Customer satisfaction

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Customer satisfaction, a business term, is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. It is seen as a key performance indicator within business and is part of the four perspectives of a Balanced Scorecard.

In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for customers, customer satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a key element of business strategy.[1]

There is a substantial body of empirical literature that establishes the benefits of customer satisfaction for firms.

Contents

[edit] Measuring customer satisfaction

Organizations are increasingly interested in retaining existing customers while targeting non-customers;[2] measuring customer satisfaction provides an indication of how successful the organization is at providing products and/or services to the marketplace.

Customer satisfaction is an ambiguous and abstract concept and the actual manifestation of the state of satisfaction will vary from person to person and product/service to product/service. The state of satisfaction depends on a number of both psychological and physical variables which correlate with satisfaction behaviors such as return and recommend rate. The level of satisfaction can also vary depending on other options the customer may have and other products against which the customer can compare the organization's products.

Because satisfaction is basically a psychological state, care should be taken in the effort of quantitative measurement, although a large quantity of research in this area has recently been developed. Work done by Berry (Bart Allen) and Brodeur between 1990 and 1998 defined ten 'Quality Values' which influence satisfaction behavior, further expanded by Berry in 2002 and known as the ten domains of satisfaction. These ten domains of satisfaction include: Quality, Value, Timeliness, Efficiency, Ease of Access, Environment, Inter-departmental Teamwork, Front line Service Behaviors, Commitment to the Customer and Innovation. These factors are emphasized for continuous improvement and organizational change measurement and are most often utilized to develop the architecture for satisfaction measurement as an integrated model. Work done by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (Leonard L) [3] between 1985 and 1988 provides the basis for the measurement of customer satisfaction with a service by using the gap between the customer's expectation of performance and their perceived experience of performance. This provides the measurer with a satisfaction "gap" which is objective and quantitative in nature. Work done by Cronin and Taylor propose the "confirmation/disconfirmation" theory of combining the "gap" described by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry as two different measures (perception and expectation of performance) into a single measurement of performance according to expectation. According to Garbrand, customer satisfaction equals perception of performance divided by expectation of performance.

The usual measures of customer satisfaction involve a survey [4] with a set of statements using a Likert Technique or scale. The customer is asked to evaluate each statement and in term of their perception and expectation of performance of the organization being measured.

[edit] Methodologies

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The University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) is a scientific standard of customer satisfaction. Academic research has shown that the national ACSI score is a strong predictor of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, and an even stronger predictor of Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) growth. On the microeconomic level, research has shown that ACSI data predicts stock market performance, both for market indices and for individually traded companies. Increasing ACSI scores has been shown to predict loyalty, word-of-mouth recommendations, and purchase behavior. The ACSI measures customer satisfaction annually for more than 200 companies in 43 industries and 10 economic sectors. In addition to quarterly reports, the ACSI methodology can be applied to private sector companies and government agencies in order to improve loyalty and purchase intent.

The Net PromoterR score is a management tool that can be used to gauge the loyalty of a firm's customer relationships. It serves as an alternative to traditional customer satisfaction research. Companies obtain their Net Promoter Score by asking customers a single question (usually, "How likely is it that you would recommend us to a friend or colleague?"). Based on their responses, customers can be categorized into one of three groups: Promoters, Passives, and Detractors. In the net promoter framework, Promoters are viewed as valuable assets that drive profitable growth because of their repeat/increased purchases, longevity and referrals, while Detractors are seen as liabilities that destroy profitable growth because of their complaints, reduced purchases/defection and negative word-of-mouth. Companies calculate their Net Promoter Score by subtracting their % Detractors from their % Promoters.

The Kano model is a theory of product development and customer satisfaction developed in the 1980s by Professor Noriaki Kano that classifies customer preferences into five categories: Attractive, One-Dimensional, Must-Be, Indifferent, Reverse. The Kano model offers some insight into the product attributes which are perceived to be important to customers. Kano also produced a methodology for mapping consumer responses to questionnaires onto his model.

SERVQUAL or RATER is a service-quality framework that has been incorporated into customer-satisfaction surveys (e.g., the revised Norwegian Customer Satisfaction Barometer[5]) to indicate the gap between customer expectations and experience.

J.D. Power and Associates provides another measure of customer satisfaction, known for its top-box approach and automotive industry rankings. J.D. Power and Associates' marketing research consists primarily of consumer surveys and is publicly known for the value of its product awards.

Other research and consulting firms have customer satisfaction solutions as well. These include A.T. Kearney's Customer Satisfaction Audit process[6], which incorporates the Stages of Excellence framework and which helps define a company’s status against eight critically identified dimensions.

One of the newest and most innovative customer satisfaction measurement methodologies is called Gustometria. Gustometria is realtime measurement of customer and employee satisfaction. Customers are invited to answer a short survey by touching the "gustometer" screen with their fingers. The responses are collected immediately by the Gustometria servers which tabulate the results in real time. Management can then log into their private website and use the sophisticated business intelligence reports which are built in to the Gustometria system.

Most innovative contact centers make increasing use of multi-media surveys including web, email and telephone surveys. Although extremely challenging, many have introduced automated voice surveys at the end of a call, provided by companies such as VIRTUATel. These use IVR technology, whether hosted or on-premise, to collect the valuable feedback data collection. However, the real power of such surveys is in making use of sophisticated data analysis techniques and comparison indicators such as Advocacy Index to drive powerful Performance Management to increase customer retention and revenue per-customer rates[7].

[edit] Improving Customer Satisfaction

Published standards exist to help organizations develop their current levels of customer satisfaction. The International Customer Service Institute (TICSI) has released The International Customer Service Standard (TICSS). TICSS enables organizations to focus their attention on delivering excellence in the management of customer service, whilst at the same time providing recognition of success through a 3rd Party registration scheme. TICSS focuses an organization’s attention on delivering increased customer satisfaction by helping the organization through a Service Quality Model.

TICSS Service Quality Model uses the 5 P's - Policy, Processes, People, Premises, Product/Services, as well as performance measurement. The implementation of a customer service standard should lead to higher levels of customer satisfaction, which in turn influences customer retention and customer loyalty.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Gitman, Lawrence J.; Carl D. McDaniel (2005). The Future of Business: The Essentials. Mason, Ohio: South-Western. ISBN 0324320280. 
  2. ^ John, Joby (2003). Fundamentals of Customer-Focused Management: Competing Through Service. Westport, Conn.: Praeger. ISBN 9781567205640. 
  3. ^ Berry, Leonard L.; A. Parasuraman (1991). Marketing Services: Competing Through Quality. New York: Free Press. ISBN 9780029030790. 
  4. ^ Kessler, Sheila (2003). Customer satisfaction toolkit for ISO 9001:2000. Milwaukee, Wis.: ASQ Quality Press. ISBN 0873895592. 
  5. ^ Johnson, Michael D.; Anders Gustafssonb, Tor Wallin Andreassenc, Line Lervikc and Jaesung Cha (2001). "The evolution and future of national customer satisfaction index models". Journal of Economic Psychology 22 (2): 217-245. ISSN 0167-4870. 
  6. ^ Bluestein, Abram; Michael Moriarty; Ronald J Sanderson (2000). The Customer Satisfaction Audit. London: Prentice Hall. ISBN 9780273647072. 
  7. ^ VIRTUATel
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