Surveying improves service at SG improvesservice improvement

BOCA RATON, Fla.--A customer satisfaction award that SimplexGrinnell received in February is further evidence, say Simplex executives, that its efforts to measure customer satisfaction and use that data to improve performance and processes are paying off.

“A customer can be happy,.The real question is: Are they happy enough to repeat the experience and recommend SimplexGrinnell to others,” said Karl Sharicz, SimplexGrinnell manager of customer intelligence.

Simplex qualified for an “ACE Award,” from customer insight management company MarketTools Inc., which recognizes “outstanding achievement in customer satisfaction” in 2008 for companies that “demonstrate rigorous application of customer feedback processes and outstanding performance.”

Since 2006, Simplex has measured “net customer advocacy,” which essentially determines how likely customers are to recommend SimplexGrinnell to others. The metric is measured through thousands of surveys with customers and it is ongoing.

“We've grown tremendously since we began to measure that metric,” Sharicz said. In 2006, the metric was 17 percent, in 2007 it was 22 percent and in 2008 it was 45 percent.

In addition to high-level metrics, the surveys provide “reams of data,” useful for all levels of Simplex operation, from the C-suite to the branch offices.

At the branch-office level, the practical result of the surveys is “immediate feedback … when there's a problem, the office has the ability to respond immediately,” Sharicz said.

“The customer will get a call [to resolve the issue] the next day.”