WHAT KIND OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION MONITORING?
David Scott
Research by leading authors in customer focus, Whitely and Hessan, reported that only 10% of organisations use customer research in decision-making in any visible way.
The fundamental goal of an ISO 9001:2000 quality management system is to satisfy the customer, today and in the future. In the new ISO standard, measuring the level of Customer Satisfaction is meant to be a measure of success and a driver of improvement. Achieving this is not easy, but it is worthwhile.
The Two Traps
In our experience, there are two principal reasons for
customer satisfaction monitoring not being accepted as
a crucial input to decision-making, at the highest level.
Firstly, surveys have often been poorly designed. In
an article in our last Executive Briefing, I dealt with some
aspects of this problem.
Secondly, customer surveys have often lacked a clear strategic focus. Your customer survey should be built around getting answers to some clear questions that are relevant to your business. Without this, the interest level of managers is likely to be low and at the end of the exercise they may wonder whether it was worth the effort.
The Big Three - Cost, Quality and Delivery?
In developing customer satisfaction monitoring, it is not
uncommon for companies to fall back on The Big Three
- Cost, Quality, Delivery.
Not long ago, operational improvement was the main competitive battlefield. While this is important, you must ask yourself whether this alone will give your company an edge over its competitors. Will this alone provide you with an early warning of market problems and drive improvement in ways that bring superiority in the marketplace?
If cost were all-important then the leading brand in each product area would be the one with the lowest cost. A look around at your competitors will quickly convince you that this is not so. In fact, the leading brands are generally more expensive. What kind of cost is important to your customers - Lifetime cost, initial price, support cost, financing?
If product quality were all-important, then the best quality product would be the winner. However, even when Japanese cars were grabbing market share in the US, it was always the case that American cars were superior in terms of their features, and often too as examples of engineering. The Japanese companies targeted a different kind of product quality, which was what mattered to the largest customer segment, reliability. The focus on a specific kind of quality was the key to their success.
Delivery is only one aspect of the communication you have with your customers. It is not always the most important one. What kind of delivery performance is important to your customers -lead-time, reliability, being kept informed?
Today, while the above factors are still important, other competitive factors may be equally or more important to your customers.
Innovation
Innovation has become a popular buzzword and certainly a key area of performance in many industries. How many companies assess the impact their innovation efforts have on customer satisfaction? We all want customers that are expanding. Growth often requires developing innovative new products. So, how attractive are you, as a partner for developing innovative products?
Customer Relationships
Over the last few years we have discovered, or re-discovered,
the importance of customer relationships. What is quality
in customer relationships? How do you measure it? Does
your customer satisfaction survey address it, in its
different aspects? Do you assess the depth of your customer
relationships?
Your Type of Customer Satisfaction
There is no formula to tell you what kind of customer satisfaction
is important for you. It will depend on your industry,
your competitive environment, perhaps your regulatory
environment, your customer relationships, brand image,
and fundamentally on your strategy.
It is this that will make your monitoring of customer satisfaction a vital input to management decision-making.
The Starting Point
We have found the following questions useful to consider
before developing specific questions for your customer
satisfaction monitor.
Who are your leading customers? What are they looking
for?
What specific problems or decisions are you considering
in the near future?
What are all the factors that your customers are concerned
about?
Doing this can help you set the basis for developing customer
satisfaction monitoring that really delivers.
A Cross-Functional Opportunity
In our view, the best outcomes in this area come when it
is addressed in a cross-functional way. It is not something
just for Quality, or just for Sales, or Marketing, or
Production. Involving different functions will not only
help you address the key strategic issues, but also assist
you in gathering interest in using the results to drive
your improvement program.
For assistance with customer surveys contact Quality Award Partners.
Tel. 03 9844 2111 or dscott@qap.com.au