Measuring Customer Satisfaction -

Introduction (Part 1 of 3)
Businesses survive because they have customers that are willing to buy their product or
service. However, many times businesses fail to "check in" with their customers to
determine whether they are happy or not and what it will take to make or keep them
happy.

Customers are your best source of business information -- whether it's to improve an
existing product or service or whether you're planning to launch something new. There's
no substitution for "getting it from the horse's mouth." When you open up the lines of
communication, you are able to align your resources to best advantage, and you often can
make changes or launch products more quickly.

By talking to your customers directly, you increase your odds for achieving success; you
"mistake-proof" your decisions and work on what really matters. When you routinely ask
your customers for feedback and involve them in your business, they, in turn, become
committed to the success of your business.

Customer satisfaction data are received in a variety of methods, including:

 Feedback received in response to answers to customer complaints

 Dialogue between the customer and field executive or Management which is then
documented in a trip visit summary report.
 Industry positioning surveys
 Lost business reports
 Meetings with customers - interview sessions with questionnaires

Conducting survey is an effective method for measuring customer satisfaction and

achieving continues improvement in quality. There are six steps in conducting a
successful survey. They are:
 Decide on your objectives
 Determine who should complete the survey
 Develop the survey
 Administer the survey
 Analyze the results
 Communicate the results

Step 1

Decide On Your Objectives What do you want to know from the survey? Be specific.
Your objectives will form the basis from which your survey questions will be developed.
Limit your objectives to just a few. If you try to include too much, you will make the
survey too long (customers may not complete it), and you may uncover more than you
can handle (you can't respond to it).

Step 2

Determine Who Should Complete the Survey First and foremost, know who your
customers are and which are appropriate to survey! If your market is large, you may have
different segments of customers. Or depending upon the industry you may have different
levels of customers.

Also, give some thought to the number of customers you want to survey. Do you have a
few key accounts? Maybe you want to survey each of them. If you have multiple
customers, you may have to select a sample to survey. Also, you may want to hear from
different individuals at the same customer site. Feedback from individuals other than
your direct contact may reflect problems that your contact doesn't know about and report.

Step 3

Develop the Survey Having settled on objectives and decided what kinds of customers
you'll target, it's time to draft the survey. You'll need to formulate questions whose
answers will help you decide what needs to be changed to achieve your objectives. The
following tips may help you:

 First, list potential question topics. Common service factors for which you may
want to ask customers to grade your performance and product value include:

Products: Features, Features desired, Variety, Safety, Durability, Quality, Reliability,

Documentation clarity, Documentation adequacy, Packaging quality, Packaging
convenience, Cost Employees:

Pushiness, Friendliness, Courtesy, Accessibility, Attention, Care, Competence,

Flexibility, Understanding of customer needs, Professionalism, Appearance, Effective use
of time.

Customer feelings:

Appreciated, Respected, In control, Needs and desires met

Post-sale service:

(Same list as employee features above), Order processing timeliness, Delivery timeliness,
Condition on delivery, Installation problems, Problem solving, Kept promises, Product
usefulness.

Company perception:
Confidence, Trust, Honesty, Affection, Efficiency, Stability, Innovativeness, Brand
quality

Consider what you know and what you want to know regarding customer perception of
each factor you consider to be significant. Then shorten the list to just significant factors
that you would be willing and able to work on to increase customer loyalty or attract new
customers.

Step 4

Administer the Survey You may want to contact the people you intend to survey before
hitting them with questions, and ask them if they will help you by responding.
Personification will both let the survey candidates know how important it is to you and
help you avoid irritating clients who resent surveyors.

If you are handing out survey cards to customers, be aware that research has indicated
that it's better to do it as they depart, not as they arrive. Having a list of features to
criticize during the visit makes a customer more likely to notice weaknesses. That
inspires useful feedback, but it can cost you the customer.

If you are not satisfied with the initial response rate, don't give up. Consider
supplementing the survey in another medium--for example by asking questions by
telephone or on a Web page when not enough were answered by mail.

Step 5

Analyze the Results Once your customers return the completed surveys, you are ready to
compile the data and analyze the results. In most cases, competency with a computer
spreadsheet program is all you'll need. First, you'll need to design the spreadsheet, enter
the data, and then choose the graphs to summarize the results. These might be pie charts,
bar graphs, or line graphs which are available in all of the popular spreadsheet programs.

Step 6

Communicate the Results After you have analyzed the data, it is time to communicate
the results to your staff and customers.

First the staff: Remind everyone that customer satisfaction is essential for continued
prosperity. Emphasize the importance of keeping the customer wants and needs in mind
whenever decisions are made--especially in product design, marketing, and customer
services.

Then the customers: Communicating survey results and resulting action is absolutely
necessary if you want to continue to receive feedback from your customers. If they feel
that the survey results do not get the proper attention, they'll be reluctant to provide you
with feedback in the future.
Get your customers involved when you can. This gives them ownership of the issues,
makes them part of the solutions and allows them to experience firsthand your dedication
in satisfying their needs. You might also want to solicit their input for your annual goals
and objectives. Then, tell them how you're doing against the goals, and tell them
frequently. That way they know that progress is being made and that you value their
opinions and their participation. Plus, it provides you with some great public relations.

Even the best intentions in measuring customer satisfaction are subject to problems along
the way. Temptations to avoid are:

 Complacency -- obtaining feedback is an ongoing process, not a one-time event.

You cannot know what your customers want if you only ask them occasionally.
Change is certain, and priorities do shift. The most successful companies are those
that can detect and respond to customer changes quickly.

 Analysis paralysis -- when you get your feedback, don't analyze it to death.
Many corporations have departments full of statisticians to determine the
reliability and validity of the feedback; however, they never get around to doing
anything with the data. In most cases, feedback will make it obvious what you are
doing well and where you need to improve, so it's in your best interest to get
started immediately.

 Doing nothing with the feedback -- nothing will do more to discourage feedback
from your customers than not doing anything with their suggestions. You must
show them that you appreciate their input as well as communicate to them what
has changed as a result of their input. If they feel nothing has been done, then they
think their efforts have been wasted and will not participate further.

 Failing to listen to your experts -- another valuable source of customer

information is your employees. They deal with customers constantly and often
have first hand knowledge on what the customers' "hot buttons" are. Too often
employers ignore this valuable resource. Big mistake! Talking to your employees
should be one of the first steps you take in gathering customer satisfaction data.
That way you'll get a preliminary reading on potential problem areas so that you
can focus your efforts when soliciting your customers for their feedback.

 De motivating employees -- customer feedback should not be used to punish

employees. Instead, use it to detect areas for improvement. Improper training and
lack of communication and direction are often the culprits of poor job
performance. Besides, if customers discover that their input is used to discipline
employees, they may stop providing constructive feedback altogether.