Working on customer focus and customer satisfaction is high on the priority agenda of many companies and organizations. There are huge differences between them in how far they go. Organizations with many technicians and content specialists – such as engineering firms, but also doctors or lawyers – often find it difficult to make a change in this. But there are exceptions, such as the international engineering firm Coenradie. Modern feedback software helps to increase customer satisfaction and internal awareness in this area.
The importance of customer satisfaction and customer focus to organizations is shown every year by the priority survey conducted by research agency Newcom. For the fifth year in a row customer focus increase in 2018 as the most important priority in the analysis among decision-makers in the Netherlands. The extent to which organizations and employees actually work on this varies greatly. While one organization is mainly busy with awareness, others are already going to great lengths to surprise their customers in the field of customer satisfaction.
According to various definitions, an organization is only truly customer-oriented if it structurally exceeds customer expectations. Then you first need to know what the most important needs, wishes, motivations and expectations of your customers are. Measuring customer satisfaction and customer needs with modern feedback software helps to provide insight into this.
Support specialists and technicians with customer focus
Especially small and medium-sized organizations with many in-house specialists and technicians often find it difficult to make the switch to focus on customer satisfaction. Especially when the organization does not have a large marketing department that maps out customer needs. Customer focus is not automatically in everyone's blood. Specialists, in turn, often have other expertise and qualities.
As a result, content specialists can often use some help from their organization for more customer focus. Online feedback software is therefore valuable for always asking customers a smart question at the right time. The measurement results can be directly translated into targeted actions. An organization that works smartly on customer satisfaction with this is the Brabant engineering firm Coenradie.
Measuring customer satisfaction at engineering firms
For engineering firms, customer satisfaction survey is especially important to continue optimizing their services. For this reason, measurement results are shared directly via intranet at Coenradie. The engineering firm works from Oirschot and Breda with fifty employees on innovative measurement solutions in various sectors all over the world. For example for construction projects, land and 3D measurements. Since 2016, Coenradie has been actively and continuously measuring customer satisfaction with GrowPromoter's online measurement platform. By asking customers concisely and specifically about their customer experience (CX), the engineering firm wanted to improve and continue to develop.
When an assignment is completed, a customer automatically receives an email the following week with four short questions. Customers respond directly to this via the online platform. Among other things, they give a mark for the experienced service. “Our goal is always a 10, but at least an 8,” says director Wouter Coenradie. “By measuring, we know where we stand. We also ask what we can do better.”
The results are displayed internallyrealtime and uncensored on the home page of the intranet environment. This is possible – if a customer so wishes – with the sender included. Employees can respond to this internally. If necessary, a customer is contacted directly.
What does this mean for the engineering firm?
The engineering firm has gained more insight into and a better grip on customer satisfaction by automatically measuring and sharing the results internally. “Now we know how satisfied customers really are about each project and why. If necessary, we can also take immediate action. Our customers appreciate that. We use the results to continue optimizing our way of working. This mainly concerns details in communication. As a result, the number 8 can become a 9 or a 10. We now also use the results for our ISO certification and to substantiate our customer satisfaction therein”, says the director. every time a customer gives the number 10. That lives internally and the number of 10s has been growing ever since. In 2017 it happened 24 times, but in 2018 this seems to be higher again (read more here about this approach).
Employee satisfaction engineers: also for recruitment and selection
In addition to measuring customer satisfaction in organizations, measuring employee satisfaction is becoming increasingly important. This certainly applies in the increasingly tight labor market, including that of engineers and other subject matter specialists. Increasing the employee satisfaction of engineers is valuable for binding them and for the recruitment and selection of engineers. After all, candidates prefer to choose the most attractive employer.
In addition to customer satisfaction (CX), the GrowPromoter platform can also measure employee satisfaction and even the relationship between the two. With all results clearly arranged on one dashboard.
