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Consight Marketing Group, LLC6104 W. WarwickChicago, IL 60634847.800.1685alan.hale@14 Deadly Sins That Kill Customer Satisfaction/Loyalty Programs Consight Marketing Group delivers consulting and research insight for companies in b2b markets. Within our Voice of the Customer research services we offer customer satisfaction and loyalty research. We have seen both successes and failures in the research execution as well as the implementation of initiatives to address customer satisfaction issues. The following lists some of the more common mistakes. Too many corporate initiatives. This is a major undertaking. It is not something else to do in the business, it is a key thing to be done to drive the business. You cannot do CRM, ERP and Customer Satisfaction/Loyalty during the same time period. We had one client who had 22 different initiatives going on in the same time. Naturally, nothing was accomplished.Lack of Senior Management Buy In. As with all other initiatives, if senior management does not buy in and advocate the importance, it will fail. Often Senior Management thinks the company is performing better than it really is. They are not aligned with customer perception. One trick we have used is to survey Senior Management and compare these findings to customer responses. One of our client's senior management team had guesstimated that their Net Promoter Score (percent of promoters minus percent detractors) would be 30%. In fact, it was minus 43%. Talk about a disconnect.Poor sampling. This can take many forms. One is for the salespeople to "cherry pick" the accounts they want input from, usually selecting only the "happy" ones rather than a true random selection. Another is a failure to obtain customer input from many influencers, users and decision makers at large customers. Marketing might have different expectations than engineering or purchasing. Gaming the System. How many of you have purchased something and the salesperson or rep says I would appreciate it if you give me a ten. If you are going to "game" the system, why do it at all?5. Conducting the Research in the Wrong Time Frame. When you have issued a large price increase, or have had a product recall, do not make that the time to do customer satisfaction and loyalty research. Let things die down a bit in the market before you conduct this research.6. Lack of Qualitative Insight. A frequent complaint of clients and researchers is that there is no real insight on how to improve one's position. A client may have a 25% Net Promoter Score, but there is no guidance on how to increase it over time. One needs to conduct diagnostics behind the rating. Why did you rate it that way, what is the one thing that would raise your ratings, how does this compare to the best suppliers your organization has etc? The numbers are great to measure and track progress, but you need to know the "whys" and the "hows". Research firms will spend a ton of time obtaining the numbers, but very little time understanding the reasons behind the numbers. There seems to be a great reluctance to use other methodologies to complement the web surveys. Why not spend some of the time talking with key customers to get a qualitative perspective? 7. Failure to Realize that Customer Perception Is Reality. It does not matter what you think customers think. It matters what they actually think. We did some research for a client and uncovered a perception that their quality was poor. The client said "We fixed it." But, they never communicated their actions to their customer base. The customer would buy these products every five to eight years, and many would not re-purchase the brand that had quality problems.In the b2b arena, there is usually an 80/20 rule, where 20% of the customers account for 80% of the sales volume. It is critical to understand how each of the large accounts perceives you, identify your strengths and weaknesses, and determine how you compare to the competition. 8. Lack of Feedback Loop to Your Customers. Customers have spent time giving you their valuable input. They expect to see that the supplier has listened, and is taking steps to improve their situation. Clients need to have a communication plan to reach their customers. If a customer sees no action whatsoever, they will refuse to participate in this valuable customer feedback and will over time become dissatisfied with the client. We had a major customer of a client say to us, "Why should I participate. Nothing has changed from the last time, and no one has contacted me." It is difficult to argue with that logic.9. Frequency of Research. One needs to carefully consider the frequency of conducting research. There is a need to do follow up surveys after programs have been launched (maybe 18 to 24 months) to determine if there has been any improvement. The other extreme of interviewing every month (or even after every transaction) is not productive. The respondents feel "survey burnout" and will start to be dissatisfied over the amount of time they spend.10. Not Focusing On Key Drivers. The research will usually provide many areas on which to improve. The organization cannot address 15 different issues which require lots of resources and is complex to execute. If an organization cannot prioritize the top 3 to 6 issues to address, it is doomed to fail.11. Problems Implementing Initiatives. Once the research is completed, and the root causes of dissatisfaction have been identified, then executing initiatives is next. These can fail for a host of reasons. There may not be an "Executive Sponsor" to make sure this gets done. A group may be selected to drive the implementation rather than selected individuals. There might not be milestone check points or metrics to measure the progress. Some issues may cut across departments, silos, functions, divisions and countries. One example is poor responsiveness in getting situations resolved and getting back to the customer. These cultural issues require constant challenging from senior management.12. Not Customizing Customer Solutions. Large customers may have different expectations. An example is customer service. Many organizations have a customer service department with a bank of phones. The next available rep will answer the customer's call. Our research has shown that large customers want an assigned customer service rep both so they don't have to repeat the situation as well as develop a relationship over time. 13. Failure to Link Compensation. We are a strong believer in linking some part of compensation to the metrics that matter most to the customers. It is our belief that a salesperson should have part of their bonus tied to customer satisfaction. 14. Trying to Force the Research In House. We believe that the client is a partner in the process. But, we have seen some failures from companies trying to do this on their own. First, a company is working on its day to day business, i.e. selling, getting the product out of the door, sending out invoices etc. That is their primary focus, and they will do the research when they have time. Second, customers may not be comfortable in giving a salesperson or someone in marketing "bad news." Third, when salespeople are assigned the task to do this, they are not trained in research, they are trained to sell. When they hear difficult news, they can be defensive and/or will try to use their sales skills in those situations. Voice of the customer research in areas of customer satisfaction and loyalty should lead to initiatives which are catalysts for change. If no change is delivered, then the time and effort of this research become expense instead of investment for growth. If you have any questions or comments on customer satisfaction/loyalty or other voice of the customer research in b2b markets, please contact the author at: 847.800.1685 or email at alan.hale@. Our website is: . ................
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