FESmag

Joseph Carbonara

Taking a Fresh Look at Customer Satisfaction
August 13, 2008

One common metric most every organization uses to gauge its performance is customer satisfaction. In doing so, companies will ask their customers how well the organization is doing in meeting their needs in a few specific areas. If the data comes back favorably, then the company might even consider using it in their marketing or sales pitches. But after attending yesterday’s FIA Symposium in Chicago, I am left wondering if these metrics are truly accurate.

I say that because when management creates a customer satisfaction survey they tend to ask only about those factors that are most important to the company. Rarely are these based on those factors that the customer finds most important.

Please don’t take this the wrong way. I am not saying companies should not evaluate customer satisfaction against their core competencies. What I am saying is companies need to make sure they have a solid understanding of what’s important to their customers and how well they are doing in addressing that need.

“By looking at what’s only important to you will not be able to define what’s important to your customer,” said Steve Dragoo of Service Solutions Consulting. A noted author, Dragoo also served as the FIA event’s featured speaker. “As a result, you might have good customer satisfaction results but will be creating customer sacrifice.”

To me the concept of customer sacrifice is something new. To paraphrase, customer sacrifice refers to the difference between what the customer really wants and what they are willing to settle for in a given transaction. So, the point here is that customers might give a company decent marks for the product or service provided but you will never really know if it was what they truly wanted unless you ask.

So the next time your company takes a look at the way it measures customer satisfaction, it might be a good idea to see if the tools used allow for the customer to share their point of view about what’s really important to them and not just offer feedback on what was provided.

In doing so, no aspect of your business should be considered off-limits. Question every aspect of your customer interaction. “Are there things in your business that you have always done that might be causing customer sacrifice?” Dragoo asked the audience.

Both perspectives are important in order for your company to continue to move forward. Balancing what’s important to your company with value as defined by the customer will help separate the thriving businesses from those that continue to muddle along as they always have.

Posted by Joseph Carbonara on August 13, 2008 | Comments (0)