Customer Satisfaction Surveys

Customer Satisfaction Defined
Customer satisfaction is "the state of mind that customers have about a company and its products or services when their expectations have been met or exceeded. This state reflects the lifetime of the product or service experience."

The "Best" Approach For Building Customer Satisfaction Surveys
The best approach to measuring customer satisfaction and building customer satisfaction surveys depends on the kind of product or service provided, the kinds of customers served, how many customers are served, the longevity and frequency of customer/supplier interactions, and what you intend to do with the results.

Three very different approaches both produce meaningful and useful findings:

• Post Purchase Evaluation - Satisfaction feedback is obtained from the individual customer at the time of product or service delivery (or shortly afterwards). This type of satisfaction survey is typically used as part of a CRM (Customer Relationship Management System) and focuses on having a long term relationship with the individual customer
  
  
• Periodic Satisfaction Surveys - Satisfaction feedback from groups of customers at periodic intervals to provide an occasional snapshot of customer experiences and expectations.
  
  
• Continuous Satisfaction Tracking - Satisfaction feedback is obtained from the individual customer at the time of product or service delivery (or shortly afterwards). Satisfaction tracking surveys are often part of a management initiative to assure quality is at high levels over time.

Satisfaction surveys are developed to provide an understanding of customers' expectations and satisfaction. Satisfaction surveys typically require multiple questions that address different dimensions of the satisfaction concept. Satisfaction measurement includes measures of overall satisfaction, satisfaction with individual product and service attributes, and satisfaction with the benefits of purchase. Satisfaction measurement is like peeling away layers of an onion-each layer reveals yet another deeper layer, closer to the core.

All three methods of conducting satisfaction surveys are helpful methods to obtain customer feedback for assessing overall accomplishments, degree of success, and areas for improvement.

General Satisfaction Measures
Customer satisfaction usually leads to customer loyalty and product repurchase. But measuring satisfaction is not measuring loyalty. The following are typical satisfaction questions asked:

1. Overall, how satisfied are you with (brand name)?

2. Would you recommend (brand name)?

3. Do you intend to repurchase (brand name)?

These satisfaction survey questions can be asked in a number of different ways, focusing on different reference points focus on:

Expectations and their Confirmation or Disconfirmation (was worse, better than expected)
Performance of the product or service
Emotional measures of satisfaction (good feelings, bad feelings, happy, sad)
Willingness to repeat behavior (assumes satisfaction)
Direct measures of overall satisfaction

In addition, the scales used in customer satisfaction surveys vary from a simple 5 point "Very Satisfied to Not at all Satisfied" scale to graphical scales targeted at special groups such as children (smiling faces scale).

Some of these satisfaction scales are demonstrated in the following page. Note that there are many, many variations of each of these scales, that might reflect slight wording changes or different numbers of scale items.

Sample Customer Satisfaction Survey Questions

Customer Feedback: Voice of the Customer
Successful companies understand the importance of the Voice of the Customer (VOC). Our professionals have over 25 years experience consulting with fortune 500 companies. Companies who know us, know more about their customers. We give our clients the methods and processes to maximize their customer interaction and gather the most appropriate data possible for corporate decision making.

"Voice of the Customer" addresses both strategic and operational decisions of the corporation using a hierarchical customer needs analysis. VOC prioritizes needs according to the importance to the customer. A key criterion in total quality management, Voice of the Customer, drives the Baldrige Award criteria. As stated by The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the first key concept in the Baldrige Award criteria is that "quality is based on the customer (NIST 1991, p. 2)."

Voice Of The Customer Surveys
Our Voice of the Customer monitoring system allows data integration to any CRM solution. We have experience working with Siebel, Microsoft, People Soft, etc. Customer surveys can be sent automatically and on a continual basis with no human interaction. Sophisticated customer tracking and smart text piping options may be used to customize and pre-populate the questionnaires based on the individuals CRM or account information.

Our clients are using the VOC system to send automatic surveys to their customers after using a help desk, making an online purchase or registering a new product. VOC surveys are personally addressed to the individual while asking specific question based on the customers recent purchase or request.

Our clients are using these opportunities of satisfaction surveys to help determine market segmentation, product evaluation and awareness along with overall satisfaction of the customers' experience.

In the chance of the customer being extremely dissatisfied with a process or purchase, our clients can access or receive via e-mail a copy of all dissatisfactory surveys. Customer feedback is sent immediately via email to a designated individual inside the organization for timely follow up and quality control.

As an example in the consumer products area, one manufacturer observed a long term decline in sales of a leading item in their product line. Management struggled with determining whether the decline was due to quality issues or due to other issues related to product appeal. Using Voice of the Customer technology, important customer needs were identified. More in-depth analysis showed that these needs were associated with key design attributes that could be easily modified to improve product quality. The net result was a reversal in sales decline and rejuvenation of an important part of the product line.

Our unique research based approach to VOC, the Voice of the Customer analysis integrates customer satisfaction with needs analysis to fix gaps in the competitive environment. Qualtrics Voice of the Customer technology satisfies information needs while keeping the customer in mind.

For more information about our customer satisfaction solutions, please contact one of our project consultants.