Mr. Luo is the general manager of a private enterprise which produces consumer electronics such as mobile phones and computers. In order to improve operation efficiency and offer better service, Mr. Luo made the decision two years ago that the customer satisfaction survey and improvement should be carried out inside the company every six months.
In two years, the satisfaction survey helped the company solve some problems and win certain public praise inside the industry. However, in the course of satisfaction survey, different opinions were formed in the company: the personnel in favor of the satisfaction survey thought it has improved the enterprise’s management level, product quality and relationship with the customers, while the opponents thought the investment on satisfaction survey and the result thereof should be still tested by time; also, restrictions and limits are available. So, Mr. Luo faces the dilemma: go ahead and further the management and application of satisfaction survey, or draw back to pursue other better methods?
During a forum inside the industry, Mr. Luo met a marketing service expert called Xiao He, who made a brief introduction on the current satisfaction survey management.
Business circle: ways available
The satisfaction survey is adopted by different industries and enterprises as a routine job for the management. The types of satisfaction survey are listed as below:
Type I: Understand and meet the customers’ demands
Subject: Learn about existing or potential users’ reflection on the products/services at various stages
Representative fields: home appliances, telecommunications and retail sale
Result: Find out the defects of products and services, so as to make improvement; develop promising products or services
Popularity: ????
Type II: benchmarking management
Subject: Make a comparison on the gap with major competitors and reason hereof in terms of key indicators
Representative fields: automobile, IT and aviation
Result: seek the benchmarking enterprises; set up the advanced standards
Popularity: ??
Type III: participate in performance assessment
Subject: Propose the improvement of indices with low degree of satisfaction and great importance; also, assessment shall be made
Representative fields: home appliances, automobile and catering
Result: offer KPI indices; improve operation efficiency
Popularity: ?????
Type IV: improve the customer value
Subject: Subdivide the customers, so as to concern on the demands from key/high value customers
Representative fields: finance, telecommunications, retail sale and hotel
Result: help market segmentation; seek high value customers
Popularity: ???
Type V: increase brand reputation
Subject: Launch relevant propaganda to increase brand reputation
Representative fields: aviation and finance
Result: boost the brand establishing
Popularity: ???
In practice, one or more of the above types will be adopted by enterprises as per the different fields or phases of development
Field of theory: perfection seeking
In practice, satisfaction management will also face certain challenges:
Challenge I: satisfaction trap
As per the survey, satisfaction trap may exist - the enterprise invests both manpower and material resources to improve products and services, so that the customer satisfaction is increased. However, customers do not recognize such improvement. In a bid to remove the "Satisfaction Trap", the enterprise could provide the customer with better experience through higher quality and more diversified products & services. Thus, the customer's perception exceeds expectation and customer loyalty is enhanced.
Challenge II: ceiling effect
It is said that the degree of satisfaction affects the enterprise's profit-making through the customer conservation rate (loyalty). However, someone also points out that the customer conservation rate will remain still when the customer satisfaction arrives at a certain level. Therefore, it does not remarkably affect the increase of enterprise's profits. Such ceiling effect enlightens the enterprises in two aspects: on the one hand, enterprises shall improve the customer satisfaction to a certain level via procedure improvement and performance control, so that the customer conservation rate could reach or be close to the optimal value; on the other hand, when the customer conservation rate arrives at the limit value, the enterprise shall keep the rational degree of satisfaction via pre-warning indicator, sustainable improvement and customer value subdividing.
Challenge III: how to make effective measuring
As the measuring standards for customer's experience on products or services, the degree of satisfaction features subjectivity and wave property. Thus, higher requirements are proposed for truly and effectively measuring of consumer satisfaction. In practice, the third party's market study and consultative body could assist the enterprise to build the proper index system for the degree of satisfaction as well as fully participate in the satisfaction survey and analytic process thereof, so as to ensure the quantification and accuracy of decision-making.
Satisfaction survey management: find the right way
Specifically, in the course of satisfaction management, the enterprise shall pay close attention to following points:
Strategic positioning: The satisfaction management could be used not only in the enterprise's different fields, but also as the key item to balance the scorecard, to diagnose and improve the entire operation system. As it is used at the very beginning, the enterprise shall ascertain the positioning and objectives of satisfaction management.
Open mind: The satisfaction management is a tool used for fully learning about the customer's perception, experience and evaluation. So, the enterprise shall positively participate in the index system design, problem diagnosis & improvement and examination.
Using outside brain: The specialized processing capacity shall be available for satisfaction management due to its strategic position and overall importance. So, the enterprise could seek the assistance from "Outside Brain" - professional consulting company or organization to solve the issues as below: custom-made index system; independent, objective and authentic data; standardized quality control & implementing procedures; satisfaction survey-related training; suggestions on optimizing of satisfaction management.
Improving focus: The satisfaction management shall eventually produce the fruitful result. So, the enterprise shall regularly track and evaluate on the result of satisfaction management in terms of product quality, service level, customer loyalty, customer response speed, employee satisfaction and enterprise's profit-making.
Resource allocation: The satisfaction management is used to learn about the customer's demands, timely feedback the market information and make sustainable improvement. So, certain resources shall be available for it in such aspects as satisfaction management organization; satisfaction data collection; satisfaction report & feedback mechanism; tracking and evaluation system for satisfaction result; detailed regulations for satisfaction management examining and budget management.
Author: Jack BIE, Research Manager, Marketing Research Services, Sinotrust
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