Many companies have high customer satisfaction rates but have a difficult time translating the high satisfaction-levels into action.
This problem often occurs when an organization fails to effectively measure all drivers of the customer experience.
To avoid this pitfall, and to ensure your Customer Experience program generates the anticipated ROI, Dr. Vikas Mittal, a Professor at Rice University, suggests going beyond simply measuring “overall satisfaction.”
Instead, a better approach involves taking a customized, comprehensive approach by identifying and measuring the key drivers of customer satisfaction for your organization.
“I was involved in a satisfaction study for a document delivery company,” Vikas explained. “Customer interviews showed reliable delivery to be a key driver. But this was not specific enough. Further research showed that, by reliable delivery, customers really meant delivery within two days… which became the new standard.”
He also warns against taking a one-size-fits-all approach, and recommends segment-specific analyses to avoid working to improve the wrong things.
Recognizing how customer relationships and priorities evolve over time is also a factor. “Trust and confidence might be very important to customers in the early stages of the relationship; but, over time, efficiency or quality might become the key drivers of satisfaction.”
Finally, it is imperative to tie customer satisfaction to retention and referrals.