Is Service Performance Benchmarking Important? (2 of 4)
by Service 800, Inc.

Most companies today measure customer satisfaction in some way or another. Many are just realizing the importance of measuring customer satisfaction for service events. The most astute companies are going a step beyond just measuring satisfaction by participating in industry benchmarks.

The four-week series includes the following articles:

• Why is Service Performance Benchmarking Important?
  
• What Makes a Good Benchmark?
  
• What are the Facts and Fallacies of Benchmarking?
  
• Is it Possible to Successfully Benchmark with Non-Competitors?

Article 2 – What Makes a Good Benchmark?

If your company measures customer satisfaction, you may have heard of benchmarking. Still, not all performance benchmarks are equal. True benchmarks have five very distinctive characteristics:

• Consistency — Use responses from like questions to establish a benchmark. Your provider should not use responses from questionnaires with different types of questions as it renders the benchmark data invalid.
  
• Validity — Obtain a statistically valid sample for each benchmark participant. A sound benchmark provider must obtain feedback from the correct number of customers for each participant to build and maintain a benchmark.
  
• Timeliness — Trend on-going service measurements over time to help you gather accurate information to make changes. It takes time to establish a credible benchmark.
  
• Confidentiality — Remain anonymous and protect your client list. A true benchmark compares like service providers to one another and includes at least five or more participants. What’s more, they should keep your customer information completely confidential.
  
• Objectivity — Maintain an objective position by allowing a neutral third party to measure customer satisfaction and administer the benchmark. This approach is necessary to safe guard the integrity of the results.

For example, when Global Software Developers, Inc. began searching for a measurement provider, they promptly eliminated every company that did not offer a performance benchmark. Then, using the five characteristics of a true benchmark as a starting point, Global invited three providers to submit proposals and present the details of their benchmark programs.

The first provider responded, “We do business with most of your competitors, so we can easily form a benchmark using that data. We have already approached some of them with the idea and they seem very interested in making performance comparisons.”

The second provider said, “For the past 10 years, we’ve collected service performance feedback from various industries, using various techniques. Depending on your industry, we can extract information from the database to provide a comparison benchmark.”

The third provided simply stated, “All of our benchmark participants are asked the same questions for consistency sake. We follow up with a random, but statistically valid, pool of customers for each company to give the benchmark validity. To make a benchmark credible, ensure that there are at least five participants at all times. Finally, we consistently collect data from the same companies over time to instill a sense of confidence in the results. And, of course all of the individual results remain confidential between my company and yours.”

In this case, measuring the remaining providers against the important characteristics then made the final decision simple. Global was pleased to discover that the third provider’s benchmark met all of the characteristics.

Take a moment to consider the customer satisfaction measurement and benchmarking program your company uses. Does the program meet the criteria of a true benchmark? If not, talk with your provider about the characteristics of the benchmark in which you participate.

Next Week - What are Some Facts and Fallacies About Benchmarking?

To Contact Us — To discuss this topic, any other Benchmark Benefits article, or to provide topic suggestions, please contact Jan DeMatteo at jan@service800.com.

For More Information — For additional information about the SSPA SoftwareMetric Customer Satisfaction Benchmark, SERVICE 800, or other benchmark programs, visit www.service800.com/benchmarkprograms.asp.

About SERVICE 800
Founded in 1989, SERVICE 800 designs and administrators real-time customer satisfaction measurement programs, helping service organizations follow up with their customers within hours or days of service events. The company utilizes a distinctive follow up telephone interview process along with e-mail, web, and other survey techniques to measure customer satisfaction. With offices in Minneapolis and London, SERVICE 800 has been measuring customer satisfaction for corporations throughout the world for over a decade.