Why customer satisfaction advocacy is so important at the start of the year
It is the beginning of the new year. It’s time to take stock of how your organization has been doing: revenue, profit, key product results, and service statistics. It’s also one of the most powerful times to demonstrate to your employees management’s commitment to customer satisfaction. Employees and managers hold the key to customer satisfaction success and this is an ideal opportunity to ensure they are engaged, aligned and committed to delivering a superior customer experience. Strategies, importance, and customer satisfaction results should be part of the regular review of year-end performance metrics.
Employees will watch what ‘results’ are posted internally, as this gives them an indication of management priorities. Employees like to feel that they have contributed to the success of their company. They look at who is being recognized and for what achievements, so they know what is being rewarded. They use these tracks to develop their own skills and plan their careers.
If customer satisfaction results aren’t highlighted during year-end reviews and those who contributed to their success aren’t recognized or rewarded, employees will get the message that customer satisfaction is less important than other areas of the business. Employees will reflect this attitude in their daily activities, resulting in an inevitable decrease in what your customers experience. If, on the other hand, Customer Satisfaction results are highlighted as just as important as revenue and profit and other goals and heroes are praised, that’s a strong message that employees will take notice of.
If you want your customer satisfaction efforts to be successful, make sure your employees see customer satisfaction results as part of the previous year’s achievement review and understand the dynamics that drive superior results.
What are customer satisfaction results?
Customer satisfaction results can take various forms, depending on what is ‘measured’. For many organizations, they are the results of formal customer surveys. You can also include the results of the customer service organization, its metrics, and the volume of calls and complaints. If your organization has begun to gauge satisfaction on the web, through social networking sites, blogs, and complaint sites, include this information as well.
How to Get the Most Out of Customer Satisfaction Results
There are five key areas to focus on
1. Results vs. Goal: Did the organization have a goal or goals to meet? Were the objectives achieved? Which were better than others? What were the lowest ratings?
2. Trends: Are the results getting better or worse? What is the trend for the last few years, quarters, months, or whatever data reporting program the organization is using? Can you explain why?
3. Compare a group within the organization to other similar groups: If the results can be broken down across multiple leaders, geographies, departments, you should show the results as a whole and then the results broken down by geographic zone, sales branch, or service group. Create competition within the organization.
4. Ranking – Take the customer satisfaction results and then break it down to the next lower level of management. Then rank the departments or groups from top to bottom. Put the good results in green and the results that did not reach the goal in red. No manager and their employees want to be at the bottom of the list. Show the results in group meetings to employees.
5. Celebrate success: Reward those who have performed well, recognize them publicly, and tell their stories for other employees to emulate. Sometimes budgets are tight and monetary rewards or promotions are not available. Recognition fills the void. Everyone likes compliments. Mentioning a person’s name in a presentation, putting their name on a wall plaque or even a virtual plaque or trophy provides recognition.
What to do first?
1. Gather data from surveys, services, and web sentiment and analyze the results to identify key drivers and areas for improvement.
2. Prominently post customer satisfaction results in your year-end/beginning of year communication The best place to put them is at the beginning of a year-end/beginning of year presentation, report, or email—even earlier. of the financial results. Do not put them in the appendix or at the end of the communication. Seems like an afterthought.
3. Award and recognize Heroes. Post the names of the people and tell about the situations they were involved in and their challenges and successes. Demonstrate the desired employee behavior that you want to replicate.
4. Highlight action plans for improvement. Assign ownership and estimate timelines for customers to notice improvements. If an action plan has not yet been implemented, responsibility for creating one should be assigned with a promise to get back to affected employees with what needs to be changed and how it will be accomplished. Often this process is done at the management level, from the bottom manager to the top management. But it’s just as important to tell employees across the organization and in specific areas of concern that action is being taken and how they can help.
5. Make sure customer sentiment on the web (social media, blogs, and complaint vehicles such as complaint sites and Sidewiki) is monitored and appropriate resources are assigned to react quickly to any PR crisis.
6. Set goals for the new year.
Summary:
The beginning of the year is a busy time. Make sure customer satisfaction is part of the results collection and is well communicated within your organization. This activity sets the tone for the new year.