Customer Experience

Steve Downton, Downton Service Management Consultants Ltd, Noventum Group

I have previously commented on the overwhelming evidence that customer satisfaction surveys do not give an accurate picture of the opinion of the customer. This article will seek to establish why customer satisfaction surveys can be unreliable and how successful companies communicate with their customers to provide consistent reliable information about how best to support their customers, creating loyalty as well as real satisfaction.
Most service operations provide service level agreements which guarantee standards of service such as respond or restore same day, next day etc. Discussion with a customer to decide upon their requirements should elicit a number of different scenarios, configured in a variety of ways, with the result that the way a SLA is set up will vary enormously; consequently, its true relevance can vary significantly and is often open to misinterpretation.

If all the customer’s requirements are accurately assessed and fully documented and the measures and results of the SLA proceed as agreed, it does not necessarily mean the customer’s are being satisfied at all levels, and as requirements continually change may result in a shift away from the SLA. In the same way, satisfaction surveys may once have portrayed an accurate representation, however now, no longer perform as an operational tool but have been morphed into a marketing tool. The SLA and survey tool may be operational but they could have been established with the purchaser of the service and not the user; if communication between purchaser and user is poor, service expectations might vary significantly from service paid for.

Steve Downton, Downton Service Management Consultants Ltd, Noventum Group

I have previously commented on the overwhelming evidence that customer satisfaction surveys do not give an accurate picture of the opinion of the customer. This article will seek to establish why customer satisfaction surveys can be unreliable and how successful companies communicate with their customers to provide consistent reliable information about how best to support their customers, creating loyalty as well as real satisfaction.
Most service operations provide service level agreements which guarantee standards of service such as respond or restore same day, next day etc. Discussion with a customer to decide upon their requirements should elicit a number of different scenarios, configured in a variety of ways, with the result that the way a SLA is set up will vary enormously; consequently, its true relevance can vary significantly and is often open to misinterpretation.

If all the customer’s requirements are accurately assessed and fully documented and the measures and results of the SLA proceed as agreed, it does not necessarily mean the customer’s are being satisfied at all levels, and as requirements continually change may result in a shift away from the SLA. In the same way, satisfaction surveys may once have portrayed an accurate representation, however now, no longer perform as an operational tool but have been morphed into a marketing tool. The SLA and survey tool may be operational but they could have been established with the purchaser of the service and not the user; if communication between purchaser and user is poor, service expectations might vary significantly from service paid for.

As businesses slowly begin to come round from the negativity of the last 18 months, and inspect their operations for damage, I have an image of a scene of battle reminiscent of Star Wars with some crafts relatively unharmed, others badly damaged and some destroyed.

It is arguable that a great number of the existing detection mechanisms (customer surveys, feedback forms) completely fail to identify the problems and issues that have followed the banking crisis. Good “Customer Radar” has a number of components, but the most fundamental aspect is the ability to act upon information quickly. Too much emphasis can be placed upon dealing with symptoms rather than tackling actual causes, and so excellent interpretation and diagnosis is also an essential feature, and gathering customer information doesn’t guarantee effective results unless it is used correctly and the results fully applied.

Steve Downton, Downton Service Management Consultants Ltd, Noventum Group

Our research, initiated last year and extended this year, has reinforced the conclusion that certain strategies are proving to be most effective in creating increased revenue by providing the customer with what they require. However, translating a strategy into a realisable goal is not always achievable, top down, because there is not a clear understanding of the drivers or customer environment at senior level within the supplier and sometimes too much emphasis is placed upon dealing with symptoms, rather than tackling actual causes. Converting a strategy into an achievable goal is not achievable bottom-up, unless there is top-down commitment! Successful companies focus on the customer’s developing needs to anticipate the need for change and not wait till the customers leave. They have effectively learned to combine top-down commitment with bottom-up understanding through close attention to the experience of their customers and their customer interface staff.

When dealing with a service organisation, working from the “bottom-up” means working from the customer interface, and therefore the approach must recognise the customer will be responsible for significant input and reaction to change. A major change in operation might require moving customer interface staff from one area to another.

Steve Downton, Downton Service Management Consultants Ltd, Noventum Group

Our research, initiated last year and extended this year, has reinforced the conclusion that certain strategies are proving to be most effective in creating increased revenue by providing the customer with what they require. However, translating a strategy into a realisable goal is not always achievable, top down, because there is not a clear understanding of the drivers or customer environment at senior level within the supplier and sometimes too much emphasis is placed upon dealing with symptoms, rather than tackling actual causes. Converting a strategy into an achievable goal is not achievable bottom-up, unless there is top-down commitment! Successful companies focus on the customer’s developing needs to anticipate the need for change and not wait till the customers leave. They have effectively learned to combine top-down commitment with bottom-up understanding through close attention to the experience of their customers and their customer interface staff.

When dealing with a service organisation, working from the “bottom-up” means working from the customer interface, and therefore the approach must recognise the customer will be responsible for significant input and reaction to change. A major change in operation might require moving customer interface staff from one area to another;

There is a strongly held misconception that asking customers what they want and then providing such requirements will guarantee customer satisfaction; this is a risky premise when even presuming to question the customer could annoy or lead to disappointment - many people perceive a call from the garage asking whether their service was satisfactory as an irrelevant annoyance. Customers expect their suppliers to know.

There is a strongly held misconception that asking customers what they want and then providing such requirements will guarantee customer satisfaction; this is a risky premise when even presuming to question the customer could annoy or lead to disappointment - many people perceive a call from the garage asking whether their service was satisfactory as an irrelevant annoyance. Customers expect their suppliers to know what they need and to be able to solve their problems, which brings us to what might seem to be a very subtle difference between needs and wants. The customer might desire a supplier to know and understand their needs – as if by magic – but such perception will actually be achieved through profound insight of all issues regarding the situation of the customer, with careful questioning eliciting the exact nature of the requirement so the business can refine its ability to provide a unique personalised solution to individual problems.

Utilising product insight and customer awareness can create a unique and specific solution which completely satisfies a customer’s needs in a manner that is cost effective to deliver, but impossible for the competition to copy without incurring much difficulty in delivery, and risking failure in satisfying the customer.

The perception of the customer is formed in his mental world. He has unique expectations for sevices. Ther are as many definitions of good services as there are customers

Courtesy: Greg Coleman, Principal / Vice President Strategic Programs of Service Strategies Corporation

When looking at how companies measure employee performance, it’s clear that there is wide variation across the industry in terms of incorporating customer satisfaction into the mix. In past years, we have observed that companies were generally doing a poor job in linking performance to satisfaction. While improvements in this area have been seen recently, many companies are still struggling to enhance their process for linking performance to satisfaction.

Courtesy: Greg Coleman, Principal / Vice President Strategic Programs of Service Strategies Corporation

Service and support organizations invariably receive complaints from customers. You would expect that most organizations would have programs in place to manage complaints. While this seems logical, it’s not always the case.