Employees and customers both need feedback

Infogroup has released the findings from the 9th ORC International Customer Experience Conference, which focused on using customer research to drive business forward
 
Customer experience experts in both the public and private sectors presented their views on how the results of customer satisfaction surveys should be used to drive forward changes in their business.
 
For Francesca Rea, Director of Order Entry and Billing for Cable&Wireless Worldwide, an increasing awareness of the two-way relationship between employment satisfaction and customer satisfaction means that it is no longer enough to merely keep the customers satisfied. Keeping staff up to date with customer research is also critical.
 
“It’s important that we provide feedback to our people, to let them know what customers are saying and what we are doing to improve things,” she says. “We need to celebrate the great testimonials we receive, but also acknowledge and take action on the things that aren’t at the levels they should be and bring our staff along on this vital journey.”
 
Using webinars and cascaded articles, Cable&Wireless involve staff in the process of customer research and feedback, and additional research is being undertaken at the company to track the success of this approach.
 
Clarity of communications was also a key component of the Customer Impact programme, set up by the Association of British Insurers. Following a customer impact survey, a customer communications working group was set up to design fresh approaches to communications.
 
Peter Jolly, Assistant Director, Consumers and Distribution for the ABI explained, “We needed to design an approach that would offer customers information they were capable of understanding. The information we offer must enable customers to understand what they can expect from their policies, shop around if they want to and to make the right decisions by knowing the consequences of their choices.”

Keith Wellings, Head of Customer Improvements at the Rural Payments Agency, also spoke at the conference, outlining how the Agency uses insight from customer satisfactions surveys to deliver improvements to services to farmers in England.