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Case Studies – Customer Feedback Surveys................ Page 3
The core of any customer feedback survey is a list of supplier attributes that respondents are asked to rate for Importance and the Supplier’s Performance. They number between twelve and seventeen and range from obvious ones such as Product Quality, Customer Service and Price to less obvious ones such as a “Can do” attitude and the Accuracy of the Paperwork. They are designed to cover every facet of a company’s operations. The feedback not only provides overall measures of a company’s performance from its customers’ perspective but also a satisfaction rating for every function it undertakes to meet customer needs. RCR International www.rcr.com.au has regularly commissioned bpi to conduct feeback surveys among its customers. The latter include the major hardware chains and commercial users. In addition to the monitoring of customer satisfaction levels, RCR uses the feedback to align and motivate its staff. “When Graham completed the first survey” says Mike Amiel, RCR’s Managing Director “ we asked him to present the findings at a strategic planning workshop. It was a fantastic way to kick off the workshop as it really turned our minds to what our customers thought about us. It reinforced the need to look at all the issues we debated at the workshop from the customer’s perspective.” “Nowadays, all members
of staff attend the presentation of the latest feedback. Ours is
a team effort and I’m there to give praise where it’s
due, to make sure that everyone knows the goals and the strategies
to get there and to lead the discussion on what we can do even better
to meet customer needs. The commitment and enthusism of our staff
is key to achieving success”, Mike adds “and everyone
sharing in the feedback – whether or not it’s directly
related to them – is a good way to stimulate ideas and help
everyone appreciate the big picture”. Tesselaar Flowers - Where have all the flowers gone? The supply chain for cut flowers is a highly sophisticated one. Not only does the natural product vary in quality and quantity, the supply chain also has to handle a product with an average “shelf-life” of six days from grower to the final consumer. After delivery to Tesselaar, the flowers are briefly stored in cool rooms, each set to a specific temperature dependent on the variety, before distribution to the florist in specially designed containers. Moreover, Tesselaar stock around 400 different products from exotic seed pods from Queensland to orchids from Thailand. 100 retail florists participated in the survey, divided into groups of 20 depending on which of five distribution centres serviced their needs. The survey form itself was put together by bpi and Steve White, the CEO and joint owner of Tesselaar Flowers. “Ours is a highly decentralised operation – we have a tiny Head Office staff – the managers of our distribution centres do the buying as well as overseeing the sales operations. Tesselaar is the only supplier that operates nationally so each region has its own group of competitors. We wanted to quantify the strengths and weaknesses of each region and to see where our competitive advantages were.” The feedback and its analysis has met Steve’s expectations. “We now have a very clear picture of our performance by Distribution Centre. I am close enough to the market to form overall impressions but having quantitative data in the form of Customer Satisfaction Indices, Performance Gaps and golf scores really lends substance to these. And there were some surprises - but we have a very clear idea of the areas that we need to focus on to further improve our performance.” As is always the case with these surveys, there are also spin-off benefits. Tesselaar have a policy of using trained florists in sales positions in the belief that it is important that Tesselaar staff understand the market from their customers’ perspective. Tesselaar’s customers certainly agreed, giving them one of the highest ratings for quality of service that bpi has ever recorded. “All our Distribution Centre managers have discussed the feedback with their staff”, says Steve White. “It’s a good motivator to be “in” on such an exercise as well as to receive a pat on the back from their customers that they speak to – often on a daily basis”. The average participation rate among respondents for these surveys remains at 94% so we can guarantee that the feedback is highly representative. One reason for this is that we will never market research or promote new products and services directly. If customers are to participate, they need to feel that there is something in it for them. So when a client approaches us and asks us to get some feedback on a new product or service that the organisation is considering, we obtain that feedback for the client but not in the way that might have been anticipated. Rather than explore the appeal of the solution, we focus on exploring the problem or problems that the new product is designed to address. This way, not only do we quantify the customers’ needs without disclosing any information about our client’s developments, but we tap into the customer’s real area of expertise – problems and issues – rather than solutions. Other Feedback surveys include: John Danks & Son - Customer service – balancing IT and people Fenwick
Software - Key Performance Indicator
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