Learn how the industry benchmarks are calculated, and why you should compare to one.
One of the benefits of using Extellio for your surveys is that we offer industry benchmarks. When looking at your data, you can choose to compare the results of your KPIs to the industry benchmark. The industry benchmark is a three-year average of all surveys connected to that particular industry. As the benchmarks contain three years of data, they change very slowly.
We also have the industry "Global" which contains all surveys from the past three years. You can compare to "Global" even if you have selected what industry your survey belongs to. Or if you're just feeling curious.
Why should you compare to the industry benchmarks?
For all KPI questions, we offer a grading scale when you look at the results. That scale will tell you if your score is above the limit for approved, or even a very good score. However, the grading scale will not tell you what the expected score is for your category of website, but the industry benchmark will.
By comparing to the industry, you are comparing to similar websites. The other websites belonging to your industry will have similar visitors, with similar purposes and similar demands. This will affect the scores, as some visitor groups are more loyal despite not finding what they were looking for, and others require highly detailed information to be available on the website.
Because of this, some industries will have good ratings but low find score, while other will have both good ratings and good find score but a low NPS. By being able to compare to your industry, you will know what to expect from your results, and what are reasonable goals to set for your website.
It can also help you to decide on a focus area for your website. If most other websites in your industry have low ratings for the navigation, maybe that's what you should improve to stand out from your competitors.
How many industries can you compare to?
There is no limit for how many industries you can connect your survey to, but generally, you should only select one industry. Always select the industry that best represents your website, for example E-Commerce B2C or Corporate Website, and only if your website is equally represented by two industries should you select two.
The point of comparing your results to the industry is to compare your results to similar websites. There is no point in comparing your results to other industries (as in irrelevant websites) as they will have different demands, different visitor groups, different challenges, and so on. All websites are not alike, and the comparison and subsequently your goals for your website will be more fair if you only compare to similar websites.
Which questions have industry benchmarks?
We only offer industry benchmarks for KPI questions, such as ratings, find score and NPS. However, that also requires that you use our standard KPI questions (of which we have several). That does not mean that all surveys need to have exactly the same questions, but the questions need to be similar enough that the benchmark remains a good representation of the industry, and of the specific KPI.