Customer Satisfaction Measurement - The Leadership Factor

23 Years at the same company

I went to a friend's emigration party last week. Emigrating isn't that unusual, but what was unusual was the amount of time that he been with his employer in the UK - 23 years. He's been with the same company from joining them as a 16 year old apprentice working his way through to senior management and then finally leaving them for pastures new at the age of 39.

What struck me is just how rare this longevity is now. Of course, most people don't expect their employment with one organisation to last anything like this length of time, but that isn't the only factor. A quick strawpoll amongst other people at the party confirmed what I thought - in general terms, people get dissatisfied with their current employer / position / reward / prospects and move on. This begs the question, was my friend fortunate enough to work in an organisation that tries hard to satisfy its employees, or was he (as some would argue) not ambitious enough?

How long do people normally stay with your organisation? Why?

Treating Customers Fairly?

The OFT has published a report measuring the impact on consumers of instances of unfair treatment by companies, which they term "detriment". They calculate a cost to consumers of £6.6bn over the last 12 months (which I suppose is about £130 each?).

They estimate that just over half of us have experienced a problem, and that only 64% complain. The findings from the UK Customer Satisfaction Index, a national measure of customer satisfaction we run for the ICS which also covers problems and complaints, show a more positive picture. UK organisations give an average of 17% of their customers a problem, with 72% bringing that problem to the attention of the organisation concerned.

Why the difference? Well the complaints figure is very comparable—the slight difference is probably down to minor variations in question wording. The problem figure is different because it's measuring a different thing. The OFT are asking how many of us have a problem with any of our suppliers in a year, whereas the UKCSI is focusing on a specific supplier for each respondent. I think that's a better measure of how frequently companies create problems for their customers.

Nonetheless the OFT report does make worrying reading, particularly for those sectors identified as the biggest offenders. Those responsible for most financial detriment were insurers, home maintenance and improvements and personal banking.

The largest number of problems were with telecoms, domestic fuel providers and personal banking, which tallies quite well with the UKCSI findings.

Show me the data

Nicholas Bissantz has another great post over at his blog. He returns to a favourite theme of his (and mine)—simplifying data for greater clarity is all very well, but sometimes it's best to show the actual numbers.

Averages can hide a wide range of actual performance. With large data sets, like surveys, we address that with statistical tools such as variance, standard deviation and confidence intervals. But what do you do when dealing with data that isn't statistical?

Bissantz suggest graphing the data points as well as the average, a technique that I've found very useful with small samples:

His example makes the point nicely—three very different real-world situations that would produce the same average, and therefore the same conclusion for an unwary analyst.

Are online customers more demanding?

I caught part of a BBC radio programme on customer service in the UK today. One of the points that was being discussed was whether or not customers of web services or shops are more demanding than their 'bricks & mortar" counterparts. There didn't seem to be a clear distinction one way or the other (at least in the part of the programme I heard).

I think that anecdotally, most of us don't have particularly high expectations of customer service on the high street. Moreover, even if you get great service one day, there are no guarantees that you'll get it next time. Obviously, there are companies that achieve above average results, but in broad terms we don't expect that much. Perhaps our expectations are shaped by the inconsistent service delivery we receive (see Rachel's article in this month's Stakeholder magazine for more on this topic).

My personal take on this is that many people seem to approach online shopping with higher expectations than they would if they were going into a store. I suspect that this is because most of us have our first experience with online shopping at somewhere like Amazon. Amazon seems to always figure highly in customer satisfaction surveys, so it sets a very high benchmark and perhaps, sets high expectations. It also offers an incredibly consistent standard of service delivery. However, as you have probably experienced yourself, not all online stores work to such exacting standards. So is it the case that online customers are more demanding or have they been trained to expect better?