Measure What Matters
By:
Mark Rosenberger
It's been asked, "How can you hit a target you can not see?"
Not knowing how we're doing with customers or Trapeze BuddiesTM is like aiming at a target in the dark. It's hard to hit, harder yet to be consistent and is darn right frustrating in the long run.
So…it's essential you ask the right questions to get the right customer feedback.
Here's my true to life adventure story: I recently purchased a Lexmar Jumpshot USB enabled CompactFlash reader. That's fancy for-It'll quickly move my digital pictures from my camera to my computer. I installed the software according to directions and it didn't work.
I spent several hours trying to figure out why the unit wasn't working. And bear in mind, I am no computer wizard so everything takes me about 4 times longer than someone who knows what they're doing. I then went to the Lexmar website to seek technical support.
I was hoping for a person who could give me the solution I needed. However, I was offered an "instant messaging, live chat room" type gizmo where I typed my question and a few minutes later an answer appeared. I typed more information and back and forth the game went.
You've got to get a picture of this: Here's a guy who is a technical neophyte (me) who has no clue what questions to ask other than the gizmo he bought doesn't work. I'm sure I'm writing in Greek and the tech support person is writing in Geek. It takes me literally two hours, that's 120 minutes, to go back and forth walking through a variety of steps, re-writing the next message only to conclude I don't have the proper drivers. After two hours the thing still doesn't work.
So, round 2 begins. They send me the drivers and it still doesn't work. I reluctantly jump back on the "live chat" (I actually think it's "semi-live chat" because the time lag between answers is so long you wonder if anyone is even listening…) to find out what's next. Bear in mind, I've about had it with the process, the results and aggravation. I'm thinking I'll just go buy someone else's compactflash unit and call this a GREAT learning experience.
After another TWO-HOUR session it still doesn't work! I give up, I quit, that's it, I'm done. Tomorrow I'm off to the computer store to buy another unit-this time from the competition.
The next morning I receive an email asking me to evaluate and offer feedback on my "live chat" experience. It offered me five questions:
1. How did you find out about our live chat?
2. Why did you prefer using live chat instead of sending an email or calling our support line?
3. Was your question resolved to your satisfaction?
4. Will this be your preferred way of contacting us in future?
5. How might we improve your live chat experience?
I shot back a lengthy reply with the intent of offering Lexmar several perspectives which might help them improve service for the average consumer-like me. I figure since on a professional basis I help companies design strategies to double repeat and referral business, teach Customer Satisfaction Measurement at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and I've just spent four hours in chat room hell, I was uniquely qualified to offer some PLUS 10% ideas.
Asking the right questions is critical in obtaining the right customer feedback. Let's explore a couple of points and PLUS 10% ideas from this example:
1. Be very clear on the intent of your question.
Is it a customer satisfaction question-looking for feedback on how you did and how you can improve or is it a marketing question? Either question is fine but NEVER say you want satisfaction feedback and then hit me with a zillion marketing questions. The customer will see right through the intent and your credibility will be instantly jeopardized. Question 1 above smacks of marketing hidden behind a veil of my satisfaction.
2. There's danger in assuming.
Question two assumes too much. The reason I choose the chat room was because I had called for a live person, first. However, I was prompted to leave a message and had not gotten a call back in three days. I was using plan B. If customers just answer this assumptive question, it gives the company no chance to recognize the breakdown in the voice system. Which leads me to the next point...
3. Questions must be actionable.
Does the answer to the question give me information I can use to impact my people, processes, and perspectives? If the answer is "No", it's nice info but I can't use it-don't ask it. Look at question 4: You basically have two choices-Yes or No. If I give the company a Yes, it might validate that people will use it or they prefer it to not getting answers at all. If I answer No, it doesn't tell me why or why not or what is preventing me from using the service in the future. Not real actionable at the end of the day.
4. Questions must matter to the customer and the company.
Let's face it-customers won't give you a lot of time to ask their questions. You'd better get the most bang for the buck-ask how you're performing on the items that matter most to the customer. For example, you can look at your customer and discover that there are three to five performance standards most critical to the satisfaction of your customer. If you were in the restaurant or health club business you'd know that "cleanliness" always ranks as one of the top two "most important" satisfiers. If that's important, you'd better make sure you're doing a brilliant job on this point.
5. Take Action.
If you ask me for my input and I give it, voicing my concerns as honestly as I can, you'd better take action. If I do business with you again and experience the same headaches and hassles, you've just sent me a very clear message: My input doesn't matter. If you're going to ask it, you've got to be willing to change it.
Happy ending: I'm happy to say that after my 889 word response to the survey, I got an instant email and call from the customer service manager. He promised a real live tech person would call me immediately. Once we connected, it took only twenty minutes, with a real live person walking me through the paces and I was up and running! And five minutes of that was waiting for the new driver to show up in my email.
I am now a happy customer, and love my Lexmar Jumpshot USB Compactflash device. (It's really fast!)
You can now see how asking the right question is essential if you want to hit the target called "Increased Customer Satisfaction"!
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