How does customer feedback help a company?

Customer feedback is corporate self knowledge garnered from customers within a short time of a sales transaction. This feedback is designed to allow our clients to systematically determine whether:
(1) they are producing products and services that customers really want (Right business) or (2) they are producing products or services that ensure repeat customer purchases at the lowest cost to the firm (Correctly done business). This knowledge permits clients to maintain customer alignment using the most effective processes.

Isn't calling customers much more expensive than using a mail survey?

Our experience shows that telephonic surveys are significantly less expensive than mail surveys. The primary reason for this is that telephonic surveys do not have the problem of non-response common to all mail surveys. Well crafted sampling plans can return a great deal of valid factual data at a fraction of the responses and costs required by volunteer paper surveys. The flexibility of telephone scripts compared to preprinted survey forms also makes changes possible with little or no cost or delay.

Don't the people you are calling hate to be interrupted at home?

No! Our clients' surveys are solely for the purpose of determining the appropriateness of a product or service and its quality. They are short and non-intrusive. The vast majority of customers we call are appreciative of the concern our clients display by asking how things went at the time of the transaction. Some clients have conducted focus group surveys in which their customers indicated that a post transaction call is very desirable.

How do your clients really use the facts that they get from customer feedback?

 There are a variety of applications of customer feedback. Some clients use this knowledge to drive compensation systems based on their customers' perceptions of the quality of the business transaction; whether retail or business to business. Other clients use this feedback to identify internal operational processes that create broken customer promises. Still another use of customer feedback is as a real time analysis of the alignment between the company's activities and customer needs.

What sort of people does TeleSight use to make these calls?

The TeleSight, Inc. work force consists mainly of local university and college students. All interviewer positions are permanent part-time positions. We are centrally located in Chicago and draw interviewers from Northwestern, Loyola, De Paul, University of Illinois- Chicago and several other schools. Our interviewers have a wide variety of majors. They all bring bright minds, an ability to interact with customers on a high level and an understanding of the seriousness of the role they play.

How do you train your interviewers?

Training at TeleSight is a continuous process. After initial training about the company, the mission and their role, interviewers are assigned a coach/supervisor. The role of this person is to monitor the performance of the interviewer related to the on-line demeanor of the interviewer, the performance of the interview to client standards, and the accuracy of the interview process including the transcription of simultaneous verbatims. Each interviewer is coached about their performance every week for as long as they are employed. They are paid according to their performance every two weeks with top performers earning a premium.

Do I have to be an information systems specialist in order to work with you?

No. A client's responsibility is to give us customer lists however they have them. It is our responsibility after that to devise the process that works for us. It is also the client's responsibility to tell us how they want results posted or communicated. It is our responsibility to get that done. Our present clients' requirements range from monthly printed reports to electronically transmitted daily reports to over 700 locations.

How long does it take to get a survey up and running?

Barring unusual technical problems, TeleSight can normally have a survey up and running within a month of establishing the questions to be asked and receipt of customer lists. In most situations the hard work is the collaborative process of working with the client to frame survey questions so that the results and the clients' own internal reward systems will drive behavior to actually improve customer retention and the identification of broken processes.

What are the cost drivers for a survey?

There are three key cost drivers, each of which impacts the labor required to accomplish your individual survey: The number of places that need to be surveyed, the frequency of the survey and the length of the survey. Statistics will determine the number of completed surveys that you must have per unit/time frame based on the accuracy level desired and the total number of transactions. TeleSight charges are based on our performance: the number of completed surveys (usually on a monthly basis) and the generation of reports.

What cost justification is there for doing these type surveys?

There are at least two types of cost justification that can be used to estimate the dollar benefit of having the knowledge that customer feedback provides. The first justification is derived from an estimate of what it really costs to lose customers. For example, if your firm has a 90% customer satisfaction rate it also has a 10% customer dissatisfaction rate. Using that figure you can estimate the potential cost of having customers elect not to come back and having those same unhappy ex customers talking about their bad experiences.

The second way to cost justify a survey effort is based on your firm's estimate of the cost of providing bad service or making bad products. For example, how much does your customer support department cost or how much does it cost to handle back orders or repair/warranty work? These costs and others are the result of failing to do things correctly. Our surveys can identify those processes that customers think are broken and create a path for a firm to eliminate the costs that they create. In almost any firm the benefits of eliminating the costs of poor quality significantly outweigh the costs surveying to discover the nature of the problems.

The world's largest PC software provider needs to stay abreast of the value of its technical support network which supports over 60 product categories. TeleSight was chosen to provide an on-going telephonic survey which provides customer based measurements of the quality and timeliness of services and support provided. The survey system is paperless and provides feedback within 72 hours of customer contact, which the client makes available to the product support areas in real-time.

A large northeastern bank holding company is expanding it's market share through the acquisition of local smaller banks. During an acquisition of this sort it is critical to know how the bank's customers perceive the takeover process and any changes that may occur in services or account management procedures. TeleSight was asked to perform several post-takeover customer surveys to monitor quality of the communication process as well as the net customer reaction to this strategy for expansion.

The world's third largest retailer needed to get a handle on the quality of its own stores' efforts to recapture market share and reinvent themselves in the customer's eye. TeleSight was asked to design a statistically accurate, on-going quota based survey of the stores with the object of getting accurate feedback to the logistics organization.

The world's second largest van line and transporter of household goods and personal effects wanted to ensure that its quality efforts were paying off for its agents (dealers). TeleSight was selected to conduct an initial survey of importance and satisfaction followed by longitudinal follow-up surveys to assist the management of this firm stay in touch with their efforts to reduce costs and improve service.

Newspapers not only have service issues they need to deal with in terms of building customer retention, they have editorial and content issues as well. To assist a media company with almost twenty diverse newspaper markets build customer retention, TeleSight designed a monthly survey that provides customer feedback about content and service while giving important customer segmentation information. This research is now an essential element of corporate planning.

An inbound call center providing warranty support services for a large number of clients chose TeleSight to perform continuing customer follow-up calls to measure the success and quality of the telephonic services that they provide. These telephonic survey services have enabled them to improve their services, identify work process problems and have tangible evidence of the quality of their services for their important clients.

When mailing costs skyrocketed for a client's mail-in customer survey, TeleSight came up with a telephone interview that reduced overall costs, assured valid results and speeded up response time. The result was actionable information that managers could use to get better. In two years, performance scores improved 10 points.

After a multi-million dollar compensation review, the nation's second largest retailer decided to pay its employees based in large part on customer satisfaction research. TeleSight was selected to conduct customer surveys that would be the foundation of the metrics needed to accomplish this objective. The project requires more than 1 million calls to customers per year.

Introduction of two new products required total focus of one client's sales force. To make sure that customers for their core products didn't suffer, a sales surrogate program was established at TeleSight. Monthly calls were made to more than 400 dealers providing them with ordering information, responding to questions or connecting them to client contacts when necessary. An in-bound 800 number provided these dealers with immediate response to any problems.

Checking on the performance of truck drivers was a key component for one client's stepped-up customer satisfaction efforts. After losing an important customer, this company wanted more control over every area of customer contact. By tracking deliveries on a weekly basis, each plant manager gets actionable data about what customers think about the distribution services and products they are receiving.