Customer satisfaction surveys. Hmm, what to do with them? Every organization has them. And very few organizations design them in such a way that they really work. We all want to steer towards a more customer-centric organization. And customer satisfaction surveys are often seen to be an important tool in doing so. Rightly so…? In […]
Customer signals management: what are the success factors?
In this column, I describe the success factors and pitfalls when putting Customer signals management into practice within your own organization. If you’re ready to take action, the column provides you with do’s and don’ts when tackling Customer signals management in your own organization. Because it’s not quite as simple as it might sound… Create […]
Customer signals management: an introduction
In my previous column I described the need for a quantum leap in customer service. The next important question for organizations ready to take this step is then: how do I achieve this quantum leap? In this column, I’ll be describing a concept that helps organizations implement this change in practice: customer signals management. Let’s […]
Quantum leap by customer service
Last time around, the column ended with my appeal that the time is right for contact centers to take a quantum leap. And I don’t think they should wait too long before springing into action. Any organization doing it now will have a considerable head start over those companies who still apply the more traditional, […]
To benchmark or not to benchmark
After a number of months’ radio silence, the time has come: the fieldwork is done! In the end, 6 companies from 4 different branches participated in my research, and I’ve completed the analyses for the 6 individual companies. That’s a pretty good source of a benchmark, you’d imagine…. A benchmark. I’ve yet to encounter a […]
Customer centricity: nature or nurture?
In the dialog with companies nowadays, you will be hard pushed to find a company that isn’t talking about ‘customer centricity’. Sentences such as ‘we need to be more customer centric’ and ‘we need to focus more on the customer’ regularly pass by. So what is customer centricity (see this table that compares product-, customer- […]
Visible learning
My research also looks at the degree to which the organization in question has learning capacity, from both the customer and employee perspective. In terms of customers, this concerns whether or not they feel that the organization has reacted to their signals. For the employees, a more detailed study is required into their ideas regarding […]
Justification? Value creation!
As promised in the previous column, this column will discuss the relationship between the customer’s experience with customer service and his loyalty. Loyalty not only to the customer service but to the company as a whole. The results clearly show that there is plenty of munition with which to convince the management. That customer service […]
Drivers of employee satisfaction
Following the munition fired at management in my previous column concerning the value-creating role of customer service, it’s now time to look at the employee results. The results of the first two participants seem to sketch a picture of a homogeneous total set of drivers which play a role (this set of drivers influences 65% […]
More grip on customers’ sentiments
In September, I conducted my main research at the first participating organization, once again looking at the factors which steer customer satisfaction in their contact with customer service. A number of interesting differences became apparent versus the preliminary research, which now offer better insight into the underlying sentiments of customers. The preliminary research presented eight […]