Relational vs Transactional Surveys - which one should you use? | XM Community
Skip to main content

Hi FSI community! Below we will be discussing the differences between relational and transactional surveys. They are both important measures but can provide us with different information depending on how you utilize them. 

 

What is a relational survey?

  • A relational survey is a survey in which a business is assessing the current state of the relationship between the customer and the business. It is used to gather information about the overall relational health.
  • Typically conducted at regular intervals (ex: annually, bi-annually, quarterly) to track progress over time and against industry standards.

 

What is a transactional survey?

  • A transactional survey is a survey in which a business is assessing the result of a specific transaction at the business. 
  • Typically conducted after a specific event (ex: post branch visit, post app experience, purchase, post service interaction, new customer onboarding, or product updates to gather information that is easy to act on.

 

What metrics should be used for a relational survey?

  • Relational Net Promoter Score (NPS)  - By collecting a relational NPS, this gives you the best quality of data to benchmark against internal or external NPS data.

 

What metrics should be used for a transactional survey?

  • Transactional Net Promoter Score (NPS) - Ideal to use when you want to identify strengths or weaknesses of specific customer interactions.
  • Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) - Indicates how satisfied customers are with your company’s products or services; a “right here, right now” metric that relates to a specific experience rather than an ongoing customer relationship.

 

Read more: 

What does your bank/credit union/institution do to measure your relationships with your customers? How does that differ from how you measure the experience your customers are having with specific transactions? Share more in the comments section below!

 

We definitely use the above and  more, I think any organisation - FSI or otherwise needs a combination of measures, and whilst it’s important to have the right measure for the right moment/task - there is definitely not a one size fits all environment here.

I think there is also importance in having episode or journey NPS which covers a longitudinal view of different related transactions/touch points, as well as externally benchmarked comparisons to compare performance too - as comparing only internal measures of different types is quite difficult without.

I like to think these different measures/survey types are well understood, but what I find less so is peoples understanding that whilst you can track and measure NPS in different contexts, the likelihood to recommend for customers aren’t exclusive to when we decide to measure it, it will always reflect a more complex, nuanced and holistic experience customers have.  

Agree, we use both and more. As Scott described, they do very different things. We have found that our transactional can act as an early indicator for our relationship measure.

Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement