Customer Satisfaction Measurement - The Leadership Factor

Free wifi

I'm posting this from the National Express train from Wakefield to London. Like many people I was a bit sad when GNER lost their franchise, and worried about what would happen when National Express took over.

One of the changes I have noticed is that the wifi connections available in the carriages are now free, which is a massive step forward. It's time the rest of the world realised that providing wifi and then charging the earth for it is far more likely to irritate customers than to satisfy them, and certainly won't earn you enough money to justify the aggravation.

Making it free, on the other hand, is a genuine benefit for customers, and has the advantage that it doesn't cost you much at all. You get a double benefit at the moment because so many companies are too stupid to see that they should offer it for free if they're going to offer it at all.

It may seem like a little thing, but National Express have just exceeded my expectations at minimal cost to themselves—good move.

Involving employees

One of the questions we're often asked is how to get ideas for improving satisfaction. There are many answers [PDF], but one of the easiest (and best) ways is to ask employees for ideas.

Whether it's improving customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, or process efficiency, employees have a wealth of knowledge and ideas that you could benefit from tapping. This is an area where new technology can really offer something, turning a corporate intranet into a vibrant discussion forum instead of a tightly-controlled propaganda pamphlet. If you trust your employees and value their input.

You could use specialist tools or adapt open source solutions for the job, but either way isn't it time you got your employees talking?