Customer service benchmarking
Do you know what customers think of your service and how you compare against your competitors?
You need to know how you are performing on customer service before you can make improvements. You should also benchmark against competitors so you can target the areas where you need to improve or stay ahead.
Collecting data and then feeding it into your marketing plans will help ensure 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 detailed data at an operational level.
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 to identify the key interaction points for your company, which will ultimately allow us to identify what your customers expect from you and how you compare with competitors.We can also measure competitor's performance via a mystery shopping programme.
Key deliverables from a service benchmarking project
The output will typically cover the following areas:
- Which areas of service each customer group thinks is most important
- What your customers think of your performance in these areas
- A comparison of your company performance with the competition
- A list of key action points to improve customer service levels
- Examples of how the service fails to meet customers’ expectations and insights into how it could be improved.
Many of our clients repeat the service measurement at regular intervals to track changes in service levels.
Our experience in customer service measurement
We have completed over 8,000 interviews with clients' customers to measure service levels. This experience allows us to quickly understand the key issues and develop the right questionnaire to deliver the insights needed.
The majority of our customer service measurement projects are carried out for clients in the construction, building materials and environmental industries. However, we have successfully applied our proven methodology to other sectors such as ICT, recruitment and the NHS.
Our track record in customer service measurement
Find out more about our customer service benchmarking experience which includes past clients, case studies and testimonials.
Graham Skyes, Devon PCT, NHSI was impressed with the analysis and how Leading Edge presented the results of this benchmarking project. I will be communicating the findings across my team to help drive service improvements.