Our aim is to understand the strength / feeling of the supplier / customer relationship to identify any potential (or risk) to further development – this is done through a telephone interview.
Why do businesses run this type of project?
- Increase ‘client retention’.
- Identifying referral opportunities.
- Highlighting customer stories to create compelling testimonials / case studies.
- Identifying potential sales / service opportunities (upsell / cross sell) with existing customers.
- Benchmarking ‘customer care’ and identifying previous unknown ‘issues’.
- Supporting certification / accreditation e.g. ISO 9001.
Who to interview and why?
There are 5 key things to consider when choosing who to interview based on your desired objectives:
- Important Clients: To improve your ‘relationship’ and ensure any ‘issues’ are identified and dealt with asap.
- Sample of ‘other’ clients: To identify the things that cause dissatisfaction, approx. % of clients impacted and strength of feeling… to feed the ‘continuous improvement’ process.
- Cross Sale Potential: Clients who are probably ripe for ‘cross selling’, make sure they are happy before introducing other services.
- Referral Potential: Ideally you would request referrals from everyone interviewed… first, make sure they are happy, then make them happier, then ask for referrals.
- Case Study Candidates: Interview clients who could deliver a good case study, ensure they are happy, make them happier then ask for a case study, and THEN ask for referrals.
How the does the interview work?
- Contacts identified.
- Contacts notified via email by [Company].
- Interviews conducted.
- Interview summary sent immediately via email.
- Summary report on completion of contact cycle.
- Review and next steps.
Note:
– There is no time limit on the discussion, the longest to date is 45 minutes.
– A maximum of 10 attempts made to reach each contact.
– Average interview completion rate 80%.
What questions are asked?
- What stands out about the service you receive from [Company]? (Open question)
- Would you recommend [Company]? (Yes/No)
- Do you have a specific member of the team you work with? (If relevant)
- How would you rate the services provided on a 5 point scale?
a. Is / was the service delivered as promised?
b. How valuable do you find the service received?
c. Were they considerate and helpful?
d. Please rate the quality of communication - If anything, how could [Company] further enhance the services they offer? (Open question)
Initial investment
- The ‘Client Engagement Audit’ starts at only £499 (+VAT) for 10 contacts.
Timescales
- Usually 4-6 weeks to complete the ‘project’ (regardless of the number of contacts included).
Considerations after the audit?
- Are the responses generated from this group representative of the client base?
- How should the business respond to the output from the audit (good and bad)?
- How to leverage the content created?
- What engagement programme should be implemented throughout the remaining client base?
Post interview actions / Content Creation
For example, this might include;
- Contacting the client to review the output, discuss services, referrals etc.
- Client testimonials posted on the company website with a company comment.
- A company response to the feedback emailed to the client.
- Social media content.
- Creation of case studies if targeting specific market sectors (template example attached)
- Creation of ‘video’ content.
Ongoing interviews
We are flexible on this as long as we have a minimum average of 5 contacts per month.
Example Outcomes