Service supply organizations are always seeking to optimize, by improving customer relationships for greater revenue and cost reductions. The constant demands, adjustments and upkeep of customers requires a more formalized way to compare and service them. That is why customer benchmarking is so key.  In today’s post, we will examine a few factors that demonstrate the power and influence of customer benchmarking.

First, customer benchmarking demonstrates the costs and services that each customer is accumulating. It logs every customer interaction and the services provided to them, whether it is in the initial contract or not.  This helps to determine the total cost for delivering your product or service to the customer.

Second, customer benchmarking helps to determine the true price of your product or service. A comprehensive software solution can isolate the amount of product and the price that is actually received from the customer. This helps to clarify the true value of the customer when compared to the cost of services.

Finally, you use benchmarking tools to determine the satisfaction and feedback of the customer. The tool automatically sends a survey to key stakeholders at the client company. The survey results are tabulated and provide feedback to provide continual improvement efforts. The data helps managers at your company understand how the customer truly feels about your performance. It also compares the feedback across all the customers to get a true sense of the most loyal and the least loyal accounts. 

Accupoint’s solution family has helped many firms benchmark customers, improve satisfaction and meet compliance standards, leading to greater revenue and less costs. For more information about how Accupoint Software can help streamline the management of your customer benchmarking program, please contact us today.

As we continue into our evaluation of the API Spec Q2 standard, we thought we would concentrate on a topic that many organization struggle with, Customer Satisfaction Bench-marking
 
The API Spec Q2 standard requires us to monitor and work to improve our customer satisfaction.  According to the standard:

The organization shall maintain a documented procedure to monitor customer satisfaction. The procedure shall address customer feedback, key performance indicators (KPIs), and other information that the organization monitors to determine whether the organization has met customer requirements. Records of the results of customer satisfaction information shall be maintained (see 4.5).
 
Having the procedure is not the problem.  Obtaining actionable information from the customer is.  There are many ways to gauge customer satisfaction; some organizations develop in-depth questionnaires while others rely on the Net Promoter (NPS) format. 
 
Regardless of the collection method, we need to analyze the responses to develop an action plan to drive our continual improvement efforts.  Below is a Deming circle, outlining the major components:
 

1. Start with a quick gap analysis to compare the customer’s perspective with your internal SWOT analysis. This will help to highlight unknown issues.
   
2. Develop an action plan to drive improvement.   Make sure to establish specific goals with corresponding gates, to track progress.
3. Implement the plan across the organization.  Communicate specifics with applicable employees to encourage understanding and buy-in.
4. Re-evaluate customer satisfaction performance by conducting follow-up surveys at regular intervals.  Based on the results of the follow-up, revise the action plan to achieve the desired outcome.

 
For more information on how Accupoint can help you manage the Customer Satisfaction requirements of the API standards, call us toll-free at 800.563.6250 or visit us at www.accupointsoftware.com.