The wireless industry may be the most competitive in the world.

To attract more customers, companies are constantly working to improve their services. That means delivering seamless, convenient experiences that modern customers crave. T-Mobile's goal is to make customers' lives easier as it connects them to the world.

Competing on customer experience requires a strong understanding of the effectiveness of products, services and the overall experience. And that comes down to data, says Jon Freier, EVP of Consumer Group at T-Mobile.

There are numerous metrics to measure customer experience, but Freier looks at three main categories and activities:

1. What is the experience like for people who aren't T-Mobile customers and want to join?
2. What is the experience like for existing customers who want to expand their relationship with T-Mobile?
3. What is the experience like for existing customers when an issue pops ups?

Measuring these three areas—joining, expanding and resolving issues—helps the company track the level of effort. Freier says T-Mobile chases and tracks anything that can measure how hard or easy it is to do those things.

Freier believes companies are moving past traditional metrics like CSAT and NPS and towards measuring the level of effort. T-Mobile considers and tracks the level of efforts for customers to join, expand and resolve issues. That includes tracking if the experience is hard or easy, how long it takes and even how many clicks it takes to join or resolve issues digitally. If the current experience takes 25 clicks to solve an issue, Freier wants his team to get it down to 20 clicks. And then once it's down to 20 clicks, the goal is to simplify it down to 15 clicks. Simplifying the product and customer experience puts more power in customers' hands with self-service options.

The goal of all companies, regardless of industry, should be to make customers' lives easier. Tracking the level of effort to join, grow and solve problems can help all companies better understand their customers and continually improve the experience.

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Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. Sign up for her new course here. For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.