TripleIC Ltd.
20 - 22 Richfield Avenue
READING
Berkshire
RG1 8EQ
Tel No.
08450 17 97 37
"I have just finished reading your 'The Power Of Influence' and gained so much from it that I am about to start reading it again to make sure that I miss nothing"
Bill Gates - Microsoft
Take a look at this very worthwhile compilation of opinion arranged by the Economist Intelligence Unit, where 300 ‘C’ level executives were asked key questions about Customer Engagement.
As is often the case, the EIU is good at collecting evidence but weaker at drawing strategic conclusions.
For example, an electrifying statistic is buried in the pile without much comment. The EIU asked its respondents “What proportion of their sales was lost as a result of low Customer Engagement?”. Over a quarter of the respondents answered “up to half”. In other words, if you are running a one billion dollar business with LOW engagement, HIGH engagement would make it a two billion dollar business. That’s a staggering number.
When they were asked “What was the biggest obstacle to HIGH engagement?”, the most frequent answer given was “the difficulty of measurement”. So the conclusion has to be that better measurement tools are the key to doubling the size of your business.
That’s exactly what TripleIC has been telling you!
'I spend a million pounds a quarter
gathering customer satisfaction data.
What does that avalanche of data
tell me about running my business?
Practically nothing.'
CEO of a major British utility.
Does this sound familiar?
Do you experience the sort of customer satisfaction review meetings where, apart from disagreement (overt or hidden) about the accuracy of the actual data, the discussion is full of “I reckon…”. The sort of “I reckon…” where the finger for action is always pointed at someone else? The sort of meeting when nothing really happens. Things never seem to move forward much.
You can take some (cold) comfort from the fact that you are not alone.
In 2007 the Economist Intelligence Unit conducted a survey on Customer Engagement. They asked their respondents what was the biggest difficulty in strengthening engagement. The most frequent answer was “the difficulty of measuring Customer Engagement”.
That’s why many companies, maybe even yours, still rely on Customer Satisfaction measuerements. They can be undertaken readily and produce figures that can be compared quarter by quarter. They may even drive your executive bonus. But, as we have seeen, they do not produce action
More importantly, it’s the wrong measure. Don’t take my word for it, look at the research again.
Recent research carried out by the American Marketing Association showed that even among customers who describe themselves as “delighted” with a given supplier, over three-quarters will none the less shop around before they go back to the same supplier who pleased them last time. As one rather dejected CEO told us while we were conducting our research; “All my customers are tarts. They’ll go with anyone if the price is right”.
Why is it that measures of Customer Satisfaction are so unsatisfactory? It is because they only measure what customers are thinking - and specifically about your latest transaction.
Don’t get me wrong, these measures can be valuable, specifically when correctly used in the context of incremental imrovement at the operational level. But you need a step change to begin to affect your whole organisation.
You need a more comprehensive measure. One that takes a broader view, one that considers the subject wholistically, taking into account not only the customers but also your employees and, crucially, your Top Team.
The Lambert Protocol is a research-based statistical method for assessing Customer Engagement and it employs just such a triangular perspective. It incorporates the research methodologies outlined in Professor Tom Lambert’s famous book THE POWER OF INFLUENCE.
The Lambert Protocol measures customer satisfaction. But it also measures the attitudes and actions of your managers and staff, and of your top team. Thus it lays bare what you are doing that enhances Customer Engagement, and what you’re doing that undermines Customer Engagement. It helps you clearly see what are the exact critical points for improvement. It helps you gain concensus round the table for real and effective action.
Using this tool, TripleIC can
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