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Customer Service Surveys

4/13/2011

“Internal Customer Service Surveys” can be a useful tool in improving processes because:

Perception can become reality if you do not deal with it
You need cooperation from people to get the job done (and this means making them feel they are part of what you are doing)
People will not always tell you there is a problem, so you need to ask them
It helps to be seen to be interested, even if you can not always resolve someone’s problem
You need to measure what people think versus the reality to ensure it is supported by fact

A customer service survey is a way of reminding the people (who also have them as a KPI) that they are providing a service and need to remember this when doing their job and interacting with people. They are a great tool but you should not take the findings entirely at face value:

People tend not to answer surveys in the extreme (ie: go for the highest or lowest score – they usually answer somewhere in the middle)
Accept that people will answer a questionnaire based on the last thing that happened, which may just have been a bad experience which in reality does not occur very often. Also people tend to remember bad things before good things
Try not to allow people answering the questionnaire to get personal. It is not a mechanism for someone to get at a person they do not like. We will all have experienced personality conflicts at work but this should not stop professional, mature people from working productively together. The questions in the survey will be fairly generic, this is hard to avoid.
The questions in the survey will be fairly generic, this is hard to avoid.

The survey can cover more than customer service. If you are doing a survey you should include questions or statements that can be used to prove or disprove perceptions on other topics (not just customer service). For example you could ask for people’s views on the following statements:

If you have implemented a new computer system ask for views on:

The new system is settled down and is operating well
Personnel at my location know how to use the system
Personnel at my location do not need further training

If you have just completed a budget round ask for views on:

The budget process worked well
My branch / cost centre owns and is committed to achieving its budget

If you are trying to standardise processes across the organisation ask for views on:

The processes at my branch are well documented
If personnel moved from another branch to my branch they would easily be able to perform the same role

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Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s)

4/6/2011

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Some people say you should measure everything and that what gets measured gets managed. While it is true that if you measure something you are more likely to manage it, if you try to measure everything you run the risk of data fatigue (there is just too much of it). This could result in:

Reports getting left in in-trays
The review becoming half hearted
Important data and trends getting lost amongst the mass of information
People losing focus because they can not concentrate on everything

Whether you are measuring a person, a process or an organisation you should measure only what is important to achieve the result you are seeking (and this may change over time). There are seven golden rules for KPIs:

Have realistic targets – eg: if your target is on-going cost reduction you must take into account the reducing cost curve which means that as you reduce the cost per transaction each subsequent reduction becomes harder to achieve.
Reflect what you are trying to achieve – eg: if your goal is to process quicker to ensure your financial information is up-to-date, you will want to measure turnaround time. But why measure it every day if you are only really concerned about month end, or maybe the end of the week. Measuring every transaction is probably unrealistic so make it easy to do.
Be fair – you need buy-in for the measure to be effective and people need to feel the measure and target are fair otherwise they will not be motivated to achieve it.
Be supported across the organisation – there is no point having a KPI in one area which conflicts with the KPI in another. And because people need the help of others to get their jobs done, critical KPIs need to be part of everyone’s goals (to the extent that they have an impact on the outcome).
Not be counter productive – eg: an organisation had a stated goal of achieving long-term sustainable growth. Yet its bonus schemes were based entirely on achievement against the annual budget. The consequence was that senior managers made decisions based on the short term result not the long-term benefit. The bonus scheme targets needed to be balanced between the two desired outcomes because short-term gain is not always compatible with long-term sustainable growth.
Be (relatively) easy to measure - if it takes a lot of effort then you should question if it is the right measure or measure it for short (regular) periods. You want useful data with the minimum of effort.
Have a purpose – it is not data for data’s sake. You are measuring either the performance of the people, process or organisation, or that of an improvement initiative.

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Customer Service Surveys

Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s)

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