on-time payments, is not effective or efficient. You could apply for accounts for years and still not have a strong business credit report.

Hack #5: I Continued to Check My Reports at the Major Business Credit Bureaus

I knew I didn’t have the time to look at my Equifax, Experian, and Dun & Bradstreet business credit files all day, every day. I needed a system to know when it mattered to check my credit for business accounts.

This is yet another way the Credit Suite can be a huge asset to a small business. Their monitoring service allows you to check scores, and they help you figure out what is blocking you if you run into problems. For example, sometimes public records can cause issues.

Bonus Hack: I Diversified and Helped My Commercial Credit Bureau Scores by Getting a Business Loan

Once my small business financial statements were strong, and I had strong credit for business, I could prove my business’s financial stability. As a result, I was able to get more money than I know other businesses like mine often do.

That’s the thing about business credit. It’s not the only piece of the puzzle, but it is a big piece of the business funding puzzle. If all of the other factors a lender considers is borderline, a strong business score can put a small business over the line into approval range. As a result, you are able to access more credit for business purposes than you would be otherwise.

If everything else is in range, a strong small business credit profile can help get better terms and interest rates. This is why as a business owner, it’s important to take all credit information into account.

Not only does the success of small businesses depend on the personal credit reports of the business owner, but the business needs to have its own credit information as well.

Hack Credit for Business With Our Help

Credit Suite is a one stop shop for hacking business credit. When we start with a new small business owner looking to build business credit, we first figure out where they are right now. That means looking at your company’s credit report and your personal report.

If you need to build a Fundable Foundation, we walk you step by step through that process. If you are already past that, we jump right in to helping you find accounts that report. That may mean starting with vendors, or you may be ready for a business credit card.

As you work through the process, we help you keep up with your business credit information so you can see your progress. As your PAYDEX score and other business scores grow, you’ll notice you will typically not have any problem getting funding.

What is the secret to hacking business credit? I made it easy for you. It’s a Credit Suite! Find out more now.

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When Police Make a 'Wrong Decision'

Uvalde officers are under scrutiny for delay in stopping the school shooter.

The post When Police Make a 'Wrong Decision' appeared first on #1 SEO FOR SMALL BUSINESSES.

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AssemblyAI (YC S17) is hiring senior engineers to build ML systems at scale

Hey HN —

We’re AssemblyAI – and we’re building APIs to transcribe and understand audio data. Some notes about us:

– Just raised a $28M Series A from Accel, YC, Stripe founders, Nat Friedman, and Daniel Gross (raised $36M total to date)
– Grew revenue 4x in the past year
– Have hundreds of paying customers (startups and Fortune 500s), and thousands of developers using our APIs

We’re processing millions of audio files every day with our ML models, and are growing very quickly. We’re looking for experienced backend developers to help us scale. Some technical notes about us:

– We train very large deep learning models on our own A100 hardware in PyTorch
– We deploy our models to AWS, and run thousands of GPUs/CPUs in production, handling millions of API requests every day
– Most of our backend is written in Python

What we’re looking for:

– Strong python experience
– Experience building distributed systems at large scale
– Experience with modern ML is a plus

If you’re intersted, we’d love to talk! You can email our founder directly and we’ll make sure our recruiting team reaches out:

dylan [ at ] assemblyai [ dot ] com

Please include “HN job post” somewhere in your subject line for expedited processing!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31558533

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Monkeypox presents moderate risk to global public health, WHO says

In a report issued Sunday, the WHO gave a breakdown of the monkeypox virus’ side effects, transmissibility and its presence in countries worldwide.

New comment by anuhyareddy_123 in "Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (May 2022)"

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Herta cleared to race in Indy 500 after crash

IndyCar medical has cleared driver Colton Herta to race in Sunday’s Indianapolis 500, two days after he flipped his car in a harrowing end-over-end crash. The post Herta cleared to race in Indy 500 after crash appeared first on Buy It At A Bargain – Deals And Reviews.

Mercedes wants to cut one of its F1 customers

Mercedes Formula One boss Toto Wolff said he wants to cut from three to two the number of non-factory teams that race with its engines.

The post Mercedes wants to cut one of its F1 customers appeared first on Buy It At A Bargain – Deals And Reviews.

Herta cleared to race in Indy 500 after crash

IndyCar medical has cleared driver Colton Herta to race in Sunday’s Indianapolis 500, two days after he flipped his car in a harrowing end-over-end crash.

The post Herta cleared to race in Indy 500 after crash appeared first on Buy It At A Bargain – Deals And Reviews.

Wix Review

Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.

Wix is an exceptional website builder, allowing you to create a highly functional and professional website with zero coding experience. Even web developers have access to numerous tools to enhance their site’s customization and functionality.

In my opinion, Wix is the best website builder for general use, whether you are a photographer, musician, restaurateur, blogger, or just setting up a small ecommerce business.

Wix Compared To The Best Website Builders

While most website builders tend to focus on niche markets like ecommerce or content management, Wix is a jack of all trades. This website builder casts a wide net, making it attractive to all kinds of people who need professional-looking websites quickly and cheaply.

Whether you are a seasoned restaurateur looking to promote your business, a startup venturing into your first online enterprise, or an experienced web developer without the time or resources to create a website from scratch, Wix will work for you.

Be sure to see all of my top picks for the best website builders before you decide Wix is the best option for you. There, I review three more services in separate categories and include an in-depth guide focusing on different types of website builders, what criteria you should consider when choosing the best website builder, and more.

Who Is Wix Best For?

While it is easy to be transfixed by Wix’s marketing and features, the truth is this website builder targets a particular audience.

Wix works exceptionally well for individuals or small businesses that want a professional website but don’t want to bother with hiring a web developer, registering a domain name, finding a web hosting company, and all that goes into setting up a professional website.

Wix does a great job of making an online presence more accessible to small businesses and individuals.

Wix websites are attractive, relatively cheap, and quick to set up. Wix also caters to diverse niches, including blogging, photography, ecommerce, music, events, hospitality, bookings, restaurants, forums, and much more.

Wix’s industry-specific themes, design templates, tools, and resources often feel like the company had you in mind when creating its platform. However, this all-inclusive take on website building is also Wix’s Achilles heel.

The platform simply doesn’t offer sufficient functionality and scalability for larger businesses and bigger ecommerce websites. For this, Shopify would be a much better option.

Wix: The Pros and Cons

One of Wix’s best-defining features is the freedom it offers. You can create your ideal site, down to your preferred pixelation.

While freedom is a good thing, newbies may find the design potential slightly overwhelming. Wix remedies this by offering extensive resources, including step-by-step tutorials, videos, articles, and a wealth of information to help you grasp the editor.

Wix also has unique elements that you don’t see very often with website builders. For example, the Repeater feature allows you to easily replicate elements for list items with a similar layout and design but different content.

One major challenge when using a website builder is differentiating your website from competitors using the same themes and templates. Wix offers far more customization options than Weebly and certain other competitors.

You can tell that Wix prioritizes the user’s ability to create unique websites. The design possibilities are endless, especially in the hands of a seasoned developer.

Pros

Intuitive Interface: While the drag-and-drop feature is hardly a revolutionary concept among website builders, Wix succeeds in this regard. You have unbridled freedom to move elements around with few restrictions. Additionally, the platform offers guidelines to help you get the hang of the tools and templates. Wix also lets you preview your mobile site rather than cross your fingers that the mobile site will be just as good as the desktop version.

Robust App Market: Wix has plenty of built-in tools to get started, but you might need more functionality in your site. Wix has a highly populated app market that offers apps and widgets for almost any functionality you can think of, including events bookings, live chat, newsletter, blogging, opt-in forms, pop-ups, online ads, forums, and much more. The app market offers more than 250 integrations covering almost every conceivable area of your online presence.

Built-In SEO: It’s one thing to create a beautiful website, but an entirely different territory getting your site in front of eyeballs. You can fill in metadata and keyword tags related to your niche, and Wix will help you rank in the search engines. Additionally, Wix lets you edit your URL format for each page to boost your site’s Google ranking. If you aren’t quite ready to invest in SEO, Wix is a good start and requires minimal effort on your part.

Exceptional Security: Something few people think about when building their website is how to protect the data of your site and that of your site’s visitors. Good thing is, with Wix, you don’t even have to. Their managed security elements, including built-in TLS 1.3 encryption and DDoS protection, secure ecommerce payments, and keeping all platform elements compliant with the highest industry standards, mean you won’t have to lift a finger to ensure your site is secure.

A Reliable Platform: Wix puts in the work to make sure the sites their users create are reliably available. Through 24/7 platform monitoring and their powerful array of data centers, you’ll almost certainly never experience downtime for any site you build on Wix. They also offer auto-scaling technology so your site can handle big, sudden rushes of traffic with no degradation of the user experience. Wix even automates backups of your site data, so if anything does go awry, you can restore everything had before and continue along as normal.

Tons of Templates: Wix offers 500+ industry-specific templates to help you build your website. Wix lets you sort and select templates by industry to narrow down your options, including tourism and travel, corporate, photography, ecommerce, music, and more. The templates are all high-quality and designer made. If you are worried about boiler-plate offerings, these templates are highly customizable. You can edit content, change the site name, delete sections, replace images, and tweak the template to make it your own. Wix has one of the largest template libraries of any website builder out there.

Flexible Plans: Wix has an affordable entry-level plan if you need to create a basic personal website. Should you need more functionality, simply upgrade to a premium plan for as low as $4.50 per month. Also, Wix won’t lock you into a contract. Many website builders need you to commit to a 24 or 36-month contract for premium features. With Wix, you can choose to cancel your subscription at any time. This flexibility works particularly well if you aren’t sure about the direction you want to take with your web presence.

All-in-One Solution: With your Wix subscription, you don’t have to worry about web hosting, domain*, SSL certificate, downtime, security, website speed, or any of the practical elements of running a website. Wix takes care of all that for you, included in your monthly subscription. The platform also has a very responsive customer support team to help you with your site’s problems. You can contact customer support via email, chat, or direct phone call.

*Wix offers a free domain voucher valid for one year with most subscriptions. Domain extensions include .com, .org, .net, .biz, .xyz, .space, .pictures, .co.uk, and .info.

Cons

No Unlimited Plans: A sizable number of website builders offer unlimited storage or unlimited bandwidth. Although Wix provides unlimited bandwidth for its Business and Ecommerce plans, there is still a storage limit. This omission reinforces my opinion that Wix is meant for individuals and small businesses rather than large ecommerce enterprises.

Inflexible Templates Once Live: You can customize your Wix’s website templates to your heart’s content, but once you are locked in, that’s it. You cannot change your template once your site goes live. While this might not be such a big problem for a personal website, it can spell trouble down the line for an online business that continues to grow, morph, and evolve over the years.

You Can’t Export Your Website: To piggyback on the con above, Wix can lock you into a long-term commitment even without a contract. Once on the Wix platform, you are locked in for life. You cannot transfer or export your website to another platform. Again, this may not be a big deal for a small business or an individual. However, a fast-growing startup will have problems down the line if Wix can no longer meet its needs.

Wix Pricing

Wix paid plans fall into two categories; Website Plans and Business & Ecommerce Plans. Each category has individual tiers, as you will soon discover.

Before I get to the nitty-gritty of Wix’s pricing structure, there are a couple of things worth mentioning.

First, Wix’s advertised pricing is based on an annual subscription. You have the option of paying month-by-month, but it will cost more. Don’t be surprised if your monthly billing is a little higher than advertised on the website. It’s all in the fine print.

Secondly, your free domain is only available for one year. After that, you have to pay an annual premium. Additionally, you are only eligible for the free domain if you pay for the whole year in advance. You lose out on the offer if you choose the month-to-month payments.

Wix Website Plans

Connect Domain

Starting from the far right, Connect Domain is the most basic plan. This option costs $4.50 per month and doesn’t come with a free domain. Also, your website will display Wix ads. You can still connect your existing or custom domain name to your Wix site. This plan also comes with:

24/7 customer care
Free SSL certificate
500MB storage space
1GB bandwidth

Some of the features you’ll be giving up here include the ability to upload and stream videos on your site, site booster app, social media logo files, and visitor analytics app (SEO tool).

I only recommend this option if you want to put together a simple informational website or portfolio at the lowest possible price. However, considering that you’d have severely limited bandwidth, Wix ads, and a Wix-branded URL, this isn’t the kind of site that could conceivably rank high on Google. There are very limited use-cases for this plan.

Combo

This option costs $8.50 per month and is an excellent alternative to the Connect Domain for a simple personal website. This plan comes with a free domain, or you connect a custom domain.

This option offers 2GB bandwidth, 3GB storage space, 24/7 customer care, and 30 minutes of video. However, you’ll be losing out on social medial logo files, a visitor analytics app, a site booster app, and a professional logo.

Ultimately, you are getting a good deal for a low-traffic but professionally done website. You can always upgrade to a higher plan should your needs change.

Unlimited

This Wix plan targets freelancers and entrepreneurs. It will cost $12.50 per month in exchange for 10 GB of storage space and unlimited bandwidth. You also get a free SSL certificate, no Wix ads, a free domain for one year, one video hour, a visitor analytics app, and a site booster app.

If you want to start a professional website or online business, the unlimited plan will serve your needs better than the Combo plan for a nominal price hike.

VIP

The price shoots up rather drastically with the Wix VIP plan. This one costs $24.50 per month. For the price, you get all the features not included in the other plans and some add-ons. These include:

Free domain for one year
Remove Wix Ads
Unlimited bandwidth
35GB storage space
Free SSL certificate
Social medial logo files
Visitor analytics app
Five video hours
Professional logo
24/7 customer care

I recommend this plan for an established business wanting to make its online presence.

Wix Business & eCommerce Plans

If you plan to accept online payments, Wix offers three tiers under its Business & Ecommerce Plans.

All business and ecommerce subscriptions offer:

Secure online payments
Customer accounts
Plans & recurring payments
Remove Wix ads
Custom domain
Free domain for one year
Video hours
Unlimited bandwidth

Business Basic

This plan costs $17 per month and offers 20GB storage space and five video hours in addition to the above-listed features.

Business Unlimited

You get all the Wix Business Basic features, except this time, you get an additional 15GB (35GB total) storage space. This plan costs $25 per month and guarantees ten video hours instead of five. The distinction between the two plans in terms of offerings is negligible in most cases.

I suggest you start with the Wix Business Basic plan and only upgrade to Business Unlimited if you have good reason to do so.

Business VIP

This tier costs $35 per month. The most prominent upgrade is proprietary customer care. If you value customer support or have nightmares of your site going down at a critical hour, this is the plan for you.

Additionally, Wix Business VIP allows you to create customized reports from the data you collect. This functionality isn’t available on any of the other business and ecommerce plans. Additionally, you get unlimited video hours on this plan.

I recommend Business VIP for established businesses.

Wix Product Offerings

Wix allows people with little to no coding experience to create a website from scratch. To this end, Wix offers all the features you would need to create a professional website.

Wix Editor

The Wix editor is the platform’s main feature, allowing you to create a website from scratch with little or no coding experience. This editor is among the most robust out there, and is intuitive and feature-packed, and can handle just about any kind of website you throw at it.

The Wix editor offers more than 500 designer-made and industry-specific templates. You can browse through the templates based on industry to make things easier. You get total design freedom, including dragging and dropping template elements to get the perfect site.

Suppose you’re worried about your site looking the same as everyone else’s. In that case, Wix allows you to add scroll effects, video backgrounds, animation and display your text and videos. You can also choose from more than 100 fonts with the option to upload your own.

Wix also lets you create a mobile-optimized site independently of your desktop site. Additionally, the Wix Mobile app lets work on your site from a smartphone (hopefully one with a large screen!) or a tablet.

Overall, Wix offers excellent design flexibility without being too overwhelming for newbies. This website builder treads the thin line between being feature-rich and easy to use.

Wix Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI)

If you are pressed for time or the platform’s functionality is proving a little overwhelming, Wix can literally build the site for you.

The ADI offers a hands-off approach to customized website building. Simply enter your social media profiles (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.) or website. The AI will extract business information from these pages and create the first draft of your website.

You can then tweak and customize the site to fit precisely what you are looking for. To make your job even easier, the ADI feature offers helpful tips and prompts throughout the process to help you create the perfect website.

Wix succeeds at pushing boundaries, and this Wix ADI is a feature you won’t see too often on the market.

Velo by Wix

Although Wix primarily focuses on people with minimal to no experience creating a website, this platform does have something for amateurs and more experienced web developers.

Velo by Wix offers more freedom to create the website just how you want it. Wix lets you use your source control tools and code editors and work in your environment of choice or online.

Additionally, you can use external data sources or use Wix’s integrated databases. Velo by Wix uses an open platform, allowing you to connect to an external data source and third-party data sources.

Wix Professional Suite of Features

Wix has all the tools you would need to create and maintain your website. Most plans offer a free custom domain name with the option to connect your existing domain. You also get free website hosting and a professional mailbox complete with a personalized email to match your brand and domain name.

Additionally, Wix offers contact management to help you collect and manage contacts and subscribers from a single dashboard. Additional features include:

SSL Certificate: Wix offers a free SSL certificate to help you with website security and search engine optimization.

Social Tools: You can easily connect all your social media accounts to your Wix website.

Analytics: Wix keeps track of your web performance, including in-depth stats to help you make data-driven decisions.

Considering that Wix mostly targets small businesses, freelancers, and individuals, it’s hard to fault its feature suit. Its all-in-one approach to website building takes a huge load off your back when creating your online presence.

Wix Business and Ecommerce

Another area where Wix excels is its industry-specific offerings for businesses and ecommerce sites. First, Wix lets you build an online store from scratch. Ecommerce features include a storefront, order-tracking, customized shipping and tax rules, coupons and discounts, and multiple payment methods, among other features.

While these features work well for a small business, Wix isn’t well suited to a large online business that relies primarily on online sales. For starters, Wix only supports a handful of payment methods. There is a good chance a large company will need the help of third-party payment gateways to get around this limitation.

Additionally, its built-in ecommerce features aren’t all that powerful compared to competitors such as Shopify.

On the upside, the industry-specific ecommerce offerings include:

Wix Booking
Wix Stores
Wix Blog
Wix Music
Wix Photography
Wix Events
Wix Videos
Wix Restaurants

With these options, you get industry-specific templates, features, and functionality. This system makes your work so much easier.

For example, Wix Bookings allows you to accept online payments, accept bookings around the clock, and send auto-reminder emails to your clients. Wix Photography lets you tweak your image’s sharpness and quality, secure your photos with built-in watermarks, and display your pictures in over 30 galleries.

You may need a more robust website builder for a large ecommerce store. However, for a small business, professional blog, or freelance business, Wix ticks all the boxes.

The Best Website Builders

To get a more comprehensive view of how Wix stacks up to the competition, please be sure to check out my Top 4 Best Website Builders post.

Wix – Best for general use
Weebly – Best for beginners
Shopify – Best for eCommerce
WordPress – Best for content management

Overall, Wix is an exceptional website builder for a select group of people, including small business owners, freelancers, professionals, and bloggers. While Wix also works well for small ecommerce businesses, you may need to look elsewhere if you are creating a sizable online enterprise. Wix is user-friendly, highly functional, and offers excellent value for money.

Customer Experience Analytics: Measure What Works and Make Improvements That Last

Do you want a simple way to refine your customer experience? Then look at your CX analytics.

The data doesn’t lie. It tells you what you’re doing right and what you’re doing wrong. Once you’re armed with your customer experience analytics, you gain the necessary information to offer prospects and buyers the best possible care.

When you provide a stellar customer experience, you boost efficiency and humanize your service while enhancing loyalty and recommendations.

Yet, according to a report from PWC, 54 percent of consumers feel the customer experience at many businesses needs improvement.

However, there are more benefits to examining your CX analytics.

For example, 44.5 percent of global organizations feel that an amazing CX differentiates them from competitors, and who doesn’t want to stand out and get noticed?

Now you know the importance of customer experience analytics. In this article, I explain which ones you should measure and why they’re so crucial to your business.

What Is Customer Experience Analytics?

Customer experience (CX) analytics uses customer data to improve customer interactions.

You can use the data to track customer behavior and preferences to better understand how customers interact with your company and its products or services. You can then use this information to improve the CX by changing designs, the way you market to customers, or how you deliver your products or services.

There are many different ways to collect customer data. Analytics tools for customer experience often use various data sources. However, some of the most common sources include website visits, purchase histories, contact centers, and social media data.

Benefits of Tracking Customer Experience Analytics

By understanding customer behavior and preferences, analytics for customer experience can help businesses deliver a better CX faster and more consistently. Additionally, CX analytics can contribute to a positive customer experience by identifying and resolving issues early.

Below are just some of the benefits of tracking your analytics.

Customer satisfaction tracking: Perhaps the most crucial benefit is that customer experience analytics can track customer satisfaction over time. This information enables companies to identify areas where they need to make changes to keep their customers happy.

Understanding customer interactions: By analyzing your data, customer experience analytics lets you understand how customers interact with your products/services. You can then use this information to enhance the customer experience and increase sales.

Lower customer churn: When you use them correctly, customer experience analytics improve the CX and lower churn rates by increasing retention. For example, if many customers are contacting customer service about a particular issue, you can address it. This aspect is vital because consumer demand for a positive CX is increasing. However, Zendesk says 54 percent of shoppers feel businesses see it as an afterthought.

Enhanced loyalty through targeting: Understanding customer behavior lets you create targeted marketing campaigns that are more likely to convert leads into customers and encourage loyalty.

Increased value and lower spending: Predictive customer experience analytics can identify high-value customers in terms of lifetime value and customer satisfaction. However, it also finds high value, dissatisfied customers. When this information is clear, it allows you to spend money strategically and save money. McKinsey cites one example of a company that shaved over 25 percent off its planned budget using this technique.

Metrics to Consider for Customer Experience Analytics

Customer experience analytics (CEA) is a growing field. With that in mind, it’s important to choose the right metrics and analytics tools for customer experience to measure customer CX to get the most accurate results.

While there are multiple metrics you could focus on, to keep it simple, we’re going to focus on six of the most valuable.

Let’s begin with the promoter score.

1. Promoter Score (NPS)

To arrive at your promoter score (NPS), you look at your customer feedback and customer loyalty.

While there are many ways to calculate NPS, the most common is to use a 1-10 scale, where 1 is very dissatisfied, and 10 is very satisfied. To get an accurate reading, it’s important to ask customers how likely they are to recommend your company on this scale.

Metrics to Consider for Customer Experience Analytics - Promoter Score (NPS)

You could also use a free calculator or a tool from this list.

The higher your NPS score is, the better your customer retention, brand awareness, and customer acquisition.

An excellent example is the jewelry company, Taylor and Hart.

They consider NPS as their most important metric. By focusing on it, breaking it down, and applying the data, the company experienced a 70 percent increase in revenue.

Although you can’t guarantee the same results, you can take the same approach as Taylor and Hart by:

identifying your most crucial metrics and compiling the data
organizing the data, and rating your NPS
keep tracking your NPS and making changes

By tracking the NPS, the company:

spotted patterns for its most popular designs
found its top customer types, and average revenues
identified geographical campaigns and how customers found them
optimized their advertising

2. Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

CSAT is a numeric representation of satisfied customers with a given product or service.

Many companies use customer satisfaction scores (CSAT) to track their customers’ overall happiness and identify areas where they need to make improvements.

When you track your CSAT customer experience analytics, you:

discover unsatisfied vs. satisfied customers
prioritize areas of your business that need improvement
enhance your internal processes.
guide future product development

However, despite CSAT being one of the most essential customer experience analytics, Gartner found that more than 70 percent of “CX leaders struggle to design projects that increase customer loyalty and achieve results.”

There are several different ways to collect CSAT data, but the most common way is to ask customers to rate their satisfaction on a scale from 1 to 10. You can do this through surveys, feedback forms, or chatbots. Alternatively, you can use a free calculator.

You should be aiming for a CSAT score of 75-85 percent. However, there are some variations between categories.

3. Customer Effort Score (CES)

The customer effort score (CES) metric measures how much effort a customer perceives they expend when interacting with a company.

You calculate CES by averaging the responses to questions about how much effort the customer felt they exerted during their most recent interaction with your company.

By identifying areas where customers are experiencing high levels of effort, businesses can focus on making changes to reduce the amount of work customers have to do to get what they want.

But there’s more to it.

When you get your CES right, it improves customer satisfaction, and loyalty, and lowers costs associated with handling customer complaints or support requests.

In addition, according to Gartner, when CES is high:

NPS improves
repurchase rates increase by up to 94 percent
employee retention improves

Your CES score is also more accurate than understanding customer satisfaction rates.

Andrew Schumacher, Senior Principal, Advisory, Gartner, says:

“Customer effort is 40 percent more accurate at predicting customer loyalty as opposed to customer satisfaction,

Calculate your CES with this free calculator. There is no standardized CES score, but the higher the better.

4. Churn Rate

Churn rate is an essential metric for companies to track because it provides insights into why customers leave and what you can do to retain them. Most businesses focus on this metric because a high customer churn is costly and leads to lost revenue.

There are several ways to calculate customer churn rate, but the most common is to divide the number of customers who have discontinued their relationship with you by the total number of customers at the beginning of the period. This gives you a percentage of how many customers have leftover a given period.

The average churn rate is 5-7 percent, while ten is high. However, it does depend on the industry. For instance, the average churn rate for online retail is 22 percent, while it’s 11 percent for big-box electronics.

customer service analytics on churn rate from Statista

You can calculate your churn rate online. If it’s high, delve into your CX analytics and look for patterns.

Remember, several factors contribute to churn rate, and businesses can take steps to reduce it by improving customer experience by tracking their CX analytics. Another way to improve customer experience is by providing an excellent support system and giving them what they want.

5. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

From Costco to American Express to Verizon and AT&T, they’re also using customer lifetime value as a critical metric with good reason.

CLV is a CX metric that helps business owners and CX professionals understand the value of a customer over the entire span of their relationship with their company.

It considers not just the monetary value of a customer but also how long they are likely to continue doing business with them, how much business they are likely to do moving forward, and how profitable each interaction is.

This information allows you to make strategic decisions about what types of customers to invest in acquiring and retaining, what kinds of experiences to offer them, and when it might make sense to let them go.

There is an easy-to-use online CLV calculator. For guidance, with your CLV, you are looking to make three to five times your acquisition cost.

Once you have your number, you can apply it. As a Bain & Co explain, you can use C LV to:

segment your existing customers
enhance conversions and ROI through better customer understanding
create data-focused hypotheses regarding the tools needed for customer acquisition and retention
segment new customers to target them according to limit low-value leads
make data-focused decisions on customer prioritization, acquisition, onboarding, and retention.

However, with your tracking, you might want to use a range of CX analytics tools, rather than focusing on one or two; research from Bain and Co shows that companies are most satisfied with results when they use a combination of tools. Further, by 2023, 92 percent expect to be using CX experience analytics tools for customer relationship management.

Percentage of respondents who will use customer analytics tools

6. Social Media Engagement

Engagement metrics track how people interact with your brand on social media. There are many different types of engagement metrics, but some of the most common ones include clicks, likes, shares, and comments.

I can’t overemphasize the importance of tracking social media analytics. If you post something and no one clicks on it, shares it, or comments on it, you know that you need to rethink your content strategy.

The potential of social media is best explained by looking at the runaway success of TikTok. According to its stats, 44 percent of visitors visit the site every month to find something new.

TikTok also impacts every stage of the customer journey, including:

discovery
consideration
purchase

Then, post-purchase, buyers head back to the site to create reviews, unboxing, tutorials, and how-tos.

The above should be enough to persuade you of the power of social media. If you’re already on sites like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, make sure you’re paying attention to your tracking with tools like Google Analytics, SproutSocial. and HootSuite.

Customer Experience Analytics Frequently Asked Questions

What are the types of customer experience analytics?

CX analytics come in various forms, including CES, CLV, and social media engagement. They come in a mix of categories, including marketing analytics software, and customer service analytics software, which measures the effectiveness and quality of customer service interactions. Then there are social media and web and behavioral analytics.

Can I track my customer experience metrics with free tools?

There are several free tools businesses can use to track their cx analytics. One such tool is Google Analytics. Google Analytics allows companies to track website visits, engagement, conversions, and goal completions. Another free tool is Survey Monkey. Survey Monkey allows businesses to create surveys and collect customer feedback to measure customer satisfaction and loyalty. Finally, another free tool you can use for CX analytics is Simply Measured, for social listening and analytics.

How does data analytics improve customer experience?

Data analytics can improve customer experience by helping businesses better understand their customers’ needs and preferences. Data analytics can also help companies to identify and respond to problems quickly. For example, if lots of people are complaining about a particular issue, data analytics can help businesses identify the cause of the problem and take corrective action.

Why should marketers care about customer experience analytics?

Customer experience is one of the most critical factors for businesses today. In a world where consumers have endless choices, it’s essential to provide an exceptional customer experience to stand out from the competition. Finally, studies show that improving customer experience can increase sales and revenue.

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Customer Experience Analytics Conclusion

Customer experience analytics is a valuable tool for businesses. Businesses can improve customer service and make strategic decisions about their products and services by tracking customer interactions and analyzing the data.

With the right tools and data, businesses can improve their customer service and boost their bottom line.

However, you need to be measuring the correct data. Although there are several metrics you could focus on, don’t get overwhelmed.

The six metrics featured in the post are enough to get you started and give you a clearer picture of what’s going on in your business.

To further optimize your results, you can adopt a range of automation tools to enhance the overall CX experience.

Do you use customer experience analytics in your business? Which ones work best for you?