Customer Satisfaction Process Item 1: Be Practical

Create a flourishing customer satisfaction process by fitting it into the way your company actually operates and by recognizing what types of customer information your company can assimilate. Connect the satisfaction process to your company's existing customer oriented programs. Configure your satisfaction process to discover why customers buy your product and what improvements they would appreciate.

Connect to Your Existing Customer Oriented Programs

Among the many popular programs that require or benefit from customer satisfaction measurements are Balanced Scorecard, quality, lean management, strategic planning, customer service initiatives, and new product programs.

Balanced Scorecard

For example, the customer perspective is one of the four major element of Balanced Scorecard programs (along with Financial perspective, Process perspective and Learning & Growth perspective. If your company uses Balanced Scorecard, determine what types of customer information will be most useful to managers of the Balanced Scorecard program, and design these elements into the customer satisfaction process.

For an overview of Balanced Scorecard click here.

Quality

Modern quality management systems nearly always require input about customer satisfaction. From the Baldrige National Quality Program to ISO 9001:2000, quality is being increasingly defined through "the eyes of the customer."

The customer satisfaction process can be connected to quality by being mindful of the types of information quality managers need. In addition to "how satisfied are you" questions, quality systems may require tracking of:

• Customer Perceived Problems (PP100)

• Voice of Customer (verbatim comments)

• Total Product Offering (all customer touchpoints, not just product)

Marketing Planning, Product Planning, Strategic Planning

Don't overlook the annual planning and product planning methodologies your company practices. These planning processes can always benefit from the right kinds of input about customer attitudes. Most business problems addressed by these plans ultimately come down to creating or protecting sales, and sales revenue is always driven by customer attitudes.

Other Popular Customer-Oriented Programs

• Lean Management

• Customer Value (Customer Value Analysis)

• Customer Service (Improving customer service)

• Customer Retention (Customer loyalty programs)

• New Products (All types of new product programs and product design efforts)

What Problem Does Your Product Solve?

One practical insight for customer satisfaction processes is, "What customer problem does our product solve?" Customers often buy products and services for reasons that may not be completely obvious.

For example, automobiles are transportation equipment, but the customer's actual choice of automobile brand, model, color and option package has more to do with the customer's self-image than mere transportation. Automobiles are purchased as a form of self-expression, not as a transportation commodity.

When you REALLY know why your customers buy, your company can concentrate on things that directly improve customer satisfaction.

What Improvements Would Customers Like to See?

Here is a second practical and useful piece of information that can be produced by your customer satisfaction process: Learn what improvements customers would like to see.

This is valuable because it tells you what customers believe to be possible, as well as what will pay off in terms of greater satisfaction. Simply adding one question to the satisfaction survey will yield this powerful information.

Return to Customer Satisfaction Flowchart: click here