Customer Satisfaction Process Item 4: Select Leverage Points

Leverage Points

There is an old story about a plumber who came to unclog a sink. He crawled under the sink, hit a pipe once with his hammer, and the clog washed away. He immediately wrote up an invoice for $150. When the homeowner asked how he could possibly charge $150 for a five minute house call the plumber said, "The house call was only $50. The other $100 was for knowing where to hit."

Customer satisfaction information is like that. When the findings are in there may be many numbers. At this point someone has to pick out the key findings that will be important in improving the product, service or brand. Without this step the whole process may become routine and not acted upon. We call these key findings "leverage points."

Characteristics of Leverage Points

Leverage points generally have unusually low customer satisfaction or unusually high customer satisfaction.

Attend to the low satisfaction items in order to avoid customer defections. Customer who are clearly unhappy are often likely to defect. Discriminate among the low satisfaction items by considering factors such as:

• How much will it cost to fix this item?

• How long will the fix take?

• Does a competitor have a significant advantage in this area?

• How important is this issue to our customers?

Address the high satisfaction items as possible communications messages or points of product differentiation. Building these into your communications messages will help attract customers who will like your product and remain loyal. Focusing additional product development on these items may create a competitive gap or advantage that can be a major differentiator for your brand. This can have powerful marketing advantages. Discriminate among high satisfaction items by considering factors such as:

• Is this item important to customers? (if not don't advertise it)

• Can we enhance this item further and create a competitive advantage, gap or breakout?

• What new product opportunities are suggested by strength in this item?

• Can strength in this item help us approach a new market with our product?

Strategy Matrix

Customer satisfaction systems often report findings in a "quadrant chart" based on the following type of strategic matrix. In the chart below, satisfaction has been measured on a ten point scale, but none of the items averaged less than 5.0. The horizontal axis, "Impact on Satisfaction," is quantified in various ways that go beyond the scope of this document.

The strategy matrix can be related to a SWOT analysis (Strength/Weakness/Opportunity/Threat) in this manner:

• Strengths are in the upper left quadrant

• Weaknesses are in the lower left quadrant

• Opportunities are in the upper right quadrant

• Threats are in the lower right quadrant

Also, even though it says "don't waste resources," items that fall in the lower left quadrant may require some improving if they appear to be causing some degree of customer defection.

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