1. The Customer Satisfaction
EngineEngine
What Your Customers Are Telling You and
What To Do About It
An Amalgamation of Customer Satisfaction Experience at
MNCs and SMEs in Asia -2008-2015
2. Intentions and Audiences
The material and experiences within include work accomplished at both MNCs and
SMEs. The scales involved indicate customers in the thousands, no fewer than 4 sales
territories, and, in the case of the largest organization, revenue upward of $100M and
70 or more associates in Asia.
Scale and scope aside, several key principles are identified and explored for utilization
in most organizations.in most organizations.
This presentation is meant for executives or companies that , ideally, do not yet have
formal, global strategic plan. Many of the activities and principles included should be
identified from the outset of such a plan and would be difficult to implement
retroactively.
3. Why is Customer Satisfaction Important?
Enhanced Renewals
A rule of customer satisfaction is enhanced renewed subscriptions. Often
renewing customers also expand their purchases (upsell).
More Accurate Forecasts
A better indicator of renewal business means more accurate forecasts.
Greater insight into product development indicates more accurate productGreater insight into product development indicates more accurate product
profitability analysis.
Product Development
Thousands of customers telling you where their business is going to be
in 24, 36 or 60 months is the absolute number-one way to decide where to
put product development investments.
Greater Free Cash Flow
Accurate Forecasts means less upside risk in free cash flow. More FCF
means more capital for investments.
4. Why is Customer Satisfaction Important?
Agencies like Walker, KPMG, McKinsey, Talbott, and others devise ‘sustained
engagement programs’, often reaping incredible results as shown in the chart above- a
segment of Walker’s customers as compared with 3 major indexes.
5. Global Account Teams withGlobal Account Teams with
higher satisfaction scores arehigher satisfaction scores are
more likely to attain revenuemore likely to attain revenue
targetstargets
Surveys can provide “early warning”Surveys can provide “early warning”
indicators of cancellationindicators of cancellation
Why is Customer Satisfaction Important?
17%
11%
13%
10%
12%
14%
16%
18%
Bottom2BoxScores
8%
0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
Pos.
Interactions, 2010
Info/Analysis, 2011Bottom2BoxScores
Accts with 2011 Cancellations
Accts without 2011 Cancellations
6. Components of Customer Satisfaction
Customers
Senior Management
& Board Final accountable body
Teams All of the entities comprise the ‘Customer Satisfaction Team’- a high
performance team drawing members from all of departments of the company
Product
Development Communicates product and service enhancements and adjustments to customers
Agency List, Survey, Responses- collecting, normalizing and interpreting results
Customer Service Critical in generating accurate lists and maintaining the consistency of service
Sales Directors &
Account Managers Incentivize Sales team, Driving response rate
Marketing Often charged with ownership of Customer Satisfaction in which case they pull
together the internal communication and action plans of the various groups
involved. Are POC with agency.
8. Commitment
Surveys must be done on a multi-year cycle. Measurements of one-off customer
touches is useful but in no way illustrates full picture or measures the ability of
A Customer Satisfaction Program becomes engendered into the workflow of
every aspect of your company. And because of that, reform and adjustment
of processes becomes the norm, resulting in cleaner, more intelligent
operations.
A Customer Satisfaction Program becomes engendered into the workflow of
every aspect of your company. And because of that, reform and adjustment
of processes becomes the norm, resulting in cleaner, more intelligent
operations.
touches is useful but in no way illustrates full picture or measures the ability of
the company to respond to its customers (one of the most essential conclusions
of any customer satisfaction program).
Customers should be surveyed once or twice per year. Be wary of survey fatigue.
A cycle of customer survey through response aggregation through product
enhancement/service adjustment could take 18 months or longer.
A higher response rate drives a higher score. And, customers that are satisfied
respond more often.
10. Align with a Professional Agency?Align with a Professional Agency?
Many agencies offer tools
Like this online application specifically
designed to provide quick access to real
time customer needs and feedback.
Key functions
Quickly find a contact or an account and
view all feedback
Provides real-time visibility of results
Review open-ended comments
View who has and hasn’t responded to the
survey
Easily accessible via mobile device
11. Make Survey Available and Accessible!Make Survey Available and Accessible!
• Mobile Technology for
Customers
• Auto-formatted survey
depending on device
• Custom skip logic
• Mobile Technology for
Colleagues
• Search contacts
• View recently completed
surveys
• Enter follow-up actions
12. List Management
Ideal to have a team in region that collects, from sales reps, detailed records of those to be surveyed;
These names are matched against records pulled from billing databases by HQ. Such datasets accurately link
customer name, company, location to product, price, and sales history.
Communicate Logistics and Operations
Survey
Survey is actually an e-mail with a link to a survey form, each customer’s e-mail is correlated to the product they use-
that’s how product/services are measured;
Surveys measures: satisfaction per product line per country, satisfaction with account rep or customer service can be
measured;
Write-in response fields highlight specific problems to specific customers (and identify trending issues)
Satisfaction is ‘scored’, each metric, or product, country, region, sales rep, all having a score. The objective is to
increase the score.
13. Based on the sample size (n) actions are taken to focus on:
Revenue at risk customers
Major trends in high-rev product sets
Then, Empower Those Who are Executing.
Response Plan
Major trends in high-rev product sets
Chronic grievances
Product Mgt, Customer Service, Regional Directors, Marketing, and individual Sales rep all have response
plans, each plan designed to support the actions of one-another
When actions are achieved, scores rise
It may be necessary to create incentives for all phases of action plans
14. What Are Our CustomersWhat Are Our Customers
Saying?
15. 95,000 invitations have been sent to customers to take the survey95,000 invitations have been sent to customers to take the survey
As of January 23As of January 23;; 2,563 customers have taken the survey2,563 customers have taken the survey ((~3% response rate)~3% response rate)
“The Q1 survey launched a week ago; this“The Q1 survey launched a week ago; this
is what we know so far…”is what we know so far…”
Data
Data Warehouse svs
• “So far, 63% provided specific “write-in” feedback totaling 1,445 comments
• The following groups are excluded from Q1: CMARX, Daaldermi, ELSTRAK, iSupport, ODSP, SMIT,
and Japan
• A reminder went out on Tuesday to the customers who had not yet taken the survey. The following
areas still need more responses to achieve a statistically valid score: Data, Express, and APAC”
QL Svs
Express Design
16. Results Consolidation and Interpretation
A professional agency will analyze the responses and deliver a wealth if information via
charts and graphics. Customer insights can be gleaned not only by what the responses
say, but how fast they are done, and how many of a certain customer domain participate.
18. Survey answers can be organized and viewed in many formats- this one being a chart to
measure percentages correlating with segments in a bar/Gant chart from customer care
company Walker.
19. Verbatim Comments and Their ValueVerbatim Comments and Their Value
Verbatim comments glean more information out of
survey results. Typically, gradient questions have
induced the respondent to be more inclined to
comment.
“There are too many screens to go through in order to find
what you are looking for.”
Sophisticated models are used
to interpret sentiment and
favor, enabling 2nd order
conclusions to be drawn from
results.
“Please make your
search engines more
intuitive.”
“Improve the workflows between your products.”
20. “Verbatim” Overview“Verbatim” Overview and Kand Key Themesey Themes
Themes
• Comments around product
innovation improved from Q4
2011; 57% of all comments
were positive
Themes
• Customer experience, both
customer care and sales
effectiveness, was less
favorable in Q1 than in Q4
Themes
• Comments on info/analysis
quality improved from Q4
2011; 73% of all comments
were positive
Info/Analysis Quality Customer ExperienceProduct Innovation
70% of total comments 19% of total comments 11% of total comments
20
were positive
• Customers notice our user
interface and search
functionality; negative
feedback on ease of use leads
to a delight score of 50
favorable in Q1 than in Q4
2011; there were more
negative than positive
comments in this delight driver
• First contact resolution and
responsiveness to the
customer continues to drive
delight
were positive
• Completeness has the highest
volume of comments, but the
lowest impact on delight
• Customers who positively talk
about Currency average a
delight score of 74
73%
27% Doing Well
Needs
Improvement
57%
43% Doing Well
Needs
Improvement
47%
53%
Doing Well
Needs
Improvement
Doing Well
Doing Well
Doing Well
Needs
Improvement
Needs
Improvement
Needs
Improvement
22. How Should We Respond?
Product InnovationsProduct Innovations
Action Plans by GroupAction Plans by Group
Key Areas for ImprovementKey Areas for Improvement
Focusing onFocusing on The Four Horsemen:The Four Horsemen: Surveys and verbatimSurveys and verbatimFocusing onFocusing on The Four Horsemen:The Four Horsemen: Surveys and verbatimSurveys and verbatim
responses showed Company , conclusively, that theresponses showed Company , conclusively, that the
characteristics upon which their products were assessed were:characteristics upon which their products were assessed were:
Consistency QualityConsistency Quality
Currency AccuracyCurrency Accuracy
Communicating the ResponseCommunicating the Response
23. Key Accomplishments/Decisions This PeriodKey Accomplishments/Decisions This Period
• Determined an action plan for Chemlab
Information Quality:
Globalize the Company Premium Program
High Priority Issues / RisksHigh Priority Issues / Risks
• Specificity in response to issues identified in
surveys by region and by product and customer
is key to customer perception that we have
received their feedback and are responding to
it.
Action Plan UpdateAction Plan Update –– Improving ChemlabImproving Chemlab
Information Quality from 60% to 63%Information Quality from 60% to 63%
Overall Status:
• Incorporated customer experience as key
component
• Formed a core team to execute (Domi, Avery,
Kocur, Probert) with support of key
stakeholders (Brodeur)
Key Planned Tasks/Decisions for Next PeriodKey Planned Tasks/Decisions for Next Period
• Extend the Company Premium Program to the
APAC and US regions
• Prioritize milestones to coordinate with
upcoming survey timing
it.
• Quality is critical to value perception in survey
responses and in renewal decisions.
• Accountability and buy-in of customer-facing
colleagues to “tell the story”
Action / Mitigation PlanAction / Mitigation Plan
• Educate and certify sales and marketing
colleagues to articulate the Company Premium
Program to customers, driving value perception
and renewal rates in a positive direction.
24. Key Areas for ImprovementKey Areas for Improvement –– SP&A, APACSP&A, APAC
Top 3 Areas for Improvement:
• Info/Analysis Quality – Completeness & Consistency –
Customers who leave negative comments in this area
have an average delight score of 62%
• Info/Analysis Quality – Correctness & Currency –
Correctness and currency of the information/analysis
Order Management/Negative
Sales Effectiveness/Negative
Price-Value/Negative
Products - User Interface/Negative
Information/Analysis Quality -
Correctness & Currency/Negative
Information/Analysis Quality -
Completeness & Consistency/Negative
Correctness and currency of the information/analysis
are most important to our customers; they have the
biggest impact on delight
• Product – User Interface –Customers want search to
be more “Google-like”Verbatim Category Total %
Information/Analysis Quality - Completeness & Consistency/Negative 36
Information/Analysis Quality - Correctness & Currency/Negative 25
Products - User Interface/Negative 14
Sales Effectiveness/Negative 4
Price-Value/Negative 4
Customer Care/Negative 2
Order Management/Negative 2
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Customer Care/Negative
A synthesis of results and interpretation
identifies customers’ interests and the
services in which those interests are
inherent
26. Clear linkage between customer Delight and financial outcomes
Delighted GSAM accounts grow more and are more likely to achieve their forecast
Less forecast variation = less earnings variation = Easier Credit
Elements of Delight are also tied to customer defection
Strategic Implications and Recommendations
Entirely possible to prove the link between Satisfaction and financial outcomes;
Phase II is to use the information to impact financial outcomes
Enhanced follow-up triggers based on customer feedback
Agency must turn data around quickly for front-line colleagues
27. NotesNotes
Sources The companies depicted in these slides represent a synthesis of several customer satisfaction activities from 2009-
2014. The products and services of customer satisfaction and client retention companies represented inside are open-source.
Some I’ve used, others not yet.
Disclaimers Product and services names have been changed and companies genericized for
confidentiality. Any organizational structure, departments, products or activities that resemble or
bear similarity to real of existing organizations is purely unintentional and coincidental.
Future Reading Customer Satisfaction, loyalty, client retention is exploding across all sectors and changing theFuture Reading Customer Satisfaction, loyalty, client retention is exploding across all sectors and changing the
landscape from shareholder value to customer satisfaction as the key metric for business success.
The field has expanded far beyond what is represented in these slides which are meant to show one
professional’s experiences. Feel free to contact me for sources of information.
www. Walkerinfo.com- U.S. based customer survey company. I’ve used Walker’s services.
http://csmassociation.org/ The Customer Satisfaction Measurement Benchmarking
Association (CSMA™) is an association of companies that conduct benchmarking studies
to identify practices that improve customer satisfaction and the overall operations of
members.
A series of good articles can be found here. I’ve not used this company.
http://www.forwardanalytics.com/quantitative_research/Customer_Satisfaction_Measur
ement.html
Contact: JimHead@Singnet.com.sg
