TQ marketing metrics: how to measure marketing quality performance

TQ Marketing performance is measured through six metrics that span the full customer quality cycle. Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): percentage of customers rating their experience as satisfied or very satisfied — target above 80%. Net Promoter Score (NPS): percentage of promoters minus detractors on a 0–10 recommendation scale — target above 50. Customer Effort Score (CES): ease of resolving a customer issue — target below 3 (low effort). Customer Retention Rate: percentage of customers retained over a defined period — target above 90% annually. Referral Rate: percentage of new customers acquired through existing customer recommendations — a direct measure of raving fan density. Market Quality Index: composite score tracking how the market perceives the organization's quality relative to competitors — measured through periodic competitive benchmarking surveys. Together these six metrics cover the complete TQ Marketing performance picture: interaction quality, relationship quality, experience friction, loyalty, advocacy, and competitive quality position.

Most marketing measurement systems track outputs — leads generated, campaigns deployed, conversion rates achieved. TQ Marketing measurement tracks outcomes — how the market perceives and responds to the quality of what the organization delivers. The six metrics below form a complete TQ Marketing measurement system that connects customer experience data to improvement priorities.

The Six TQ Marketing Metrics

How to Set TQ Marketing Metric Targets

TQ Marketing targets should be set at three levels — not just one aspirational number:

1. Minimum acceptable: the floor below which action is mandatory — a CSAT below 70% or NPS below 20 triggers immediate improvement response.
2. Current target: the improvement goal for the current planning period — set based on current performance plus a realistic improvement increment.
3. World-class benchmark: the standard achieved by the best organizations in the industry — used to calibrate long-term ambition and avoid setting targets too low.

Connecting Metrics to Improvement Priorities

Each TQ Marketing metric points to a different improvement lever — the discipline is knowing which lever to pull when a metric underperforms:

Reporting TQ Marketing Metrics

TQ Marketing metrics should be reported alongside operational quality metrics at every management review — not in a separate marketing report. The juxtaposition that matters:

• CSAT next to First Pass Yield: if FPY is high but CSAT is low, the product is meeting specification but not meeting customer expectations — the specification is wrong.
• NPS next to complaint rate: if complaint rate is low but NPS is also low, customers are not complaining — they are leaving silently.
• Referral Rate next to customer acquisition cost: as referral rate increases, acquisition cost decreases — quantify this relationship and present it as the ROI of quality improvement investment.

The TQ Marketing Dashboard Cadence

• Weekly: CSAT and CES at touchpoint level — operational signals requiring fast response.
• Monthly: NPS trend and retention rate — relationship quality signals requiring strategic response.
• Quarterly: referral rate and Market Quality Index — competitive quality position requiring long-term improvement investment.