This feedback will be based on their collective experiences of IT , in contrast to the transactional survey which asks them about a particular support interaction .
If you use a Net Promoter-style survey , responses to the “ What ’ s the number one thing you ’ d like us to improve ?” question are extremely useful as input to your service improvement strategy .
Listening Post 3 : Compliments & Complaints
Transactional surveys enable you to capture feedback at the completion of a specific support transaction . And relationship surveys capture more generic , periodic feedback . What about feedback a customer wants to give you right now ?
For this you can use a Compliments , Complaints and Suggestions form . You can publish a link to this form as a hyperlink wherever your customers will see it – your website , intranet , service portal or email footer .
The Service Recovery Paradox : Customers are happier after a good recovery , than if there was no service failure in the first place
# 3 CUSTOMER SATISFACTION METRICS
Practical Tips
Tip 1 - Start with transactional surveys - they have the biggest and fastest impact on culture .
Tip 2 - Don ’ t design any survey by committee – you ’ ll end up with an unwieldy survey that ’ s time-consuming to complete , difficult to analyse and hard to turn into action .
Tip 3 - Ensure your survey looks and works well on mobile devices . Smartphones and tablets are used more and more for work so make sure your customers can complete your surveys while they ’ re on the go .
Tip 4 - Associate survey responses with customers so you can follow-up with them if necessary . For transactional surveys and complaints , you ’ ll want to contact those who are dissatisfied so that you can attempt to recover the situation and benefit from the Service Recovery Paradox .
Tip 5 - Communicate with customers so that they know their feedback is being put to good use . Be sure to thank customers for feedback ( good and bad ), share what you ’ ve learned from it , and communicate the improvements that you ’ ve got planned and have implemented . The stronger the link between action ( providing feedback ) and results ( things are getting better ), the more willing your customers will be to ignore their survey fatigue and continue to complete your surveys .
If you want to be customer-centric you have to measure and track customer satisfaction . Your transactional and relationship surveys will both give you a Net Promoter Score that you can use to do this .
Traditional IT metrics ( e . g . based on response / resolution targets and hours of service availability ), are a poor proxy for customer experience . There are so many factors that contribute to customer satisfaction , that go beyond just speed and availability .
Try standing in front of a room full of unhappy customers , showing them all your green traffic light reports , and telling them that they should be happy . There ’ s even a name for it :
The Watermelon Effect . It ’ s where your SLA reports are all green and customers are still red and angry .
Beware the Watermelon Effect !
Time-based metrics are no substitute for customer satisfaction .
13 itSMF Bulletin — November 2017