 |
||
 |
Current Issue | Past Issues | Contact Us | Advertising | www.pei.org | |
 |
|
|
Distributor Satisfaction SurveysAsk your customers what they think.By Bradley Baker
Customer expectations are constantly changing. Competition keeps raising the bar regarding what is acceptable, what is not acceptable, what exceeds expectations and what disappoints. The only way to know what customers think is to ask them. Distributors are our customers, and a survey is an exception- ally simple, yet amazingly powerful, tool to get a clear read on their perceptions of the company performance. While surveys are easy to create, the following key concepts can assist in increasing the quality of the data collected. Targets — Rarely do organizations only have one person who unilaterally makes all decisions; as a result, all contacts in the organization should be targeted with the survey. Some surveys will go to the person who places the order; some to the person who uses the equipment; some to the person who maintains it; some to the person who checks the quality. Each plays a key role in the feedback loop. Survey Types — Surveys can take a number of different forms: electronic, fax, e-mail or direct mail. Offering a number of completion methods and return methods will increase the number of surveys returned. Surveys should never be more than two pages long, with the majority of questions being check boxes or rankings with only a few open-ended questions. Ultimately, making the survey completion as easy and straightforward as possible will increase the quality of the data collected. Incentives — Creating a reason for customers to take the time to complete the survey will dramatically increase the return percentage. Generally, a return rate of four to six percent is considered good. However, survey return rates approaching 25 percent or more are possible if a small incentive is offered. A $5 gift card to Starbucks or an entry into a raffle work well. Data Analysis — Once the surveys are returned, analyzing the results for trends over time is critical. Simple averages of the question results can be used to create a monthly summary view. Ideally, process changes or improvements that are implemented will be the results of customer feedback. In addition, comparing the ratings versus the customer's perception of the importance can be useful when resources are limited. Expending effort to correct a poor rating only makes sense if it is an area that the customers highly value.
The chart above indicates a large performance gap in Attitude; however, Attitude is not ranked very high in terms of importance to the customer. Similarly, the performance gap is negative for Quality, Timeliness, Delivery—all areas that do not need improvement, maybe even less focus. In this particular example, the best prioritization of resources, based on the needs/desires of the customer, would be on Price or Responsiveness. Frequency — An annual survey is typically adequate in terms of coverage data collection. However, staggering the survey distribution into 12 monthly periods can increase the “real time” nature of questions/replies. Assuming the monthly samples are random and equally representative of each other, questions can be changed as improvements are made. Also, if a question is awkwardly worded or does not result in valid data, a quick change can be made for the next month. Customer surveys are built on the concept that everything done today can be done better tomorrow. Communicating the results within the organization can help everyone focus on the needs of the customer. Continuous improvement will take the shape of the needs of the customer. Ultimately, improvement without feedback is a waste of effort. |
||||
 |
||||
|
||||
