Business-to-Business and Consumer |
Serving the following Markets:
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Customer Satisfaction: Influence on Product / Service Design |
| Information Need | A major IT company felt that they were not
receiving the full benefit of their performance measurement program (customer
satisfaction research) and wanted to understand what could be done. Customer satisfaction work is basic research for most companies, yet it is often only used as a means of fulfilling some requirement, such as a loyalty initiative or the need for bonus calculations. Seldom is performance measurement used as a proactive tool in product design or service strategies, or even as input to market positioning. This company wanted to better utilize the mounds of information it had been accumulating over time, but it needed some fresh input, some guidance from its customers. The goal was to gain additional return on the research investment by directly linking the performance measurement to new product design and service delivery. |
| Target Population | B2B customers |
| Research Methodology | Customer focus groups, customers site visits, and internal 1-1 interviews held across North America, along with a reanalysis of past data. |
| Methodological Challenges | Often, as in so many other types of performance
measurement studies, the challenge is to get beyond the basics of good product
and good service (call me back in a timely manner, and so on).
I have spent years listening to respondents say the same thing about product or
service requirements. Many research practices dislike performance research
because it appears to be so repetitive, nothing new under the Performance
Measurement Sun. Again, as mentioned elsewhere in these pages, it's not so much the performance attribute categories (although which categories of product or service should be emphasized this year is always under investigation) that need to be emphasized as the stories that make up the product and service tales. Residing within these stories are the gems that go into a redesign of a product or a service strategy. So much work has been done since the 1980's on performance measurement and translating that into quality service improvements that one might think nothing else can be accomplished. Wrong! Every time some one thing is fixed, it simply opens up the sight lines to see a dozen more problems. Just the passage of time can change a business model. Go after the stories, but also determine the relative ranking of importance associated with any story type. |
| Outcome | Successful project. Several product and service enhancements were identified, systemic issues associated with these findings were found in the past data re-analysis, and everything was presented to a cross-functional committee of department heads for further action. |
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| Contact: John M. Jessen |
| Copyright © 2006 Soundings Research |
| Last update: 04 / 2010 |