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Measuring and Tracking Customer Satisfaction
Measuring and Tracking Customer Satisfaction
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About Zoomerang
Zoomerang ( www.zoomerang.com ) o ers an easy way for businesses to get fast answers to important questions. With more than 100 million surveys sent and counting, Zoomerang has grown rapidly and has been adopted worldwide. The number of subscribers using Zoomerang surveys has doubled every year since 1999, and Zoomerang has been featured in Fortune magazine, on NBC News, and on the NBC Today show. Zoomerang is part of the MarketTools family, a leading provider of technology and advisory services for conducting Web-based market research.
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$80 $70
Cost Per Customer
"It's six to seven times more expensive to gain a new customer than it is to retain an existing customer." "A 5% increase in customer retention can increase profits by 25% to 95%."
(Source: Bain & Company study in Harvard Business Review, 2001)
Customer Type
Moreover, one bad experience can outweigh a whole lot of good experiences. Because of e-mail and instant messaging, that bad experience can quickly be broadcast to dozens, hundreds, or thousands of other customers, magnifying its impact. So if your business is doing something that frustrates customers, you need to know right away. It is critical to give customers the opportunity to provide feedback about their overall satisfaction level and specific likes and dislikes. It is equally important to consistently measure and monitor that input. Without an effective customer satisfaction research program in place, your company will be losing business, missing opportunities, and putting itself at a competitive disadvantage. 3
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If you have 2,000 or fewer customers, survey as many as your budget will permit; if you have more than 2,000 customers, interview a random sample.
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> Random selection. First, it is essential that a random selection of customers be contacted to avoid introducing bias into how the customers were selectedand to help ensure that the sample of customers is representative of the entire customer base. For example, if a company surveyed only customers who contacted customer service, those individuals may be very different from customers who have not contacted customer service. > Margin of error. Next you need to establish the level of precision you want to have in the accuracy of the results. The margin of error (also known as a confidence interval) is an indicator of sample accuracy for random samples. It is the plus-or-minus figure that is commonly reported with news polls, such as plus or minus four points. In a customer satisfaction example, if the reported result is 80% satisfaction with a 4-point margin of error, that means the true answer is somewhere between 76% (80 4) and 84% (80 + 4) assuming the whole population of customers had been asked. The larger the sample size, the more accurate the results (or the smaller the confidence interval). > Confidence level. Then you need to determine how certain you want to be that the survey results are within the margin of error. The confidence level indicates the level of certainty that the survey results are within the confidence interval for random samples. Typically, researchers use the 95% confidence level. Together, the confidence level and margin of error together describe the certainty you have in the precision of the data. For example, for a reported result of 80% satisfaction at the 95% confidence level with a 4-point margin of error, you can say that you are 95% certain that percentage of satisfied customers is between 76% and 84%. The table below outlines the sample sizes needed for different customer bases at varying levels of accuracy at the 95% confidence level.
+/-5%
+/-10
92 94 95 96 96 96 96
Another important consideration in determining the sample size is how much analysis will need to be done on groups of customers. To analyze customers in particular industries or regions, the sample size should be adjusted to at least 75 people in each group. A number of online sample-size calculators are available that will provide the sample size necessary for a particular confidence interval, or the margin of error for a particular sample size. Just search sample size calculator with your search engine of choice on the Internet.
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> Speed. The Internet offers instantaneous distribution of survey and real-time accumulation and tabulation of results. This allows for immediate data analysis, even while the survey is still in progress. Because customer satisfaction results are used to identify problems and fix them, the faster responses arrive, the faster they can be addressed. In contrast, mail surveys suffer from long lag times and low response rates, as low as 5%. Telephone surveys take longer because of declining response rates. Refusal rates for phone interviews have reached 60% (AC Nielsen, 2004). With the ease of answering online surveys, they can be completed faster and a broader segment of the customer base can be reached. Depending on a number of variablesthe relationship with the survey recipients, the length of the survey, whether a reminder is sent, and whether an incentive is offeredresponse rates for online surveys can be upward of 35%. Even for online surveys in which there is no prior relationship with recipients, response rates can be 23% to 31% (Quirks Marketing Research Review, 2005). > Candor. People are more honest when their answers are not filtered through someone on the phone. This is essential for research on sensitive subject matter where studies indicate people are more likely to answer questions on the Web than they are on the phone or in personal interviews. (Quirks Marketing Research Review, 2003). The removal of interviewer bias and the elimination of the wait time for an interviewer to record results also yields more candid and complete responses to open-ended questions. This is particularly important when customers volunteer additional information to explain their satisfaction ratings. Such responses provide insight into what a company is doing well and frequently provide warning signs about the health of the business relationship. > Cost. The Internet eliminates many of the costs associated with traditional marketing research. Online surveys avoid postage and telephone costs as well as basic materials like paper, staples, envelopes, and printing. Because it is self-directed, there is no interviewer cost. Finally, its more convenient so the cost of offering incentives can be reduced. Online and offline methods of data collection can also be combined. If offline methods are necessary for part of the customer base, the data for customers who can be reached only via mail, in person, or by telephone can be input to an online survey tool. That way all survey results can be captured, reviewed, and analyzed together.
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An insightful alternative to the 5-point satisfaction scale for customer service is a 5-point expectations scale. It provides clear direction and allows customers a polite way to suggest that a company has not done a great job. The 5-point Expectations Scale for Service
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30%
Very Satisfied Somewhat Satisfied 35% 40% 40% Neither Satisfied nor Dissatisfied Somewhat Dissatisfied 5% 14% 18% 10% 8% 9% 8% 7% 9% 6% Very Dissatisfied
11%
0%
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
A succinct way to measure how well a company is succeeding in minimizing low scores and improving top scores is to calculate the satisfaction differential by subtracting the bottom two-box scorethe combined percentage of those saying they are very or somewhat dissatisfiedfrom the top two-box score. A company that is successful on this metric will see this number increasing over time. The table below illustrates that score for the example trend report.
Conclusion: This company is successfully minimizing low satisfaction scores and improving top satisfaction scores; the satisfaction differential is increasing each quarter.
Q1
Q2
44
Q3
58
Q4
63
Satisfaction Differential
(Top two-box Bottom two-box)
33
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Competitive benchmarks for customer satisfaction can be difficult to come by because this is typically proprietary information. Moreover, competitors results cannot be accurately interpreted without knowing the specifics of question wording and the scales used. The satisfaction ratings for the recipients of the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award given by the U.S. Department of Commerce, however, provide some insight into those companies that have been recognized for achievements in quality and performance. Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award Recipients Satisfaction Ratings
Company Name
(Year of Award) DynMcDermott Petroleum Operations (2005) Caterpillar Financial Services Corporation (2003)
Category
Service Service Small business Small business Healthcare Healthcare Manufacturing
Satisfaction Rating
85% 93% 98% 95.8% 97% 90% >88%
Park Place Lexus (2005) Pals Sudden Service (2001) Bronson Methodist Hospital (2005) Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton (2004) Motorola Commercial, Government, and Industrial Solutions Sector (2002)
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4. Contact Customers
If possible, dissatisfied customers should be personally contacted to see if there is something that can be done to improve their perception of the business. This is important not simply to increase the odds of keeping that customer but also to prevent negative word of mouth. The personal contact itself may succeed in doing that. Additionally, a discount or free product should be considered. If policies or products are changed based on customers feedback, those customers should be contacted to let them know about those changes and that their feedback was taken seriously.
Additional Resources
Zoomerang recommends the following resources to learn more about customer satisfaction research: > Lester, Tom. The Cost of Not Caring for Your Customers, Financial Times, January 30, 2006. > McGregor, Jena. Would You Recommend Us? Business Week, January 30, 2006. > Reichheld, Frederick F. Loyalty Rules! How Todays Leaders Build Lasting Relationships (Harvard Business School Press, 2001). > For more information about online survey research, please visit the MarketTools Resource Library.
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MarketTools, Inc. Zoomerang 150 Spear Street, Suite 600 San Francisco, CA 94105 U.S.A. 800-316-0662 sales@zoomerang.com
Copyright 2006 by MarketTools, Inc. This white paper can not be copied or distributed without MarketTools permission. This whitepaper may be used by Zoomerang Subscribers only.