First Step Marketing

Here is a quick list of pointers to help you create a top-notch performance-measurement feedback system.

Begin with your service strategy

If it’s well designed, you will find a number of measurable premises in it. A company with a ‘zero-defect forty-eight hour turnaround on all orders’ has a strategy that is eminently measurable.

The service strategy should also suggest some less obvious measurements. For example, a company strategy should suggest certain internal measurements, such as ‘where does the service-delivery programme break down?’

Measure your service frequently

In many businesses, particularly restaurants, once a month is a minimum but obviously this type of feedback depends very much upon the type of industry and whether an external or internal customer is under consideration.

Ask customer-based questions

Tap both the customer’s experience (’What happened to you?’) and the customer’s perception (’How do you feel about what happened to you?’). The customer’s specific personal experience and interpretations are far more enlightening than open-ended general questions such as ‘On the whole, how was your stay?’ or ‘How did you feel about our product?’

Ask fair questions

Ask questions which can yield information the staff themselves can act upon. Concentrate on people-regulated processes, not machine-regulated systems that people are powerless to change.

Collect group and individual data

Look for data that can be helpful to individual performers as well as to working groups. The people responsible for the cleanliness of the rooms in a hotel need to know specifically how the guest felt about the cleanliness, as well as the general view of the hotel service.

Watch the competition

You should also try, where possible, to collect information on the sales, market share and levels of customer satisfaction of your competitors, at least twice a year. A well-known retail chain sends its managers out into the malls to ask how customers feel not only about their own stores, but about the competition’s stores.

Collect both quantitative and qualitative data. The measurement system should collect numerical ratings as well as customer comments. Both need to be analysed and discussed and specific comments should explain the numbers. Both kinds of information are useful.

Make the results visible

Displaying the results emphasises their importance. It destroys the notion that customer ratings are something held in confidence and not discussed with the frontline, that is, those employees who deal directly with customers. Frontline results should be posted where frontline people can see them.

Make sure the results are employee-friendly

Simple straight-forward averages and ratios work better than artificially compiled and weighted index scores. People are more likely to understand that ‘87 % of customers rated frontline employees cheerful and helpful’.

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
Small Business Service Quality Programme: Guidelines for Effective Measurement

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 at 11:01 pm and is filed under Business Management, Business Plans, Customer Service, Startup. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.