Rockwell Delivers on Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is a key element of a growth strategy as it helps support the retention of the business.  And while everyone says they deliver quality customer service, measuring service performs and continuously seeking ways to improve can separate companies.  Addressing service issues, systemically, takes customer service to the next level.

Further, companies like to say “they respond to customer input”, however, for most companies this is on a “one-to-one” basis.  Rarely do companies publicly announce what they have done.

Customer satisfaction surveys can:

• Confirm your service levels
• Identify opportunities for improvement
• Solicit customer input … the good, the bad and the ugly
• Solicit input to help you recognize moments of superior performance (and provide feedback to your people)
• Act as a marketing tool by communicating you are interested in customer feedback

However, companies should not solicit customer satisfaction input unless they truly want the feedback, are willing to make changes if the feedback suggests dissatisfaction / areas for improvement, and are willing to share the feedback and future plans with customers.

Manufacturers infrequently solicit satisfaction input from end-users as they do not have the end-user information to reach the end-customer. And if they do, they ask solely about product satisfaction … quality of product and product performance.

Due to their unique relationship with their distributors, Rockwell Automation works with its distributors to survey Rockwell product purchasers on customer satisfaction.

Rockwell

Every spring distributors identify their Rockwell buyers and a Rockwell designed survey is sent to them.  Questions have been in the following categories:

• Distributor
  • Distributor is among the best we deal with
  • Distributor technical resources are among the best we deal with
  • Overall Salespeople
  • Understands my business
  • Technical knowledge
  • Builds Relationships
  • Correct amount of communication
  • Dist keeps me informed of new products
  • Dist keeps me informed on issues
  • Knowledgeable product selection assistance
  • Makes it easy to place orders
  • Resolves order issues
  • Quotations are timely
  • Most important thing for distributor to improve …
• Most important thing for distributor to improve
  • RA Product Availability
  • RA Product Value
• Primary Automation Competitor
  • Overall Salespeople
  • Understands my business
  • Technical knowledge
  • Builds Relationships
  • Correct amount of communication
  • Keeps me informed of new products
  • Keeps me informed on issues
  • Knowledgeable product selection assistance
  • Makes it easy to place orders
  • Resolves order issues
  • Quotations are timely

Qualitative input is also solicited from a random sampling of customers.

And because the customer has a unique respondent code, Rockwell can provide specific feedback to the customer as well as to the distributor.

Overall feedback is provided to the distributor … by customer input.

And while feedback is good, the natural question to then ask is “do they do anything with the information?

Yes.  Rockwell created a video, available on YouTube, that shared high level customer-focused feedback and what they’ve done to address customer concerns.

      visit https://youtu.be/B899biE4cb8 

And they provide a link to their multi-language 2018 survey (worldwide customers) where customers who have a unique ID number can take the survey.

They key is they are asking their customers for feedback, doing something about it and sharing the information with their customers.

Soliciting Your Customers

Gaining a better understanding of your performance can provide you the insights to improve service performance which can result in improved sales and profitability as more satisfied customers may provide you with a greater share of their spend.  Additionally, it can highlight areas for process improvement that can drive increased throughput, reduce errors, better processes, reduction of duplicity in efforts and … improved profitability.

All with the by-product of potentially recognizing your staff.

For distributors it is an opportunity to better understand their overall business (the Rockwell survey focuses on only the Rockwell portion of a distributor’s business.)

For reps it is an opportunity to better understand how they support their distributors and, in some cases, their manufacturers.

For manufacturers, there are opportunities to better understand, empirically, their interaction with their distributors and reps … and in some instances end-users / contractors.

Are Your Customers Satisfied?

And yes, a shameless plug, Channel Marketing Group does support manufacturers, distributors and reps with customer satisfaction and brand preference initiatives.

Our distributor initiative, Uncover, is an eSurvey, which can be supported by qualitative interviews, that solicits customer input on a number of service-related areas. We calculate a Customer Satisfaction Index and also segment all feedback by customer segment.  Results can also be segmented by geographic area.

For reps we do similar, Uncover for Reps, with a survey to distributor personnel and, here again, calculate a Distributor Satisfaction Index, overall and by geographic area, and can conduct interviews. (and there is a special price for NEMRA members.)

And for manufacturers we’ve conducted distributor satisfaction studies, end-user brand preference surveys and can conduct customer satisfaction studies.

All at a reasonable cost as for the distributor and rep satisfaction processes we have a formula that can be customized, same as with the manufacturer product category brand preference study.

Give us a call or email us for more information.

Satisfied Customers Are Your Foundation

If you’re seeking to grow, a strong base which you can count on to continuously purchase from you is important. it provides the profitability to fund growth, it validates your performance and existing customers can provide incremental opportunities.

Further, many are your most loyal customers and service improvement can foster further loyalty (and yes, there is a balance between how much to invest to improve vs sufficient / market leading and customer delight service investing.)

And if growth has stalled, soliciting input gives you a broader perspective to identify issues.

For many distributors the definition of “research” is asking sales or talking to some key customers.  Soliciting feedback from a much broader audience of existing buyers helps set your foundation for continued improvement … especially when you communicate with your customers.