10.3 Testing your standards
Right, so only a small percentage of customers bother to express their concerns. This suggests that you should actively seek or "tap into" your customers' responses to your service. Encourage customers to tell you their opinions. This section will consider some of the most popular techniques for eliciting customer responses, negative or positive.
- suggestion/comment cards
You are no doubt familiar with suggestion/comment cards in motel rooms and at some larger restaurants.
- surveys
Many organisations send surveys to their customers. Often customers do not complete these forms, but the responses you do get are often indicative of the feelings of other customers. These forms should include sections that allow for suggestions on how to improve your service. Examples of these sorts of surveys are the evaluation questionnaires that we send out for each subject at the end of the semester.
You will find that you are more conscious of completing such surveys when you realise how valuable such information is to service providers in order to make improvements. It is also an ideal opportunity to pass on compliments that may otherwise have been overlooked.
- focus groups
Another popular technique is the focus group. A focus group is a small number of customers who are gathered together and asked questions. These groups can be formal or informal. The following is an example.- James Strong (Chief Executive Officer of Qantas) in his customer-focused push at the then Australian Airlines, invited pilots and baggage handlers to have lunch with customers. This allowed them to hear complaints first-hand as Strong encouraged customers to tell staff exactly what was wrong.
The logic was that if a handler hears first-hand from a customer about baggage problems, that handler will have a better understanding of the issue than management and will go back and tell colleagues. This is more "real" and believable than some obscure management memo instructing them to fix the problem.
On one occasion, a handler returned to the baggage room and outlined the customer complaint to his colleagues. As a result, they drew up a plan and wrote to the customer to say what they were going to do about his problem. They then acted upon their plan and made substantial and measurable improvements. What's more, the baggage handlers then wrote to the customer again to say what, in fact, had been done as a result of the customer's input.
- James Strong (Chief Executive Officer of Qantas) in his customer-focused push at the then Australian Airlines, invited pilots and baggage handlers to have lunch with customers. This allowed them to hear complaints first-hand as Strong encouraged customers to tell staff exactly what was wrong.
- phantom snoopers
Remember you were introduced to phantom snoopers? Using "snoopers" is a method of testing how well staff respond to customers. How staff handle both difficult and unhappy customers can be gauged by their reaction to the snooper. The information gathered in this way can be used to congratulate staff or to make improvements.
There is, of course, an ethical quandary in this method. Also, bear in mind that the employee may be affected by the incident to the extent of loosing concentration and disrupting the day's proceedings. Does the end result justify the means?
- use your own service (openly)
Have you ever used your own service to see what it is like? We have already seen how this can be done in the hospitality industry. This assists in pinpointing the positive and negative aspects.
- asking
Just talk to your customers daily. The duty manager of Rockmans hotel in Melbourne calls six to eight customers a day "just to check" that everything is all right and claims: "It's amazing what you find out when you call a guest unexpectedly". Also, often customers volunteer information, without being asked. One suggestion is to keep a customer log of comments. Consider also discussion with internal customers.
Organisations may welcome customer comments, but some customers, even when deliberately given the chance, will not make a comment. The customer may not want to create a fuss or doesn't believe that there is any point in doing so. How often has the waiter asked you: "Did you enjoy your meal" and you have responded in the positive even through the meal was mediocre?
- toll free numbers
If you provide easy and toll free access, customers are likely to contact you and ask a question. Customers that are willing to explain over the phone might not have bothered if it required them to exercise more time, such as finding who to contact or writing.
- Email and electronic bulletin boards
Think about how you can use this technology to gather (and disseminate) information. Could you use electronic bulletin boards for your internal customers?
Reading 10.5
Harris, E. 2000, "Measuring your effectiveness".
Read this extract and complete the skill building exercise on the last page.
Back Page