Financial Client Satisfaction Index
Reprint of Bank Marketing Magazine Article
Taking Action With Customer Satisfaction Research
The "Strategy Grid"
In the past it was common for banks to conduct periodic customer satisfaction research as a kind of wind gauge to make sure that there were no major problems lurking out there. This research was pretty simple and involved asking customers a series of questions regarding how they liked the bank. Usually the questions were open ended and went something like this.
Are you happy with the bank's hours of operation
____yes _____no
Please describe_______________________________________
_____________________________________________________
The survey would consist of five or six of these questions on the basic operations of the bank. Sometimes there would be questions about the respondent's demographics, but very rarely would you see such questionnaires pre-coded with useful MCIF segmentation information which might help the bank target customers and improve profitability.
But those days are over. Banks are facing competition from expert marketers who understand research methods; and who are employing them to steal our customers. And since almost everybody is formulating strategies to take our customers, we must be equally clever in the development of strategies to keep them.
The key is to learn something and take action.
Customer satisfaction studies are more important now that ever before. But we must use them consistently and strategically. Following are five key design guidelines:
Simplicity
When you design your survey, keep it simple. Remember, people who are not that interested in banking and finance are filling it out. Don't try to make your ongoing customer satisfaction survey a tour de force in research. You will no doubt learn some things which require further study, so stick to the basics. One of the most important things to do is come up with a limited number of attributes (for example, "Errors Corrected Promptly"), and then ask people How Important they are, as well as How are We Doing. While this is very simple, it yields so very powerful and actionable results, which we'll discuss below.
Consistency
Do the very same survey repeatedly, so you can see your trends. You might be tempted to redesign the study every time you do it, but resist. Because what you are after is a gauge as to whether you are getting better or worse. For example, it is more important to know that your Overall Satisfaction score is going from 4.8 to 4.9. to 5.0 (on a scale of 1 to 6 with 6 being excellent), than to know that the score is 4.9. No doubt, you are doing things to improve customer satisfaction; and you want to see if they are working. Monthly, quarterly, or bi-annual surveys make sense and can give you the trends.
Segments
Not all customers are equally profitable. And the more profitable ones may like different things than the rest. No doubt this is true. When you design your satisfaction surveys, make sure you can slice and dice the data so that you can examine the importance of your various attributes....and your performance....across various demographic and MCIF segments. This is absolutely critical, since as our product menus changes, the new products will appeal to different segments
Comparisons
Be sure to design into your survey questions which ask customers to compare your service with their other financial service providers. And it might make sense to also collect similar data on your local competitors, so you can see your relative strengths and weaknesses. If you use the new Financial Client Satisfaction Index attributes in whole or part (it is not necessary to use them all), you can also compare your scores with other benchmarks, such as banks in your state, banks nationally, and banks by size group.
Strategy Grid
Once you have designed your survey and collected your data, it is vital to lay it out is a useful, strategic grid, which highlights strengths and weaknesses and fosters good decisions. The Strategy Grid (see accompanying chart) is such a tool. It takes the twenty FCSI attributes and simply arrays them on a two axis grid, where one axis is "Importance"....that is, how important that attribute is to customers; and the other is "Performance"...that, is how well did the bank score on that attribute. The cross hairs are simply the median scores dividing the attributes on each scale. Very simple.
While the method is very simple, the insights are very useful, it that the attributes fall into four action quadrants:
Exploit These are attributes where the bank is doing well; and which are important to customers. These are things which should be exploited. They might become the subject of ads. They might be played up in PR efforts. Creative minds need to be turned loose on these; as these are what most likely differentiates your bank in the minds of your customers. On the accompanying grid, the attributes of "Employee Courtesy" and "Professionalism" stand out as strengths. These might be the root of a great ad campaign.
FIX These are the attributes which are important to customers, but where the bank need to improve. Or at least deal with the perceptions. Pricing often fall here. The rates banks can pay are lower, but much can be done to alter the perceptions (but that's another article). The point is, these attributes also need creativity...but from a "fix it" perspective. Here, "Account Statements" and "Neatness of Branches" need attention.
Reconsider These are attributes where the bank scores very well, but which are not that important to customers. This may be where some costs may be saved, or from where some resources might be shifted. For example, on the accompanying grid "Telephone Banking" might be overstaffed, or subject to some automation.
Monitor These are attributes which are currently less important, and on which the bank does not do as well. In the example, "Rates on Savings" falls here. Don't take too much comfort, though, because things can change. These should be monitored, because they are potential weaknesses. For example, it may be that rates on savings are unimportant today because of the booming stock market. But what happens during the next downturn, when stock prices drop and money comes back to the banks? Rates might be much more important.
The point is, if you design your satisfaction survey correctly, you can develop a simple tool like this and see what happens over time. You can measure the progress of your "fixes". You can see how your "exploitations" are working. And you can monitor the other attributes. Of course, you will want to look at more that one Strategy Grid. You should be able to see one for each of your branches and key target market segments.
Special Note to FCSI Subscribers
You can get Strategy Grids for each of your branches, any demographic segment, or even "User Defined" segments, such as those that reflect profitability (A, B, C, etc) from your MCIF!