"Perfect Knowledge"--Fuel For The Service Business (Part 1)

I am continually amazed by companies who say they value client relationships, but rarely measure (or measure annually at best) the levels of satisfaction of their customers. Further, when results come in, the reaction is predictable: if high, then the management team has done a great job; if low, the survey methodology needs fixing. In most instances, the client teams are told to work harder to satisfy the customer. Work harder...and then we hope to see improvement next year.

Predictably, these actions don't result in systemic improvement; instead random relationship events drive the results.

Companies that strive to be the best servicers in their markets must:

1. understand what aspects of service is important to their clients;
2. measure realtime how they are doing in meeting these important expectations;
3. establish a process to improve results, using the data as the most important "truth."

Understanding What Is Important To Clients

Top Service Providers should strive to achieve perfection. That is, they should want to fulfill their clients' definition of "the perfect service partner." When that is acheived, clients will stay at profitable prices (retention), they will tell others (references), and they will buy more (cross-sell). That is the magic formula.

But first, we must understand how customers define "perfection."

One method that I have used is simply to ask clients to define "The Perfect Service Partner." We are not interested at this point in how well we are measuring up to that standard, but to understand the categories upon which we need to be measured.

Survey techniques vary here--from answers to open questions to clients selectioning answers from lists. By having clients select those attributes that are important, and then weighting those selections versus one another, the result is a list of categories that we can use to measure our performance.

For example, the list will likely include:

• Timely deliverables
• Accurate processing
• Low cost

But the list may also include:

• Human contact available when I need them;
• Expertise in topics;
• Relationship manager knows my business/empathetic;
• Any issues will be addressed immediately;
• Professional.

Your company is not just evaluated on getting the job done, but is also being measured on how easy you are to work with, how reliable you are in extraordinary situations, how expert you are in handling each client's unique issues. Processing timeliness and accuracy is the commodity. Premium service is delivered person-to-person and the top service providers understand that and measure it.

With these categories, you should have an idea of what is expected. If you are delivering against these 10-12 categories in every interaction with your customer, you are likely doing very well. We call these categories Key Satisfaction Factors (KSFs).

Measure Satisfaction Often and Timely

For each client interaction, your desire is for the client to evaluate how well you did. There, however, is a practical limit to the granularity of this approach since throwing surveys at clients every day may get tedious and become an issue in and of itself. It is a good idea to discuss this approach with the client, and determining the frequency of survey that suits them.

How you survey will depend on your company's capabilities, but top firms focus on:

• ease of distribution
• ease of completion
• ease of collection
• ease of access to data

My team developed an email distribution of survey notices with a secured link to a survey page on the web. Simply by clicking on the link, the client is able to access the survey. The questions are simple to answer with a single click and when completed the data is automatically collected into our survey database for review. An email is generated to client service team alerting them to the completed survey.

The questions are easy to understand and complete:

For this transaction, was the information delivered within our committed timeframe?
5--Yes, perfectly
4--Yes, but slower than we want
3--Mostly
2--No, the information was late
1--We are still waiting

For this transaction, were we available to answer any questions if needed?
5--Always
4--Mostly
3--Sometimes
2--Infrequently
1--Never

An important point which will be discussed in the next Post is that analyzing data requires consistent questions across transactions and across time. Therefore, the wording of the survey is important.

Next Post: Analyzing The Data