Customer Satisfaction Process Guidelines

[for interactive process diagram click here]
[to download this tip sheet (pdf) click here]

The properly operating customer satisfaction process creates value by adapting the organization to its customers. This produces a prosperous win-win situation. Make your customer satisfaction process operate at full strength by following these guidelines.

Be Practical - Address the Existing Situation

• Connect the customer satisfaction process to existing goals and priorities

• Strategic plan, strategic marketing plan, brand or product plan

• Lean management

• Balanced scorecard

• Total quality, customer driven quality, ISO quality, Baldrige quality

• Customer value, customer focus, customer service, customer retention

• New products, product design, engineering, product usability

• Learn what problem customers are expecting your product to solve for them

• Discover what improvements customers would most appreciate

Involve the Right Managers

• Identify managers of each company process that touches your customers

• Ask touchpoint managers what they want or need to know about customers

Conduct Actionable Research

• Design and carry out the study so it produces reliable, accurate information

• Analyze results statistically so they can be relied upon

• Report results clearly and quickly to the touchpoint managers

Select Leverage Points

• Protect (improve): important or strategic items that have low satisfaction

• Differentiate (promote): important or strategic items with high satisfaction

Initiate Satisfaction Projects

• Develop project charters, missions and rationales

• Compute benefit/cost estimates

• Establish success metrics

• Gain authorization to proceed with specific projects

Coordinate Satisfaction Projects

• Select teams and project managers

• Fund projects

• Carry out projects and provide progress reports

Manage a Satisfaction Program

• Link projects using an overall Satisfaction Program Report or Dashboard

• Track project benefits, costs and success metrics with post completion audits

• Note the program's overall effect on your product, service or brand

Download this page in Adobe Acrobat format: (PDF 1 page, 118kb)

See our Overview of Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty, with links to websites and books: (click here)

Contact Survey Value Inc. to reproduce or distribute this page: permission.

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