Delivering on the customer promise

Conventional wisdom suggests that to find out what your customers really think of your products and services, you need to ask them directly.

The problem with this wisdom is that it scares many organisations off from finding out the truth. Perhaps no news is better than bad news, right?

Well, you may be able to avoid running a customer survey but you can't avoid unhappy customers leaving, taking with them their money, goodwill, and a negative message about your organisation to their friends.

There is another way you can find out about customer concerns that may be less threatening, says JRA senior consultant Brett Oetgen - ask your employees. "Staff who deal with your customers have a good understanding of how their needs are being met, and will be full of ideas on what needs to change to improve the customer experience."

The JRA Best Workplaces Survey asks employees if their organisation 'delivers on the promises it makes to its customers', "and employees certainly seem to respond honestly to this question," says Oetgen.

In last year's survey, just 59 per cent of employees working in low performing organisations agreed that their employer met their customer promise, where on the other hand 90 per cent of employees working in high performing organisations agreed.

"These numbers might be surprising to a CEO who thinks that their organisation is doing a good job," says Oetgen. "This sort of feedback tells them that their own staff don't even feel like they're making their customers happy. With the strong link that exists between customer satisfaction and profitability through repeat business and recommendations, this feedback shouldn't be ignored."

And if staff are part of the problem identification process, they can in turn be part of the solution. "Dealing with issues like poor communication and teamwork by definition must include everyone, and staff will likely have good ideas on process and policy improvements as well. At the very least, open discussion about these issues can result in everyone understanding why we do things they way we do, and reduce frustration," says Oetgen.

The 11th annual JRA Best Workplaces Survey is run in association with The New Zealand Herald, and is available June through 31 August. A record number of registrations have already been received.


www.bestworkplaces.co.nz