Customer Satisfaction Means Action
How a vendor measures customer satisfaction speaks volumes about how they’ll deliver satisfaction going forward. According to Michael Calderwood, Pitney Bowes, VP of customer loyalty, by learning more about a firm’s approach to capturing and managing customer feedback, buyers can gain insight into the level of satisfaction they may expect once they become clients. Leaders in this discipline measure satisfaction on many levels and don’t try to rationalize poor service scores. Satisfaction is measured for the purpose of improving the overall customer experience. The ability to identify one of these top performers before signing a contract is an essential skill in today’s market. There are several key points to consider.
Asking the right questions can help determine whether prospective providers are really committed to meeting business needs. Find out who, what, when, how and why to help distill the players from the posers.
Measuring satisfaction in business-to-business situations is more complex than consumer technology because there are multiple stakeholders. Companies serious about measuring customer satisfaction gain feedback from multiple levels including: user feedback, project manager input and business head and executive observations.
Leading technology vendors only care about whether a customer is very satisfied. Surveys and feedback mechanisms vary by company, but most employ a sliding scale that runs from Very Satisfied, Satisfied and Somewhat Satisfied down to Neutral, Somewhat Dissatisfied, Dissatisfied and Very Dissatisfied. Buyers should be wary of providers who cite anything other than “top box” statistics.
Ongoing Measures
Requesting feedback from customers once a year isn’t enough to improve business processes. To be successful, measuring customer satisfaction needs to be ongoing. Business needs and market conditions may change quickly, which is why many vendors conduct satisfaction surveys on a monthly basis.
When a vendor claims that their customers are highly satisfied, ask how they’ve come to that conclusion. For mass-marketed business technologies that perform a limited number of functions, customers might not have a specific sales or account representative. Organizations may interact with the vendor remotely (e.g., web correspondence, customer care centers, etc.). Questions should measure satisfaction across different touchpoints and should always include a section to capture verbatim responses.
For specialized, big-budget systems, it’s prudent to employ methods that provide opportunities for in-depth dialogue (e.g., telephone or face-to-face surveys). Also, customer satisfaction surveys can be conducted in-house or by a third party. Third-party survey specialists often employ best-in-class technologies; and, customers may feel more comfortable providing honest feedback to a third party. In-house programs can be effective at measuring satisfaction as long as the department conducting the surveys isn’t the same team responsible for delivering the service.
The main reason to measure customer satisfaction is to identify gaps and improve overall service delivery. As a buyer, the key is to learn what vendors do with the information they receive. Do they monitor results? How do they act upon them? Leaders in customer satisfaction look to improve future performance and not only to record past results. Beware of technology providers who survey customers solely for publishing a number or issuing a report.
Understanding how a technology provider measures and manages customer satisfaction can provide insight into how they deliver service on a day-to-day basis. Best-in-class vendors solicit feedback from customers regularly and act upon the information to rapidly resolve customer issues. Learning the who, what, when, how and why of a prospective vendor’s approach to customer satisfaction helps buyers make smarter, more informed decisions.
