Joyce Maroney from Kronos gave us some great insight on how to take over an existing customer satisfaction program and reinvent it so that it drives business action.
Kronos has over 3000 employees and operates in many customer segments in 60 countries. Its products help companies manage their workforce via software solutions. 626 of Fortune 1000 companies use Kronos. In 2007 Kronos went private through private equity buyout. On revenue, it is currently a $700M company, with a goal to get to $1bn. After the buyout, they did a brand study and asked NPS question. The score was lower than expected, and prompted senior management to implement NPS score tracking as part of the Kronos customer satisfaction measurement program.
After some restructuring, Joyce took over the customer satisfaction program at Kronos in Jan 2009.
The old customer satisfaction program was based on phone surveys done by a third party based locally. But there was a 6-8 week lag between getting feedback and it getting to the business. They had tons of data in an unwieldy excel spreadsheet. Support used the reports to manage/comp agents, but there was limited closed loop feedback, and use of the verbatims. They had a mix of relationship and transactional surveys.
In order to restructure the program, they started with building the customer corridor for Kronos. They then did fishbone analysis on what the obstacles to referrals were. However, they were still struggling with how to prioritize the things to fix. They needed better insights...and decided a new survey architecture with automation was key.
Joyce started with the end in mind...there was an appetite to implement NPS, but no-one was suggesting a technology solution. It was key to start with trustworthy data and actionable data.
Joyce did a lot of research...talked to vendors, peers, etc. Then got executive support, even though it was more money than the company was used to spending. That was a big win given the tough economic climate.
Joyce created a a compelling "Future State" slide.
Aisling viewpoint-->This is a really great tool for everyone to consider using in their program.
Kronos is in the middle of implementation right now. The web-based delivery platform will enable true "action alerts"...ie closed loop in a timely fashion and to the right people internally.
Another goal is to harness and cultivate the promoters that may not fall into the current reference programs.
To get the program going, Joyce did an inventory of the survey goals. Then they had 12 vendors in an RFP. It is really critical to do a solid RFP and involve key stakeholders. They narrowed the potentials from 12 to 4, then to 2. It was a very long process, but worth spending the time. They selected Satmetrix in August 2009 due to their mix of technology and consulting.
- Key takeaways
NPS is only one element of understanding the customer - In measurement, need competitive surveys, relationship and transactional surveys, and qtrly/monthly reviews.
- Win/loss--sales perspective, customer perspective, quantitative analysis, market survey
- Knowledge and promotion--case studies, stories, social media, customer communities and on-site visits.
- Social media monitoring is key.
- Graphical, easy to digest reports are the goal.
- You need executive support, cross functional participation, communication, training, infrastructure support from IT.
Joyce used an old joke to make her point...with a fried egg and bacon breakfast, the chicken is involved, the pig is committed.. The program team has to be committed. Her key messages were:
- Start with the end in mind--visualize dashboards
- Insight is the goal--data is a means to an end
- Don't assume, ask--leverage best practices
- Drive your project--demand guidance but own the results.
