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We are now
in the home stretch, in the series on “Unlocking the value of your
customer satisfaction surveys”. Previous articles, in the series,
discussed:
-
Adherence to Measurement Principles
-
Responding to Immediate Customer Needs Identified During the
Survey Process
-
Implementing Customer-Focused Changes
-
Implementing Account Strategies
You can
review these articles online, at the links provided below.
In today’s
business environment you don’t want to miss ANY opportunities to
“meet your numbers”. Based on an in-depth study, it has been
determined that an increase in customer satisfaction leads to an
increase in revenue. This is a double-win: increasing customer
satisfaction ensures that you hang on to your customers, and it
helps you to meet your revenue goals! To reap the full benefits of
your customer satisfaction survey program, you need to include
management review and assessment, which is the final topic in the
series.
Management Review and Assessment:
This step in the process is all about the reality that if
management isn’t engaged to review, and assess the results of,
your customer satisfaction survey program you will receive
diminishing returns over time. Personnel will lose focus on the
program as their attention is diverted to other challenges
prevalent in today’s business environment. And, you will be at
risk of losing focus on your single source of revenue: the
customer. To avoid this unfortunate outcome, let’s
review the final steps in the process of leveraging your customer
satisfaction survey program to improve customer satisfaction and
loyalty, and increasing revenue.
In previous
articles we discussed the following areas for management
involvement in the program (a senior manager’s checklist):
- Perform
reviews of survey results and trends
- Ensure
my organization is fully engaged in the program, and is taking
action to respond to satisfaction trends
- Tie my
organization’s compensation model to the achievement of customer
satisfaction goals
- Be
personally involved in the process of implementing account
strategies
In addition
to the above, there are 3 areas we will explore for management
involvement that puts the “icing on the cake”, on your customer
satisfaction survey program.
- Customer
Satisfaction: A Key Performance Indicator
- Ensure
customer-focused change programs are in line with strategy
- Customer
Feedback: Critical Input to business Decisions
Customer
Satisfaction: A Key Performance Indicator
To
effectively manage their business, executives track key
performance indicators (KPIs) in the areas of financial
performance, sales results, product/service delivery intervals,
quality, customer and employee retention, etc. To complete this
picture, you need to bring executive attention to your company’s
customer satisfaction levels. If these are not on the list of
metrics, that your senior management team monitors, you are
encouraged to increase awareness of the benefits of doing so. If
you require more information, regarding the relationship between
increasing customer satisfaction and increases in revenue, to
“promote the cause”, give us a call. We would be happy to share
additional information on this topic.
Ensure
customer-focused change programs are in line with strategy
Your
business, like most, is changing every day. This requires senior
management to continuously evaluate where and how resources are
invested. The customer survey remediation program (described in a
previous article) will generate many ideas for initiatives to
improve customer satisfaction levels. Management must be aware of,
and at some level “approve”, these programs to ensure that they
are in line with corporate direction. In an environment of
stretched resources, as is especially the case today, when you
make a decision to say “yes” to a new initiative, you are required
to make a decision of “no”, to what you will no longer focus on.
Make no mistake, this decision WILL occur: either consciously or
unconsciously. These decisions are much better made on a conscious
level based on the priorities you have set for your organization.
Customer
Feedback: Critical Input to Business Decisions
Often
companies review market trends to look for opportunities to
augment their product and service offerings with the hope of
capturing “new revenue” from “new customers”. And, they do this
without an understanding of what they could achieve for “new
revenue” from their existing customer-base. By investing in new
initiatives that don’t address the pressing needs of your existing
customers you may inadvertently alienate these customers. The
result: customer defection. As such, take the time to evaluate the
trends in your customer satisfaction levels to obtain invaluable
customer input to drive your business decisions. You can do this
at the macro-level (overall satisfaction), but you will obtain
significantly more input by performing a detailed review of
specific customer feedback on particular aspects of your product
and service offerings. By leveraging your customer’s input in
making critical business decisions you will be taking yet another
step to mitigate risk and ensure that the decision you make is a
good one.
By having
senior management “this involved” in your customer satisfaction
survey program you ensure that the voice of the customer reaches
executive management “unfiltered”. Without this level of
involvement, rest assured that customer information will get a
“spin” as it rises through management, prior to reaching the
executives. This prevents upper management from having a true
sense of how the customers are feeling about your company’s
products, services and overall performance at meeting their needs.
And, policy makers are shielded from accurate customer opinions,
resulting in erroneous decisions.
This
article completes our series on “Unlocking the value of your
customer satisfaction surveys”. Consistently following the
approaches we have outlined ensures that your organization remains
focused on its single source of revenue: the customer. By
effectively leveraging the results of your customer satisfaction
survey program, you are taking advantage of another opportunity to
“make your numbers”.
If you have
any questions or ideas related to this topic feel free to drop us
an email, or call. We would be more than happy to compare notes
with you.
Previous
Articles In This Series:
Part 1: Measurement Principles
Part 2: Responding to the Immediate Needs of Your Customer
Part 3: Implementing Customer-Focused Change
Part 4: Implementing Account Strategies
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