“Our
customer satisfaction doubled in comparison to last year”.
“Our
customers are the most satisfied throughout the industry”.
“95% of our
customers consider our service excellent”.
Everyone
has heard these statements and of course they sound good, but are they really
valid? The truth
is that in fact many empirical studies are not valid. In many cases, basic rules
of empirical research are ignored, results often become eyewash leading to
misinterpretations and wrong (re-)actions.
The
following article describes the most common empiric pitfalls and shows how
these can impede the right course of direction.
Although
outstanding customer service is concordantly considered one of the most
important differentiators in modern economy, many companies do not know which
level of service-quality they actually provide to their customers. In a
desperate attempt to get an overview of what customers want and feel customer
survey initiatives are done each year, sometimes only every second year. These surveys
are not only costly to conduct, but do not even provide a comprehensive picture
of reality. When customers are surveyed only every 12+ months, this
irregularity and infrequency makes it impossible to measure the effect of the
actions that had been taken by the management to improve customer service. Too
long time spans between customer surveys lead to unclear relations between
cause and effect become unclear; ambiguity rules.
It is better
to measure the performance of your customer service on a permanent basis. A
customer survey system that permanently supplements the business process is not
only able to operate more cost-efficiently but also enables you to follow and
anticipate dynamics in your customer service.
Surveying only the peak of the
iceberg
Customer
service goes far beyond the provision of a customer care hotline. Customer
service happens organisation-wide as it reflects the corporate philosophy of
how a customer should be treated. It is therefore of major importance to
implement a customer survey program at all the different touch points between
customer and company along various communication channels. Based on that, a
comprehensive picture of the current state of the customer service quality can
be drawn, helping you to find internal performance benchmarks and impede poor
performance.
Asking the
wrong questions
Measuring
the quality level of customer service is a multidimensional task as it is determined
by different indicators which are unique for each touch-point between customer
and company. Depending on each particular touch point which could be different
departments, different branches etc., specific questions have to be asked in
order to conduct a valid survey. Different tasks in customer service often lead
to distinct requirements in the survey process making it inevitable to
customize the survey questions according to their touch point. Unfortunately,
it is still common for many companies to apply one-size-fit-all solutions,
thereby obviously ignoring differences and touch point complexities. The
results are often poor and misleading.
Lack of
automation
Effective
customer surveying should always ask the customer; directly. There might be
certain advantages of mystery calls, but still no mystery call can re-create a real
customer’s necessities and experiences. Furthermore, a successful survey
requires, that samples are picked on a random basis and that personnel
influences are excluded as far as possible. Only under these pre-conditions
would it be possible to prevent biased survey results. Unfortunately, mystery
calls often present considerable weaknesses in this important area.
Automation is
the key to maintain equal, unbiased survey conditions thereby reaching high
levels of objectivity and reliability. However, it would be wrong to put automation
on one level with standardisation, far from it: successful automation can only
work on the basis of touch-point specific survey questions.
>>When you
succeed in avoiding the above mentioned pitfalls, you will be able to better
understand your customers by using well conducted survey methods. An
integrated, dynamic and automated customer survey program that is built across
the various communication channels of your company and that permanently
complements your business processes brings you a lot closer to the pulse of
your customers.
Find in TeleFaction
a partner with the necessary empiric know-how and the adequate technology to
help you creating excellent customer experiences.
TeleFaction
About the author:
TeleFaction - your specialist for
integrated and automated multichannel customer surveying. Whether in-bound
calls, face-to-face meetings, email or direct mail - we can measure it all- constantly
and organisation wide
Feel free to get in contact with us. Send an Email to Peter Niemeyer (Marketing):
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Your customers experiences equal money. TeleFaction’s Return on Behavior concept helps you to increase the value of your customers’ experiences. Whether you focus on improving customer satisfaction and loyalty, increasing additional sales and resale, reducing churn and loss of customers, or improving your critical business relations in customer service at all contact points, TeleFaction offers a solution that will yield the desired results. Return on Behavior Magazine is a free service from TeleFaction.
Return on Behavior Magazine was produced in cooperation with Customaxi
.
Pitfalls in customer surveys Although
outstanding customer service is concordantly considered one of the most
important differentiators in modern economy, many companies do not know which
level of service-quality they actually provide to their customers
