A people-focused approach to customer satisfaction

Can’t get no satisfaction? Find out how InsightAsia’s clients are analysing huge customer bases without losing sight of individuals.

Today, customers are smarter and more connected than ever. With staggering amounts of information at our fingertips, it’s now standard practice to spend time researching any reasonably-sized purchase.

In any sector, we tend make sure it’s the right product for us before taking the plunge.

This means that strong customer relationships are essential to the success and enhancement of your business. Not only is attracting a new customer far more costly than retaining an existing one, but the buzz about your brand on social media is very likely to colour a person’s expectations of a service. If every third tweet directed at your company is a complaint, people will be on the defensive before they even interact with you.

Why is measuring customer satisfaction so hard?

A great customer experience, then, is the Holy Grail we’re looking for. It’s an extremely complex concept, with a variety of small touchpoints leading to an initial purchase, then ongoing as long as your product remains in use.

Each of these touchpoints are unique, and each impact the overall experience in a different way, to different extents. In fact, the same touchpoint likely means much more to one customer than it does to another.

This is where the issue becomes even more complex, as customers aren’t one homogenous group. We believe that just reading averages isn’t enough; you need to understand customers on an individual basis. However, with larger customer bases this is rarely economically viable or even possible.

Enter CSAT+ from InsightAsia

At InsightAsia we look for a middle path, using big data analytics to understand sub-groups within the customer base. We develop these sub-groups based on different variables; their values, lifestyle, expectations and needs. We call it our CSAT+ approach.

Administered as a questionnaire, whether digitally or in good old paper form, CSAT+ is a powerful open-source combination of research-led insights and an analytics-led framework.

One single question captures the overall experience, with further questions breaking down the customer’s experience at each of the touchpoints our client wants to analyse.

Our focus then shifts to the customer profile. Key behaviours, needs and values are assessed independent of the brand in question to get an accurate picture of just who these people are and what sub-groups exist within the customer base. This is what sets CSAT+ apart, as we can use this data to understand what drives the experience of different sub-groups.

Case study

The client

A natural gas company in the US needed to reduce attrition

Our approach

We took a multi-stage approach. Among customers approaching the end of a product cycle we measured primary satisfaction with equipment performance and their perception of lifetime service value.

What we found

Areas where customers wanted to see improvement tended to relate to equipment. Within this area, actual equipment breakdowns weren’t as much of an issue as general efficiency.

This alone could be used to increase satisfaction by teaming up to offer a free annual maintenance contract. However, this would be an expensive proposition among a customer base of 1.5 million. Our CSAT+ approach allowed us to look deeper to find an even better solution.

We were able to segment the overall customer base into three groups:

  • Chronic sufferers of equipment breakdowns who wanted to see these problems fixed ASAP.
  • Value extractors, concerned with getting as much efficiency out of their equipment as possible.
  • Green warriors who were most concerned with the brand’s image and eco-credentials.

By identifying not only a key area for improvement but also the specific sub-group who would benefit from it most, we were able to advise the client that the ‘value extractors’ sub-group would get the most satisfaction from being offered ongoing equipment maintenance. As such, they were able to tailor their offering accordingly to extend this free extra only where it would do their customer satisfaction the most good.

The end result

Lapsing rates reduced by 25% over a two-year period.