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Case Study - Citroën UK Ltd
Citroën proves that improving customer service
increases profits
Focusing on customer satisfaction
Logic dictates that the more satisfied customers
you have, the more successful your business will be and the
higher your profits. Of course, when you are running a multi-million
pound business you can't be at the front line making sure
your staff are delivering service to customers in the way
you want. And when it comes to investing in improving customer
satisfaction, you want to know you are making changes where
they will have most impact and where there will be a return
on the investment.
Citroën UK has seen its share of the UK car
sales market increase significantly over the past couple of
years. Certainly the company has produced some very popular
models but the company has also taken customer satisfaction
very seriously. It has proved the link between customer satisfaction
and profitability and found in the process that just training
front line staff in how things should be done isn't always
enough.
Shifting the Customer Satisfaction Index
When Citroën UK found that its Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) had remained static for over 12 months, it started to look around for radical ideas to make an impact on this very stubborn set of statistics. It wasn't that the figures were poor, but simply that they had hit a plateau. Citroën UK knew there was scope for improvement. Standing still wasn't an option it wanted to consider.
In the search for a new approach that would kick life back into the CSI, Citroën UK came across an article by Cape Consulting talking about the very issues that Citroën UK knew it needed to address: improving the CSI by motivating the people who interact with customers to improve their service performance.
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The pilot study
Very quickly Citroën UK decided to undertake
a pilot study using Cape's Service Performance Measurement
System™. This involves analysing what constitutes 'ideal
service' in the eyes of customers and then developing a data
collection and measurement system to motivate staff to focus
on ensuring customers' service priorities are met.
Involving staff
One of the important differences between Cape
Consulting's process and traditional customer opinion surveys
is that staff are involved in the process from the outset.
They are consulted on their views of the issues that are important
to customers, are able to help with the design of the questionnaires
and are trained to ask customers directly about their own
performance. Involving staff in this way creates enormous
buy-in for the process and makes them very aware of how their
behaviour impacts on customers. The results of customer research
are far more personal, providing a powerful incentive for
improving performance and for acting on the feedback. Because
staff know when the research has taken place, they are far
more likely to believe in, and act on, the results than with
other methodologies such as mystery shopping and post purchase
telephone or postal questionnaires.
Download the complete case study - click here
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