Research Applications
Customer Relationship and Loyalty
Client Issue:
The client already measured customer satisfaction at a transaction level, but wanted to supplement that research with a study to assess the effectiveness of its overall relationship with a customer. Further, it wanted to focus on its most important customers with very senior-level titles — both IT and LOB — from whom it derived the greatest revenue. Very important was to understand what drives loyalty and how could that loyalty be increased over time.
RONIN Philosophy:
Client-identified research must be implemented perfectly, with an approach that respects the customer. We use executive interviewers on such jobs since the respondent may be a CIO, or even a CEO. Beyond interviewing approaches, the real challenge is to make the results actionable; that is, to identify what constitutes loyalty and what actions can be taken to engender it. We use advanced modeling approaches, including SEM and PLS to determine this. Because we eschew black box approaches, we test a number of modeling approaches to determine the best one for the specific data set.
The Project:
Deployed in 17 countries, the study required flexibility at every turn. Extensive sample processing was required to extract the customer records from the client’s data base systems, process them to ensure the customers were eligible to be interviewed and hadn’t been over-interviewed, and then prepared for phone research. Letters were sent to the customers to notify them of the study. Primarily conducted by phone, there were country-specific requirements for paper questionnaires and in-person interviewing. The results were supplied to the client monthly in a data file, along with a scorecard-type report. For the sales force, a summary of each interview was prepared and distributed weekly so that they could follow-up with their clients as appropriate. Plus driver analysis and modeling was done semi-annually to assess customer loyalty and its drivers.
The Bottom Line:
The sales force gets an independent view of how it is performing from its major accounts, including comparisons with the competition. The business itself has models to tune its performance and approach with its clients. Clients are treated with respect and have an opportunity to provide feedback to the company.