In a very interesting TED Talks, Daniel Pink, author of “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us,” argues that business’ reliance on employee financial incentives is outdated and counterproductive in many cases. He describes how recent scientific studies showed that using incentives to motivate task completion actually slowed down the test participants. Meanwhile, in the same experiment, those persons who performed the task without an incentive did so in less time. He infers that these results can be repeated in the business world.
The type of task employees are to perform is a critical point here. Tasks with specific and predictable steps are ideal for incentives. When we know exactly how to get from point A-to-Z, an incentive will push us to get there quicker. However, when the task at hand is not routine, when it requires problem-solving and creativity, incentives actually slow our mental processes. We live in a time, says Pink, when many routine and simple A-to-Z tasks are either automated or outsourced, thus leaving us with the more complicated, non-linear work to do. Monetary incentives don’t work in this model.
Many business managers use transaction-based surveys to incentivize their staff. Before launching such an incentive program, it is important for survey owners to recognize whether the transaction being measured is a routine, A-to-Z task, or whether it is the type of problem-solving, non-linear task that does not respond well to incentives.
Most call center transactions, in-home repairs, home and business deliveries, for example, are the type of work that will mix well with incentives. In these cases, the steps required to satisfy a customer are for the most part clear and well-defined. Tasks of a more creative, problem-solving nature are better off not slowed down by financial incentives.
Daniel Pink’s Ted Talks can be viewed here.
-John Garza
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linkedin The National Research Institute, Inc. has recognized Key Health Medical Solutions, Inc, a healthcare financial solutions provider, for the organization’s dedication to constantly improving customer satisfaction. To achieve this distinction, the company scored at or above the 75th percentile in total company score in the time since the last satisfaction survey was conducted.
"Satisfied customers are loyal customers who recommend you to their colleagues, superiors, friends, and family. These customers drive financial performance." said Dr. Jan West, Organizational Psychologist at NBRI. "This award is a result of Key Health’s continued dedication to measuring and improving the customer experience."
Continually improving the customer experience is an integral component to a service-providing organization. Such businesses can use accurate customer satisfaction methods to accurately identify areas that need to be adjusted and those that are working well in the eyes of clients. Key Health Medical Solutions was able to use the previous survey results to make alterations to programs and improve service.
Every point of the customer experience is crucial in an increasingly social world due to advancements in technology. As a result, quickly locating areas of customer interaction that need improvement is vital to the success of an organization.
LEAP Financial, a vehicle leasing company that serves customers who often don’t qualify for traditional credit methods, has achieved superior customer satisfaction based on its recent customer satisfaction survey.
Customers were asked to rank the company from one to five in overall satisfaction, one being not satisfied and five being very satisfied. According to the organization, customers gave the firm an 80 percent satisfaction rating. In addition, an estimated 80 percent of respondents reported that they would recommend LEAP to a friend or family member.
"We are particularly pleased with the feedback we received in our recent customer satisfaction survey," said Tim Condon, CEO of LEAP Financial. "We work hard to understand our customers' situations and will dig into these survey results to understand how we can make their experience even better."
In addition to determining customer’s satisfaction level, the survey asked respondents to rank the reasons why they chose LEAP. An overwhelming majority listed LEAP’s understanding of business practices and the ease of working with its processes as the key reason for selecting the service.
Businesses that invest in accurate customer satisfaction research methods such as Interactive Voice Response (IVR) or live agent surveying can measure feedback to determine customers' overall satisfaction with the service, but also to learn which programs are key reasons for positive reviews. Gain the insight to the needs and wants of a consumer base to better enable initiatives.
Properly designed and reliable research methods promote the business by providing actionable data with which to make decisions. Take the guessing game out of the equation and use customer satisfaction research surveys to improve service or programs and develop a strong brand connection for the customer.
We are often asked how long to keep a web survey active. This depends on a variety of factors, but here we’ll concentrate on the most common scenario we deal with: emailing consumers after a business transaction in order to capture their sense of satisfaction with the service provided.
In our experience surveying consumers through an email-triggered web survey:
- About 40%-60% of completed surveys occur within a day or two of receiving the initial email.
- About 90% of the total completes will come in the first week.
- About 10% of the completed surveys will occur 8-14 days after receiving the initial email.
Please note that the percentages above only describe the proportion of completed surveys that come in at each time frame. They do not describe web survey response rates.
A typical business-to-consumer satisfaction web survey is active for 2 weeks, with a reminder email sent out at the start of the second week.
Survey owners should ask themselves if that last 10% of surveys outweighs extending the eligibility time frame of a web survey past the one week. We recently had a customer limit the eligibility period of their web survey to one week in order to keep consistent with a phone survey they were running in parallel. Other customers choose to keep the survey open for two weeks in order to eke out those last few surveys.
Weigh the benefit of that slightly higher response rate, those few more surveys, with other business priorities in order to determine how long your web survey should remain active. Just keep in mind that most of your surveys will hit your server in that first week.
-John Garza
MuleSoft, the provider of a popular integration platform, announced high first quarter earnings while simultaneously reporting impressive customer satisfaction ratings. The organization achieved a 109 percent increase in bookings in year-over-year, an impressive customer renewal rate of 95 percent and a 97 percent customer satisfaction score.
"Our success in the first quarter of this year is a testament to MuleSoft's leadership and expertise in the application integration space," said Greg Schott, CEO of MuleSoft. "As the year progresses, we will continue doing what it takes to help organizations solve their most pressing integration challenges with technology innovations that include major upgrades to Mule ESB and launch of the SaaS Edition for our cloud integration platform, Mule iON."
Businesses that exhibit such high customer satisfaction rankings rarely achieve them by ignoring what customers want. Using high-quality and accurate customer satisfaction research methods enables a company to make strong program and service decisions.
Identify how well programs are serving customers with tailored feedback measurements. The results can provide an organization the knowledge it needs to improve and become an industry leader with impressive earnings and satisfaction scores.
Which government agency did better than even Amazon, traditionally a high-scorer, in customer satisfaction according to the latest research? According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, the Social Security Administration (SSA) exemplifies positive customer satisfaction.
While Amazon traditionally has received the highest score in many customer satisfaction surveys in recent years by achieving a rating of 89 on the 100-point American Customer Satisfaction Index, it did not do better than the federal agency, according to the Federal Computer Week.
The SSA received a customer satisfaction score of 92 on the index for its iClaim website, a 91 for its Retirement Estimator website and tied with the retailer with an 89 for its Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Costs, the source reports.
"Three of SSA’s nine measure websites outperform or tie Amazon," said Larry Feed, president of Foresee Results Inc, to the House subcommittee on May 9th.
According to the news source, this good news came after the agency launched a new Social Security Statement online feature, which allows Americans to register with the agency online and view personal statements regarding income and future benefits. Already, 150,000 people have signed up for it since its debut on May 1.
Overall, the SSA received the highest satisfaction score of all the federal agencies, including the Homeland Security Department with a score of 78.7, Health and Human Services at 78.4 and State at 76.4. The overall score for all 190 federal websites was a very respectable 75.2.
Businesses and government agencies alike can greatly impact customer satisfaction with the useful resource of a website. Conducting customer satisfaction research to rate the success of a current design can be an integral component to the functionality of the communication portal in the future. Use satisfaction feedback to provide guidance on the facets of the site that the average user would most appreciate.
New Jersey Transit doesn’t have the best track record for customer satisfaction. According to The Star-Ledger, the nation’s third largest public transit agency has had to wait a year since implementing a customer satisfaction survey to gain an acceptable rating.
On a scale of 10, 0 being unacceptable, 5 being acceptable and 10 being excellent, the transit agency received a rating of 5.8 on the latest quarterly score card. This is the best customer satisfaction review NJ Transit has received. However, it is slightly below NJ Transit's goal of 6.
"We’ve made significant gains," NJ Transit executive director Jim Weinstein said to the news source after the agency’s monthly board meeting. "It doesn’t mean we’re perfect. It doesn’t mean that we don’t have a ways to go, but we’re committed to doing that … We’re on the right track."
When broken down by individual modes of transportation, the bus scored a 5.9, rail rated a 5.3, light rail achieved a 6.9 and Access Link service for the disabled earned an impressive score of 8.3. The scores were comprised of an estimated 13,000 customer satisfaction surveys conducted between February 21 and March 12. Respondents were asked to rate the transit agency in 41 categories.
Upon further breaking down the survey results, bus customers were found to give the highest mark to NJ Transit’s website with a score of 7 and the lowest to announcements and information during service disruptions at 5. In addition, rail customers ranked the website well, at 6.8, and gave the lowest score to fares with a score of 4.1.
An agency can use reliable customer satisfaction survey methods to determine where it is succeeding or failing in the eyes of the customers. Focusing on the problems that cause dissatisfaction with statistically valid measurements can support solid business decision making.
How are you judging the success of service initiatives?
According to Business Insider, movie rental service Netflix may finally be recovering from the poor customer satisfaction reviews and approximately 1 million canceled accounts it experienced in the second half of 2011.
Netflix was once at the top of the online retailer category in certain customer satisfaction surveys. However, the organization almost faced extinction after deciding to implement a drastic price increase. In the most recent study from consulting firm ForeSee, Netflix now ranks 20th among online retailers and received a customer satisfaction score of 81.
"Netflix made some business and financial decisions while ignoring the customer," Larry Freed, the author of the study, told Business Insider. "They lost some customers forever but at least they're retaining and bringing in new ones."
The increase in customer satisfaction levels is being attributed to improved online streaming, increased selection and reduced wait time for new movies. By conducting research and using the data to improve service a business can better improve the customer experience and reduce the probability of public outcry erupting due to unpopular decisions. Gain an understanding of the potential positive or negative impact of an initiative before it is too late and the company loses the good reputation it has cultivated.
For Netflix, the organization offered customers increased value in order to re-establish the loyalty lost during the price hike. Other businesses suffering a recent dive in positive satisfaction feedback can use improved offerings to retain customer loyalty.
NextUC, a cloud-based Microsoft Lync communication product, finished April 2012 with record numbers in customer satisfaction, product availability and record user adoption.
"Another record month of performance on a wide variety of key performance indicators," said Bob Barnes, VP of product marketing and sales. "NextUC believes it takes a number of successes to deliver customer satisfaction and NextUC is delivering well on the goals of the organization."
Using a Net Promoter Score (NPS) as a customer satisfaction indicator, the company received a score of 43 due to strong product performance and customer engagement.
Companies dedicated to serving their customer completely can benefit from high-quality satisfaction feedback measurements. Business leaders can gain knowledge on what services or products are meeting customer expectations – in addition to what is failing to keep up. Use quantitative data to streamline the decision-making process and determine how the performance of an organization or product can be improved, if necessary. Execute quality research initiatives to gather accurate data. How are you judging the success of business ventures?
TMT Development has been awarded the 2011 Real Estate Customer Service Award for Excellence. The organization received the recognition based on superior customer service and overall customer satisfaction. This is the second year the real estate and ownership development company has won the A-List Award.
The award is only given to companies with a customer satisfaction score of 85 percent or more based on three satisfaction indices and nine business factors. A company will be judged on how well it scores in satisfaction categories that include overall, property and service. Business factors include numerous topics, such as readiness to solve issues, responsiveness and property and relationships.
"Service is our business and our clients always come first," said TMT President Vanessa Sturgeon. "It is paramount that everyone in our organization invests in building long-term relationships and in helping our tenants find solutions at every turn."
Finding solutions for customers is what first rate service organizations do. But keeping on top of where you fall short – or where customer expectations have changed – requires on-going measurement. By using live agent or web-based surveys, organizations can confidentally set priorities, identify individuals who need coaching or even design new service offerings.
