Many companies track customer satisfaction as a key performance indicator… whether it be Net Promoter Score, Customer Effort or a Customer Satisfaction score. It’s often necessary to go beyond the satisfaction score to determine who might be an at-risk customer and more importantly, why?
Many customer satisfaction measurement surveys are quantitative in nature and focus solely on numbers and statistics. They don’t answer critical qualitative questions about the experience or the overall customer journey and can be misleading if evaluated improperly. Let me give you an example.
We completed a project last year where 95% of the customers interviewed were Satisfied with the Products and Services provided to them . . . but 48% of that groups’ sales had dropped over the past year … even though they were “satisfied customers.” We dug deeper to find out that the company had raised their rates considerably over the past year. Customers were satisfied with them for the services they did use — but couldn’t afford them anymore for basic services and were turning to their competitors.
If the focus was just on the customer satisfaction score, the conclusion would have been that 95% of the customers were Satisfied, period. Instead, we went beyond the score to evaluate comments to identify “why” sales were dropping. The qualitative comments indicated that they were pricing themselves out of the market for basic bread & butter service offerings due to price increases.
It’s important to capture a quantitative score so you can track and trend progress but by integrating both qualitative and quantitative methods, you can bring together survey data with the actual “voice of the customer”. The qualitative responses or the “whys” will provide insight into how a company can nurture and develop customer loyalty . . . the one key driver of profitability and growth.
Capturing the customer’s voice in a statistically significant way and with actionable data and insights enables company leaders to better serve their customers and maximize the customer buying experience.
Watch a video on this topic on Elite Experts Network. And if you’d like some help with it, please reach out at (216-876-1165) I’m happy to help you get started.
