The Boston Globe ran an article about the results of a “checkbook” survey to consumers.
Consumers gave overall low ratings to many of the larger, well-known institutions in the Boston area. The survey asked about past experiences with these firms.
Why did consumers give such overall low marks to the firms in question? Well, many of the firms that didn’t fare well questioned the “reliability of the ratings”.
Instead of questioning the reliability of the ratings, why not take a look at your internal processes and procedures and ask your employees whether they feel they are empowered to give the highest customer service possible?
In our experience working with a variety of firms, no one employee wants to give “poor” service but they are often prevented from doing what they could do well to serve the customer because of the broken processes and procedures inside of their organization.
It can be hard for management to admit that there are things that need to be changed but our clients have found that by asking the questions, they can uncover potential “fixes” that don’t cost a lot of money yet yield tremendous benefits.
If firms are willing to do some self-examination they will always find room for improvement—we recommend a focus on making sure the improvement is going to improve the ROI!