What is behind the survey questionnaire?

As mentioned before high customer loyalty is one of the most important indicators of good performing companies. Since customer satisfaction is directly linked to customer loyalty it is evident that measuring customer satisfaction without taking customer loyalty into account and vice versa would be misleading. This is best done using a causal model approach where the drivers of satisfaction as well as its resulting effects on loyalty are explicitly introduced. In short it will answer: (1)what's happening where and why? (2)do you focus your core intention on doing the right things? and (3)do you really know what's motivating your customers?

What do we understand by customer satisfaction?

Customer satisfaction is an overall customer attitude towards a service provider, or an emotional reaction to the difference between what customers anticipate and what they receive, regarding the fulfilment of some need, goal or desire. Satisfaction represents a veritable key of modelling the acquisition behavior of the customer, being supported by three groups of variables:

1. Cognitive variables, based on the qualitative superiority of the products given by the performance.
2. Affective variables, based on the emotions produced to the customers.
3. Conative variables, based on the interaction between the provider and the customer in the buying act.

The questionnaire outlined in this section offers such a framework. The customer satisfaction data we gather and the level of analysis will high and gives good guide to your business eg:

• Identifying why customers choose your product/service
• Image, branding and positioning in the mind of customers (USP match or mismatch)
• Pricing levels (perceived value for money)
• Perceived level of customer service
• Possible gaps in product and/or service line-up
• Extent of customer satisfaction and maybe even more important the reason why
• Extent of customer loyalty and maybe even more important the reason why
• Identifying customer future service and/or product and/or organizational needs
• Do you focus your core intention on doing the right things or on doing things right?

Building blocks

The questionnaire is constructed along the modified ECSI model using generic opening questions, causal model driver & result questions, and generic closure questions. See figure 5.

Figure 5.  Building blocks.

Generic opening questions

• • What is the primary reason for purchase i.e. purchase characteristic?
  • What is the extent of importance of possible purchase reasons?

Causal model driver questions

• Company Image
  • How does your customer perceive the general image of your organization in terms of products and services?...be careful....this is your latent promise in the mind of your customer!
• Customer expectation
  • Based on your customer previous experience what does he/she expect from your organization and to what degree does your customer consider that your organization fulfils all their expectations?
• Customer perceived product quality
  • How would your customer rate their own experience concerning the product quality during the Last purchase, delivered by your organization?
• Customer perceived service quality
  • How would your customer rate their own experience concerning the (customer/project) service quality during the last purchase, delivered by your organization?
• Customer perceived value
  • Consider the product, service and support your customers have received from your organization. How would your customer rate this in relation to the prices your organization has charged?

Causal model result questions

• Customer satisfaction
  • Consider your customer current experience, how satisfied is your customer and to what degree does he/she consider that your organization presently fulfils all their expectations?
  • Imagine an ideal organization, how close to this ideal would your customer rate your organization?
• Customer loyalty
  • If your customer were to purchase the same product/service again; how likely is it that your customer would buy from your organization again and how likely is it that he/she recommends your organization to a friend or colleague?
  • Why does your customer feel that way about recommending your organization?

Generic closure questions

• Quality improvement
  • What suggestions would your customer have to improve their satisfaction (and loyalty) with the product/service of your organization?