Summary

ACME Ltd’s customers are evidently not satisfied with the company. They feel neglected and do not understand the organisation or its products as they would like. Despite this, ACME Ltd appears to be no worse than its competition and is regarded as having a higher than average quality culture, although this is not the most important business aspect for the customers.

If ACME Ltd were to do nothing the situation would get worse.

By concentrating its future efforts in getting closer to its customers and promoting the strength of its product offerings, ACME Ltd should be able to turn around this dissatisfaction in a short space of time.

Global Overview

From the Executive Summary, attention is immediately drawn to the Customer Satisfaction Index of +5, with a weighted index of +3. Whereas the current value of +5 is an average value, the trend (indicated by the weighted value) shows an expected decline in customer satisfaction over time. This is a strong indication of the customers’ dissatisfaction with ACME Ltd.

Looking at and comparing the two graphs (Company Strength versus Customer Importance) this level of dissatisfaction is contributed to mainly by the areas of Customer Service and Total Quality, both of which are out of sync, meaning that for both areas, ACME Ltd is not meeting their customers’ expectations at all.

A quick glance at the Customer Uncertainty pie-chart shows that one of the reasons why ACME Ltd’s Customer Service is out of sync with the customers’ expectations could be due to the customers’ lack of understanding of what this topic means to ACME Ltd: 1 out of 4 questions relating to Customer Service were not able to be answered by the customers interviewed.

Conversely, the mismatch for Total Quality can not be explained by a lack of understanding, as only 9% of the questions posed for this topic were left unanswered.

Also evident from the pie-chart is that despite its apparent customer acceptability, nearly one in three of the questions posed for the topic of Product Positioning was left unanswered. Here, ACME Ltd obviously needs to implement a customer education programme.

So, it is evident from just the Executive Summary, that ACME Ltd has a lot to work on in order to improve its current low score for Customer Satisfaction, but where should they start and with which activities? To answer these questions, we need to look further into the detail by topic:

Detailed Analysis

Looking at the Overall Scores for each of the four disciplines, Customer Service comes out the lowest at 63.2%. This is therefore where the greatest attention is needed in the shortest possible time. Secondly, despite the obvious mismatch between Company Strength and Customer Expectation for the area of Total Quality, evident from the Executive Summary, Product Positioning is the area with the second lowest score (67.9%). This is due to the overwhelming value of Customer Uncertainty (31.2%), and it is therefore here where immediate attention is also required.

Customer Service: Looking firstly at the detail for Customer Service, it appears obvious that this area is extremely important for the customers, with the Company Importance of 44% being so much higher than the expected average result of 25%. Based on this, and the fact that the Company’s Strength is valued at 0% by customers, too little time is obviously spent on Customer Service by ACME Ltd. The Mean value of -0.5 of the individual results for Customer Service indicates that for the time ACME Ltd actually spends on this area, the activities are also seen as sub-standard.

Key to turning this area around is by finding out why customers are only aware for 75% of the time of what activities ACME Ltd are undertaking for Customer Service, and in so doing, finding out also exactly what the expectations of the customers are. Facet: ACME Ltd needs to get closer to its customers.

Product Positioning: The results for Product Positioning are heavily influenced by the fact that only two thirds of the questions asked could be answered. With Company Strength and Customer Importance results both being on the same side of the 25% expected average, ACME Ltd appears to recognise the importance of this area to its customers, but the large differential in these two values implies it is still not fulfilling customer expectations. The mean of 1.1 is an average result. Facet: ACME Ltd needs to promote its product portfolio better to its customers.

Total Quality: Total Quality appears to be ACME Ltd’s strength, with the highest Mean value of all topics (2.2) combined with the highest Communication Factor of 91.2% and a very large Company Strength value (57.3%). Unfortunately, this is also the least important area for the customers, meaning that all the excellent work undertaken by ACME Ltd has apparently been in vain. The large negative skew of the individual results (-5%) should temper the results naturally. Facet: no additional attention is required in the area of Total Quality.

Competitive Positioning: With one in 5 responses relating to the topic of Competitive Positioning not being able to be answered, ACME Ltd’s position in the market place could be better communicated to its customers. At the same time, however, with compatible results for Company Strength and Customer Importance and a Mean of 0.5, ACME Ltd’s competitive position is not regarded as an issue, although it is definitely not one of its strengths. The large negative skew of the individual results (-8.3%) however, should be seen as a clear warning sign. Facet: ACME Ltd needs to decide what its stance against competition should be, develop a strategy and promote itself based upon this strategy.