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"When skinning your customers, you should leave some skin on to grow so that you can skin them again". (N. Krushchev) Customer satisfaction analysis is one of the most powerful tools for examining your performance among your customers.
Customer's Satisfactory Analysis has different meanings that are all relevant:
- Determines if you’ve performed well or poorly with your customers
- Identifies your customers unfulfilled needs
- Generates new development ideas that you hadn’t thought of
- Uncovers new marketing opportunities for your organization
Get ready. This is a long article. But at the end of it I promise you that you will understand the importance of customer satisfaction analysis and would perform an effective survey.
In the general flowchartdiagram of the ISO standard, the customer is always at the final stage: that means that the business exists to serve the customer.
Unfortunately, competition is deadly. Ladies and gentlemen: this is not a joke but simply the brutal reality. Customers can behave like rattlesnakes under a rock: one wrong move and you’re bitten. This bite can be expressed as abandonment and sometimes slander against you amongst your other customers; this can cause terrible damages.
Therefore, you perform customers' satisfaction survey. You must ask your customers: "how are we? Ok?" and if the answer is negative, you should follow-up with "what have we done wrong? What can we do to fix our mistake? What do we have to do in order for you to spend more money with us?" These are the questions that every business organization needs to ask.
Now that we understand the importance of the Customer's Satisfactory Analysis, let's start discussing the process itself.
First, you need to define what you want to reveal.
The Customer's Satisfactory Analysis has more then one purpose. The question is “what is your purpose?” It is important to keep this focused so that resources do not go to waste.
Let's look at some examples of purpose definitions for Customer's Satisfactory Analysis: Satisfaction analysis about the product or service: this is one of the most important parameters in any business organization. In large organizations, top management doesn't have any direct interaction with the customers. The direct interaction happens in the lower ranks of organizations. The Customer's Satisfactory Analysis draws a picture for the top management about their customer’s demands. HOW TO ACHIEVE First, we need to define what we mean when we say "customer satisfaction." Here are some examples: - Do we want to measure the level of satisfaction of our product/service?
- Do we want to check if our product/service is suitable for our customers?
- Do we seek new ideas to develop a new product/service for our customers?
- Do we want to measure the level of satisfaction about our product or service?
- Do we want to measure the level of satisfaction about our product or service?
In order to measure how satisfied our customers are, we need to divide the main process into defined parts. Here are the basic divisions or sub processes:
- Sales process
- Delivery process
- Collection process
- Service delivery process
In any of the above, was representative of the organization involved? These could be:
- Sales representative
- Financial employee
- Delivery person
- Service representative
Within the sales process, we need to examine: - Did the sales representative offer all available options to the customer?
- Was the sales representative polite and courteous with the customer?
- In the eyes of the customer, was the sales representative professional?
Typically, the manager usually sits in his office busy, and is not aware for what is truly going on during the sales process. Sure, he or she can ask the sales representative but the answers received would usually be something like:
- "Of course, I presented all the options"
- "This customer doesn't know what he wants"
- "There wasn’t much I could have done"
Therefore, we must ask our customers: - During your visit to our store, did the sales representative answer all your questions?
- Did the sales representative present you with solutions for your demands?
- Did the sales representative treat you with in a polite and courteous manner?
- Was the sales representative properly attired?
Essentially, anything that you deem important towards the sales process.
Within the delivery process, we need to examine:
- Did the product/service provided match your order?
- Are you satisfied with the delivery terms (time, place, package, training)
- Are you satisfied with the conduct of the delivery person?
How many times before has a customer called to complain about the delivery process? Sometimes the complaint gets handled too late. This is because you haven't taken the opportunity to ask your customers if everything was okay! Within the collection process, we need to examine:
- Convenience of the payments for the customer
- Compatibility of the payments to the customer's order
- Politeness and courtesy of the financial employees during the customer's application
Mishaps occur all the time. There were cases when the customer's expectations weren't answered for any reason. All these are hidden from the management because they lack the tools that show them and not because they don't care.
Therefore, we must ask our customers:
- Are you satisfied with the payment conditions?
- Did the payment conditions match the order?
- During your application to the office, were you treated properly?
Becoming a bit complex to perform? We know. Well folks, it's your lucky day. We present you with a website that gives you the tools and ability to perform the survey in an effective way. They also have a free trial. Try them out: constantcontact.com
let's go on... METHODS IN CONDUCTING AND ANALYZING CUSTOMER'S SATISFACTION According to the ISO standard, you must define what is important to examine and how you will perform it. The definition can come as a form, procedure or even just a document stating that the organization is "a caring organization." It doesn't matter how: it’s just important that there is a definition. The methods we know are: - Evaluation talks with customers
- Satisfaction evaluation questionnaire
- Focus groups
Evaluation talks with the customer
An evaluation talk is recommended for organizations with a narrow customer base. This is for a number of reasons:
- In case the management wants to conduct a statistical analysis, a narrow band of customers won't provide enough statistical data to generate useful results.
- There is a marketing advantage when you initialize a conversation with your customer and the customer in turn appreciates the effort.
The conversation doesn't have to be via telephone: it’s actually recommended to perform it in person. This is because the chances are that if the customer has any complaints, they can be solved during the conversation. And, importantly, don’t forget to document the conversation.Satisfaction evaluation questionnaire The Satisfaction evaluation questionnaire is highly recommended. It is suitable for organizations with a large customer base band defined as over 50 customers. In this case, enough data is provided to generate meaningful statistical analysis and therefore get a clear picture about your customer's satisfaction.
Earlier, we defined the sub processes that combine the main process of dealing with the customer. Therefore, we divide our questionnaire in relation with our sub processes:
Sale process - Please rank on a scale from 1 to 5 the level of professionalism of the salesperson person during your meeting
- Please rank on a scale from 1 to 5 the politeness and courtesy of the salesperson while visiting our premises.
Another option is to ask YES/NO questions: - Was the sales person professional while attending you? YES/NO
- Was the sales person polite while attending you? YES/NO
Delivery process: - please rank on a scale from 1 to 5 the politeness and courtesy of the delivery person when the product was delivered
- please rank on a scale from 1 to 5 your satisfaction with the time it took for the product to be delivered
YES/NO questions:
- Did delivery person behave properly when visiting your location YES/NO
- Was the delivery person polite when visiting your location YES/NO
Collect process:
- Please rank on a scale from 1 to 5 your satisfaction from the service provided by the collections department
- Please rank on a scale from 1 to 5 how quickly the employees responded to your problem
- Please rank on a scale from 1 to 5 the solutions handed to you by the employees of the collections department.
YES/NO questions:
- Was the debit according to your order YES/NO
- The employee was polite during your application YES/NO
- The solution provided was satisfactory YES/NO
In any case, I recommend leaving a blank space for the customer to write openly in his or her own words. This has a significant value because the customer feels that someone is listening. The process is complex, no doubt about it. In order to achieve customer satisfaction survey in a most effective way, we direct you to the next site which will assist you in performing all the stges above automatically:
constantcontact.com Focus Groups
Conducting a focus group is the most complex of all three options. It requires many resources: both financial and human resources. It is usually performed by companies specialized in these types of services. These companies have the required knowledge to conduct focus groups in an effective and efficient manner.
In a focus group, we gather a few people (not more than ten) for a discussion during which they are encouraged to "spill" as many ideas and inputs about certain subjects. In order to entice them to participate, they are provided with a reward of some kind. Your goal is to collect as much information as you can.
First, you need to define what information you are seeking. Second, you have to choose a method to encourage the people to talk and "spill their guts." The discussion led by the organization's representative whose role is to direct the participants and keeps them on track. As before, it's important to cover the same subjects as in the other survey options. - Satisfaction from the product/service: the group discuses and shares with the representative what they like or don't like in the product/service
- Satisfaction from the competition: the crowd discuses and shares with the representative what they like or don't like in your competitor’s product/service.
- New ideas: the narrator asks the group what else they would like to see or have in your product/service.
After the meeting, you need to gather all what was said and analyze it. How to do this? Good question. You can record the focus group or even film the entire meeting. After that, you will need to transcript what was said during the discussion. The output of the process is a summary report which gives you the ability to make decisions.
This option is amazing: it is powerful and effective. I participated in some focus groups and was amazed of how much information they generated. However, they certainly cost a lot!
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