Jerry Sparger asked:


In business-to-business markets, the key element of the customer relationship can be defined as how much strategic value your products and services add to a client’s business. Yet “strategic-value-added” is one of the most difficult things to measure and nearly impossible to gauge using third-party customer surveys. The best way to understand how clients perceive value you provide, and identify opportunities to improve your business, is to skip the customer satisfaction surveys and opt, instead, for collaborative conversations with decision-makers at key accounts.

Our client, A Washington, D.C., technology services firm-”Washco”-wanted to grow existing strategic customers and attract new ones. Washco was seeking profitable long-term relationships in which it could concretely contribute to its customers’ success.

With this goal, Washco’s executives sought to understand what would or would not motivate customers to buy. They identified four key questions:



What are we doing that works well, and how can we do more of it?

What are we doing that is not working, and how can we improve those activities?

What should we stop doing because it provides no value to our customers?

How much strategic value do our customers think we are providing, and how can further contribute to their success?



 

Washco commissioned a customer survey, which provided broad statistics on such topics as Washco executive interaction; understanding of the customer’s mission and how well Washco served it; and the ease of interaction with Washco across all areas.

The survey showed that Washco’s customers were generally “satisfied”; it also revealed that customers were “somewhat unsatisfied” with problem resolution. More troubling, the survey results did not provide any insight into why customers were unsatisfied. In Washco’s complex custom solution business, the problem could have stemmed from a number of areas. Were the issues in time to acknowledgement, time to resolution, resolution quality, executive involvement, problem ownership, the impact on customer business, a combination of elements or something Washco executives hadn’t thought of?

‘The company created a solution to its customers’ problem that no other vendor was currently addressing.’

While the survey could have been redesigned to include all possible touch-points in the problem resolution process, Washco executives realized that static survey responses would not capture the nuances of the interplay of factors that were frustrating customers. They concluded that only face-to-face discussions with customers would give them the necessary actionable intelligence improve their business processes.

With our help, Washco developed a structured interview designed around their four questions, then sat down with executives at each strategic account for a collaborative meeting.

Help us help you

The Washco team started each meeting by presenting to client executives specifically what Washco was doing to help them reach their goals. Next, team members asked the clients for feedback, saying to each customer, “This is what we think we do to help you achieve your goals and what we want to do to help you more in the future. Help us understand where you agree and why and where you disagree and why. Help us focus our resources on maximizing our value to you.”

Washco’s customers appreciated the “everything is on the table” approach and the opportunity to brainstorm new products, services and business processes with their vendor. Customers not only enthusiastically offered frank appraisals of Washco’s efforts but also volunteered some of their strategic objectives and in-house issues, asking Washco for their help in achieving their goals.

Customers expressed concern over the delays of both Washco and their competitors in finding personnel with specialty skills such as Oracle knowledge. Washco pointed out that the customers were unwilling to bear the cost of keeping such talent on the bench. Washco determined that its best alternative was to develop internal and external third-party rapid recruiting and hiring teams that would keep tabs on talent to pursue at a moment’s notice. The company created a solution to its customers’ problem that no other vendor was currently addressing. In return, customers acknowledged the challenge that Washco faced and agreed to give Washco more notice when they needed specialty skills.

In highly competitive markets, the decision to buy or keep buying from one company over another is based on whether or not the customer sees the vendor as a source of strategic value. Everything a vendor does affects the buying decision. Sales, order entry, delivery, legal, accounting, customer service and support all impact how customers feel about doing business with you. Over the long run, a company that keeps strategic customers and attracts new ones must integrate all business functions around providing value to clients.

Tear down department boundaries, eliminate unnecessary activities and focus your energy on doing things that serve customers well. This is a significant undertaking that affects your entire. Before making changes, know exactly what customers perceive as value. The best way to understand how customers value your activities is to ask them directly.

A custom questionnaire will help you get at the heart of what needs to be done within your company to add customer value. Start by answering the questionnaire yourself, having key company leaders pretend to be clients. Then imagine how clients might answer the questions regarding your major competitor. Finally, sit down and review the questions with at least one trusted client executive.

Don’t miss this opportunity to use your time with the customer to delve into the issues behind the answers. Follow Washco’s example. This is an opportunity to collaborate with clients to create innovative solutions that differentiate your business in the marketplace. In this age of technological applications, sometimes simply sitting down with people face to face can tell you more about what customers think.

The better you understand the nuances of how to best serve key accounts and add value, the more likely you are reduce price competition and keep competition out.

Tony Morosini asked:


This Customer Satisfaction white paper is organized into the following sections:

(1) Definition of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty

(2) Why is customer satisfaction and loyalty important?

(3) How do you measure customer satisfaction and customer loyalty?

(4) What are the key success factors for a customer satisfaction program.

(5) Proactive customer satisfaction programs that drive customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.

(6) Customer listening channels.

a. Periodic customer satisfaction surveys.

b. Transactional customer satisfaction surveys.

Definition of Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty

The first step in establishing a customer satisfaction program is having a well constructed definition for Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty. A suggested definition of Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty are presented below:

• Customer Satisfaction is the result of a process.

• Customer Satisfaction is a measurement or indicator of the degree to which customers or users of an organization’s products or services are pleased with those products or services.

• Customer Satisfaction is a comparison of expectations versus perception of experience.

• Customer Loyalty relates to a relationship between a company and a customer.

• Customer Loyalty includes behaviors (a.k.a. Customer Retention) where customers make repeat purchases of their current brand, rather than choosing a competitor brand instead.

• Customer Loyalty includes attitudes where a customer’s judgments and feelings about a product, service, relationship, brand, or company are associated with repeat purchases.

It is important to note that Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty are related but one does not always drive the other. For example a Customer may not be satisfied, but is loyal. These customers are called “Captives”. It is also possible for a customer to be extremely satisfied, but not loyal. This situation occurs in highly commoditized markets where there is little to no product differentiation.

Why is customer satisfaction and customer loyalty important?

According to the Balanced Scorecard Institute, “Recent management philosophy has shown an increasing realization of the importance of customer focus and customer satisfaction in any business. These are leading indicators: if customers are not satisfied, they will eventually find other suppliers that will meet their needs. Poor performance from the this [customer satisfaction] perspective is thus a leading indicator of future decline, even though the current financial picture may look good”

How do you measure customer satisfaction and customer loyalty?

The best way to measure customer satisfaction is by receiving direct and unfiltered feedback from customers. Direct customer feedback includes:

• Customer Satisfaction and customer loyalty score (customer provides a score from 0 to 10)

• “Would you recommend company xyz to a friend or colleague? There is a growing body of research that suggests this one question is the most important single question to measure customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.

• Customer planned and actual spending behavior.

Based on direct customer feedback, there are industry standard scores that can be calculated including the Net Promoter Score that measures customer satisfaction and customer loyalty by looking at the percentage of the most satisfied (called promoters) and the least satisfied (called detractors). A customer satisfaction and customer loyalty topology. The topology segments customers into four customer satisfaction and customer loyalty classes:

• Champions

• Moral supporters

• Captives

• Rebels

Leading indicators for customer satisfaction and customer loyalty can be obtained by looking at key internal organization metrics. For example, Daily Sales Outstanding (DSO) is a leading indicator based on the premise that satisfied customers pay their bills on time. If customer satisfaction decreases, there is usually a corresponding increase in DSO.

What are the key success factors for a customer satisfaction and customer loyalty program?

According to the the Harvard Business Review, there are nine key success factors for a customer satisfaction and customer loyalty program.

1. Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty programs must focus on the big picture that includes customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.

2. Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty programs must maintain a customer satisfaction and customer loyalty dashboard.

3. Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty programs must link performane objectives and employee incentives to customer satisfaction and customer loyalty measurements.

4. Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty programs require a compnay to have a customer focused culture.

5. Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty programs must have executive support and participation to be successful.

6. Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty programs must define and use relevant customer segments.

7. Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty programs require continous training of employees.

8. Customer satisfaction and loyalty programs requrie a set of customer listening tools including a customer survey.

9. Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty programs must not only measure customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, but must also implement continous improvement initiatives.

Proactive customer satisfaction programs that drive customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.

The proactive customer satisfaction and customer loyalty programs require some up front investment in avoiding customer satisfaction and customer loyalty issues.

Proactive customer satisfaction and customer loyalty programs recognize the best way to deliver customer satisfaction and customer loyalty is by building and delivering high quality products.

Proactive customer satisaction and customer loyalty programs recognize the next best way to deliver customer satisfaction and customer loyalty is to set proper expectations during the sales process.

Proactive customer satisfaction and customer loyalty programs recognize the next best way to deliver customer satisfaction and customer loyalty is to execute a well-defined customer welcome process.

Proactive customer satisfaction and customer loyalty programs recognize the next best way to deliver customer satisfaction and customer loyalty is to deliver professional services.

Proactive customer satisfaction and customer loyalty programs recognize the next best way to deliver customer satisfaction and customer loyalty is to allow customers to solve their own issues using customer self service.

Proactive customer satisfaction and customer loyalty programs recognize the next best way to deliver customer satisfaction and customer loyalty is to provide excellent service from a call center / help desk.

Proactive customer satisfaction and customer loyalty programs recognize the next best way to deliver customner satisfaction satisfaction and customer loyalty is to be reactive and requrie management to get involved.

Customer listening channels.

There are many customer listening channels to obtain direct customer feedback. The most important and most accurate customer listening channel includes periodic and transactional customer surveys that measrue customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.

A periodic customer survey measures customer satisfaction and customer loyalty at specific periods of time (typically every 6 months to 1 year). Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty are measured using the following dimensions: business, technical, relationship. The most important question in direct customer feedback is “would you recommend company xyz to a friend or collegue?”.

A transactional customer survey mostly measures customer satisfaction after completing a specific transaction with company XYZ.

There are many mistakes that can be made in measuring customer satisfaction and customerm loyalty.

According to the Harvard Business Review, the top reasons why companies don’t understand their customers.

• Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty surveys contain too many questions.

• The wrong customers respond to a customer satisfaction and customer loyalty survey.

• The right employees never hear the problems reported on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty surveys.

• Many customer satisfaction and customer loyalty surveys are sales calls in disguise.

• Plain vanilla customer statisfaction and customer loyalty surveys don’t fit a company’s needs and requirements.

• Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty surveys actually dissatisfy customers.