Customerservice
Do you measure customer satisfaction other than simply tracking sales?

If you do, how do you do it?

American customer satisfaction declined in the second quarter of
2008 with no reasonable momentum  according
to
the American Customer
Satisfaction Index
(ACSI) from the University of Michigan’s National Quality
Research Center, writes MarketingCharts.

Here are some brief highlights of top performing brands:

  • Google surged in the internet portals/search engines category (a 9 point gap between Yahoo)
  • Apple performed well (85)
    among a slumping personal computer manufacturer category (and as a recent Apple convert – I can say Amen to that)
  • Autos are at an all-time high, American automakers
    significantly trailed foreign competitors. Lexus and BMW are the leaders at 87 and Toyota and Honda are at 86. Mercedes Benz, once No. 1 in customer satisfaction, has seen slow, steady erosion to around
    the industry average.

With poor customer satisfaction, brands lose not only unit sales, but pricing power and more.

Commit to keeping your promises and doing better. And, commit to conducting a better form or multiple forms of customer satisfaction measures for both your internal and external customers.

Here are a few of the many dimensions you could measure when you develop your scorecard:

  • Quality of service
  • Speed of service
  • Pricing
  • Value
  • Complaints or problems
  • Trust in your employees

Then determine how you plan to measure with:

  • Focus groups
  • Customer Advisory Boards
  • Online Surveys etc.,

Put a plan now in place for year end and beyond.

Customer Satisfaction could be your category killer.