Customer service benchmarking
Do you know what your customers think of your service performance and how you compare against your competitors?
Many of the customers we work for are looking for ways to win market share by differentiating themselves in a competitive commodity market. One of the best ways to stand out from the crowd is to deliver outstanding customer service in the areas that your customers say are most important to them. It is also vital to benchmark your own company’s performance against your competitors so you can target the areas where you need to make up ground or stay ahead.
Collecting the right data and then feeding it into your strategic decision-making and marketing plans will help to ensure that resources are directed to improving those areas of customer service that will keep customers buying from you.
Customer service benchmarking - how to approach it
Customer service can be improved through people, processes and an organisation’s culture. But the understanding of how this can be done relies on collecting data at an operational level.
These are what we call the customer interaction points, or ‘Moments of Truth’, where changing and improving your approach to customer service can have the biggest impact. For example, ensuring there is always a member of staff to answer a call or that deliveries arrive at the time specified by the customer.
We have a specific tool to help our clients measure their customer service levels, called 'ACE'. This stands for an ‘Audit of Customer Expectations’. We will work with you up front to gain a complete understanding of the key interaction points for your company, which will ultimately allow us to identify what your customers expect from your company and how they perceive you compared with your competitors.
Our web based system is a cost effective alternative that has helped a number of our clients improve their customer loyalty and retention. Please contact us if you want to find out more.
Key deliverables from a customer service benchmarking project
The output is usually in the form of a detailed presentation and report, typically covering the following areas:
- Which areas of service each customer groups thinks is most important
- What your customers think of your performance against these aspects of customer service
- A comparison of how your company performs compared with your competitors
- A list of action points to work through to improve customer service levels
- Anecdotal examples of how the service fails to meet customers’ expectations and insights into how it could be improved
Each audit package is company specific and can be carried out again at a later date to see what progress has been made with developing a more customer focused approach.
Our experience in customer service measurement
We have completed over 8,000 customer service interviews for our clients. This level of experience allows us to quickly understand the key issues and develop a questionnaire template that will deliver the customer insights needed.
The majority of our customer service measurement projects are carried out for our clients in the construction and building materials industries. However, we have successfully applied our proven methodology to other sectors such as ICT, recruitment and even the NHS.
Our track record in customer service measurement
Find out more about our about our customer service benchmarking experience. This includes past clients, case studies and testimonials.
Steve Jellis, EQA Quality AssessorLeading Edge embraced BS EN ISO 9001:2000 and it has become their standard operating system. I believe their clients have been the main benefactor of this core process management system.