5 disadvantages of the Net Promoter Score (NPS)
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) has 5 drawbacks that must be considered when measuring customer satisfaction. These drawbacks do not detract from the NPS value, but they lead us to propose alternative solutions for our projects. These solutions aim at making satisfaction surveys real improvement levers and not just a mandatory part of the company’s operations. Contact us for your customer satisfaction survey Summary The Net...
94% customer satisfaction rate at Axa … not very realistic
The satisfaction rate is an obsession of banks and insurance companies. Why is this? Because their profitability is directly linked to it. When customer satisfaction becomes a commercial argument, the temptation is great to say anything. So, when Thomas Buberl, Axa’s CEO, explains that Axa’s customer satisfaction rate is 94%, I think we are in the middle of a fairy tale. If you only have 30 seconds Axa CEO Thomas Buberl...
Satisfaction Surveys: How to Get Worthless Results
Customer satisfaction surveys are useful, but you still need to know how to use them. I have often explained what to do. Let me show you today, an example of what not to do. Below, is a real example found in the showroom of one of the world’s top 3 car manufacturers. Problem n°1: biased answers The dealer must, as part of his contract with the brand he represents, provide indicators of the quality of his work. Customer satisfaction is...
Net Promoter Score (NPS) : to include in all satisfaction surveys or not?
How to design a customer satisfaction survey? An in particular, should a NPS (Net Promoter Score) question always be included in a satisfaction survey? While we at IntoTheMinds highly recommend to do so, I had to to re-think my position last week when I saw a post on Linkedin that argued a NPS question in a Microsoft satisfaction survey was nonsense because people don’t actually speak or recommend operating systems. Let’s...
Online questionnaires in market research: beware of convenience samples
We have recently devoted an article to the mistakes that should not be made when carrying out online market research (what is commonly called an online “survey”). One of these errors was the use of a convenience sample. In today’s article, we return to this term and explore the subject further to enable you to achieve more reliable results when conducting your market research. Convenience sample Rented panel...
10 mistakes to avoid in your online survey
An online survey is an essential part of any proper market research. While it has become much easier thanks to the Internet to carry out a quantitative survey than it was 20 years ago (the blessed time of paper questionnaires!), the fact remains that preparing a good questionnaire cannot be improvised. This is not an exercise that can be done on a corner of the table. In today’s article, we have compiled a list of 10 mistakes...
GDPR: is it still possible to externalize a customer satisfaction survey?
Customer satisfaction surveys are one of our specialties. After market research this satisfaction surveys are the 2nd most asked projects at IntoTheMinds. In the last few months a new type of question has emerged among our customers: with GDPR in place, can customer satisfaction surveys still be externalized? We try to answer this question in today’s article and suggest also practical solutions that are GDPR-compliant. What kind...
IntoTheMinds offers market research services in France
We are happy to announce that we opened in July our office in Paris to be closer to our French customers. Located in the 9th district of Paris (13-15 rue de Taitbout), a stone’s throw from the Opera house, offers facilities to welcome clients, conduct focus groups as well as face-to-face interviews. Our Paris base camp also offers us an opportunity to take a closer and more continuous look at the vibrant retail scene. As you...
3 key principles to follow for your good customer satisfaction surveys
I hear companies claiming they have x% or y% of customer satisfaction, proudly claiming Net Promoter Score (NPS) of so much and that many returning customers. While these figures seem great at first sight, this doesn’t tell us much. Read further to understand why satisfaction and loyalty scores must be interpreted carefully. We will once again use the example of the Belfius bank to illustrate this article. You will in particular...
Customer satisfaction : are executives listening to their clients?
In the field of customer satisfaction, few techniques are as powerful as talking with clients to understand what their problems are. Yet very few executives still have this sense of proximity with their customers. The bigger the organization the farther the top management. Do they read customer complaints ? Probably not. Do they talk to dissatisfied customers ? Probably not. Some organizations have symbolically added a “customer...
Moncler and DKV don’t care about customer complaints
Who said big companies are customer-centric and focused on customer satisfaction ? Besides firms which tweak their satisfaction surveys to obtain better results (see the example of Belfius), others simply seem to ignore the basic principles that ensure satisfied customers. Handling complaints is one of them. Moncler : how to NOT handle a complain You all know Moncler. It’s one of the most successful high-end leisure fashion...
4 hints to avoid your customer satisfaction survey from failing
In our latest article we discuss the Goodhart’s law and what it meant for customer satisfaction measurement. In short, if satisfaction scores become a company’s objectives, the likelihood is high that results will be biased. Contact us for your B2B market research A very good article explains the origin of this bias (it’s called reflexivity) and even details other “laws” that point to the same effect :...
How the Goodhart’s law makes customer satisfaction surveys fail
“When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.”. This is the Goodhart’s law and it explains in my opinion why why an awful lot customer satisfaction measures fail. Let me take two concrete examples that I’ve experienced myself : Audi and Beflius. in this section I’d like to discuss two concrete examples of customer satisfaction measurement that becomes organizational objectives and therefore cease...
Belfius : 95,25% customer satisfaction. Can you believe it?
I visited a Belfius branch last week and was stunned to see their latest marketing campaign and their claim about their high customer satisfaction: 95,25% customer satisfaction ! Can you imagine ? This is just an amazing score. So amazing that it can hardly be trusted as I already wrote many years ago on this blog. I digged into this matter, looked for facts on the satisfaction in the banking industry and explain below why the...
Hospitality : this postcard leverages customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction are increasingly expressed online. Capturing this information remains instrumental for most sectors, especially for hotels and restaurants. Bad word-of-mouth can destroy reputation and cut revenues. In the hospitality sectors the norm is usually to have satisfaction surveys distributed to customers. 25 Hours hotels chose a different way. As Bruno Marti, Chief Branding Officer, explains : “In...
France and Belgium : two countries lacking a culture for customer orientation
In a very inspiring article (in French) Frederic Klotz, former community manager of Rue du Commerce, describes all the problems an e-customer can face in France (don’t hesitate to read the interview Frederic gave us last year). He describes the lack of customer orientation in French firms and suggests that French customers are the most badly treated. Frederic, believe it or not, France is not a unique example of a country...
Belgian railways CEO attacks bad results of satisfaction survey
Trains’ punctuality is a strong indicator of customer (dis)satisfaction whatever the country. In countries where trains are still operated by public organizations (France, Germany, Belgium, …) operational objectives are usually set by the State to guarantee that efforts are put into satisfying travelers. In Belgium the quest for more satisfaction led to a “fight” between Belgian railways’ CEO, Jo Cornu, and Customer Defense...
How to get back in touch with dissatisfied mobile app users
In the last 10 years we have been in touch with many companies conducting satisfaction surveys. One thing surprised us. In many cases, these results were used for reporting purposes to the management but were not used to actually improve situation. In other words, dissatisfied customers were not contacted to understand what happened and to attempt to recover the situation. It’s like if companies were too shy (or shameful) to do it. Do...
Suit Supply has found a nice way to measure customer satisfaction
Customer Satisfaction surveys have been popular for decades; Yet the response rate to online surveys is very low if there is no reward. One of the major problem is the time required to answer the survey. People don’t have time. Marketing experts have proposed solutions in the form of one-item satisfaction instrument. In other words you get only one question to answer. The NPS (Net Promoter Score) is a good example of such instrument...
Mistakes to avoid when measuring in-store satisfaction of customers
Measuring the satisfaction of customers in a point of sales has always been a challenge for retailers. Paper-and-pencil initiatives are usually launched to measure at a given moment, but until recently nothing was available to measure customer satisfaction continuously. Fortunately new devices were introduced on the market (look for instance this example of satisfaction measurement in Heathrow airport) that allow a simple measurement....
Belfius : 95% of satisfied customers. A customer satisfaction survey that failed?
Belfius prides of targeting 95% of satisfied customers. This score is actually so high that it becomes suspicious. In today’s article we’ll investigate the three mistakes Belfius may make that would lead to misinterpreting the results. How did you define customer satisfaction ? The first question that arises immediately is whether or not the questions that were asked in the customer satisfaction survey were really relevant. Let’s have...
Is the Net Promoter Score a reliable measure of customer satisfaction ?
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a 1-question scale introduced by Reichheld in 2003 that aims at measuring the propensity of customers to recommend a company (the famous word-of-mouth, also called WOM). This scale has encountered a fantastic success … because it’s extremely simple and quick to apply. Imagine how wonderful this customer satisfaction measurement instrument is: you ask just one question and you know directly whether your...
The top 3 reasons why customer satisfaction surveys fail
In this post I’d like to remember the main reasons what your results to customer satisfaction surveys will not be representative. Eventually I’ll complete this post with another one: a reflection about Belfius’ advertised 95% customer satisfaction rate. 3 top reasons why customer satisfaction surveys fail One thing you should keep in mind of customer satisfaction survey is that the design of your questionnaire will very much influence...
Djump and Uber banned by Belgian authorities… is Airbnb the next on the list ?
For those of you following the news on the startup and IT scene, you may have heard that the Belgian government has forbidden Uber (link in French) to do business in Belgium and that the police even seized two cars (link to the article in French). Last week they went even further and asked Djump, a “ridesharing” platform, to stop immediately its activities. In today’s post we’ll think about what triggers such reactions...
Increasing customer satisfaction through expectations management
Managing expectations is key to increase (or just ensure) customer satisfaction. In this article we explore bit the mechanism of expectation creation based on one actual example : Coolblue How do expectations influence customer satisfaction You’ve experienced already it : you purchased something on the internet. You’ve been waiting several days on the delivery and when it arrives, you unwrap the parcel and you’re disappointed by what...
« Clic and walk » reinvents the customer satisfaction survey
The social media rise has launched a new era in customer satisfaction measurement; twitter, Facebook and the like have allowed marketers to collect more primary data to evaluate whether clients were satisfied or not. Yet the multiplicity of sources makes it difficult (not to say impossible) to properly analyze this data. Before even being able to analyze anything one has to select the relevant data. This selection process is a...
BNP Paribas Fortis: how their hotline make them lose customers
Websites have become nowadays a tool to attract and retain potential customers. They either allow the visitors to perform certain actions by themselves or get a trigger to call an agent. This mechanism is especially important in B2C transactions where customers want immediate contact. The role of hotlines is therefore to make the customer acquisition process as smooth as possible to increase the acquisition rate and retain as many...
Some innovating ideas around customer satisfaction and loyalty
I recently attended an internal BPost event where externals speakers went to give a speech and inspire the audience. This event had been organized at the initiative of BPost COO Peter Somers and it was a great opportunity to better understand the strategy of the group as it was explained to investors during the pre-IPO phase (which has been a big success by the way). Two speakers had been invited: Google Belgium CEO Thierry Geerts...
Avoid biased results when measuring customer satisfaction
Measuring satisfaction of clients is a widespread practice among large companies as we showed in an earlier post. A new practice is however to link employees’ salaries to customer satisfaction scores. We’ve had the opportunity to witness this practice in two large automotive retail groups in Belgium last month. In one of them we also witnessed what kind of excesses this practice may lead to. An example of well-implement...
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