6 Steps To Improving Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty
In these difficult times of limited budgets, many managers ask, "Is the amount spent on customer satisfaction and loyalty measurement programs really worth it?" The answer is "No"--unless these programs deliver the knowledge you need to attract, retain and increase business with your customers. Six Sigma and other silver-bullet programs that rely heavily on satisfaction metrics won't help unless they focus on driving desirable customer behaviors. To be successful, customer satisfaction and loyalty measurement programs must do six things.
Listen to the voice of the customer. Go beyond a single, all-purpose survey. To get the customer knowledge you need, you must use multiple listening posts that gauge satisfaction and loyalty at multiple levels--that take the pulse of the overall relationship, as well as the day-to-day transactions. The best listeners, moreover, include all stakeholders, from customer decision-makers, to customer end-users, to channel partners, to employees.
The listening process must capture and evaluate appropriate product, service, cost and image factors that may affect customer behavior. While many company executives and managers believe that they know and can articulate these factors, it is easy to get off track with this inside-out view. You need to hear directly from customers in their own words, and not rely on internal jargon that may be meaningless to them. Only customers can tell you what drives their satisfaction, loyalty and value perceptions.
