Customer Satisfaction and Reputation Management

Is Big Brother watching you? Remember George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eigthy Four? Well Big Brother isn’t watching you but everyone else is. Almost everyone with a cell phone has a camera in it that can take pictures and movies. These pictures or movies can be posted to Web 2.0 sites like Facebook, or Youtube and be very embarrassing. Lately this has become very visible in the media as well. Recent newspaper articles about Transit workers and Local Politicians highlight how cell phones cameras are changing the visibility of employees working with or out in the public. Customer satisfaction can be impacted by negativity that is now very visible.

Most Organizations measure customer satisfaction with surveys. They can be tracked, and measured and compared year over year, month over month, quarter over quarter. But what techniques are available to raise early warning flags? Three types of measurements can help: Predictor Metrics, Prevention Programs and Social media / Blogs / Complaint Sites.

Better Business Bureau has recently released its list of the Top 10 Industries with the most customer complaints. One measure of customer satisfaction is the number of complaints received. Normally a complaint is a measure of the failure of a service call or multiple calls. The Better Business Bureau measured both the number of complaints and the number of complaints that are resolved within 30 days. Two charts ranked by volume of complaints and percent of complaints resolved in 30 days show very different results.

Customer Satisfaction processes call for addressing issues with customers squarely and fairly. So far, Toyota has not done this well. Embarrassing evidence keeps surfacing and public relations efforts have limited success. Lawmakers blast Toyota Chief despite his apology.Toyota caught bragging about savings from limiting recalls.Toyota is forced to provide US recall customers with additional services. Allegations surface that Toyota withheld key data in Crash Lawsuits. Toyota Crisis may clear a man jailed in fatal crash. Toyota apologizes in China. In Nigeria, Toyota blames accelerator pedal problem on the cold. Whoever is managing Toyota’s customer satisfaction and customer relations appears to be failing.

The Canadian Government has announced that the Budget Speech on Mar 4, 2010 will be tweeted to the public as it is read in the Canadian House of Commons. In an effort to communicate better with constituents (improve their customer satisfaction) in real time, the Finance Department will start its communications on Twitter with the budget speech. Wonder how they can do that? Will this be a trend with other governments?

A Forbes article about a dissatisfied customer with a million followers on Twitter that forced an organization to change their customer satisfaction policies is a poster child for why customer service personnel need social media sensitivity training and management needs to adapt to the new age of marketing and public relations.

I have seen several questions on customer satisfaction forums about what is the right ‘metric’ for customer satisfaction that will predict future outcomes. Often this question comes up in respect to ’surveying’ customers . Is Overall Satisfaction the right measure; willingness to recommend; or repurchase intent?

I think customer satisfaction measurements are a mosaic of possible measurements and the ones that should take priority should be the ones where the executives feel there is a need to improve.

Customer Satisfaction is meeting or exceeding expectations. Social Media can be used to show how your dealership satisfies customers and can add some new ‘expectations’ customers never knew they had. Think of social media as making a dealership a more friendly place to come to, whether you are coming for a new car, a used car, or service.

The bad news continues for Toyota’s brands. Prius, Lexus, Sai, Camry and Tacoma recalls have been issued in the past week. And there is investigation going on about possible problems with the steering on newer Toyota Corollas. Customer Satisfaction with Toyota has certainly been impacted with this widespread quality problems. Some Toyota units in the US were named in a Racketeering lawsuit. Toyota shareholders have also seen a big drop (about 20%) in their share value since mid January when the most recent recalls started.

Crowdsourcing is a new term and a possibly a new emerging trend. The basic premise is to tap into the vast wisdom of the general (or specifically skilled) population to funnel the best ideas to the top and execute them. It is also being used in the Customer Service arena.