Over the last couple of years, our own Kate Feather has had the privilege of speaking at a number of banking and credit union events centered on customer experience. She likes to share a particular data point, as it never fails to stun the audience. It comes from our independent research, which found:
- 78% of banking executives said that their customer experience had improved in the preceding 12 months.
- 28% of consumers agreed.
That is an incredible 50-point difference between how executives see their progress and the customers' actual experience.
It's evidence of our tendency to see things how we want to see them. While we may be convinced our target initiatives result in customers "Wow" experiences, we
The simple solution to combating this tendency is asking your customers to weigh in. If you want a deep level of understanding about your customers, you need to learn what elements of your experience are working for them and which still need improvement. In PeopleMetrics terminology, this is your customer "Wows and Woes" study. If you want to tackle this on your own, here is our basic process in ten steps:
Wows and Woes: 10 Steps to Customer Understanding
1. Design your survey.
Pro Tip: Make sure to include outcome questions, to enable you to measure results. That means you may want to include a Net Promoter Score prompt along with common, potential drivers of a great experience.
2. Decide who to invite.
Pro Tip: You may wish to sample business and consumer customers separately (and even ask them different questions). In our experience, the needs and experiences of business banking customers can be quite different from those of consumers. That means you'll also have to decide how to treat customers who have both types of accounts.
3. Determine whether you have enough email addresses in your customer or member database.
Pro Tip: If insufficient emails are available, consider alternative means of gathering feedback – such as telephone surveying, mail surveys, or postcards to invite online feedback. Or you could undertake a concerted campaign in branches and the call center to increase your number of email addresses.
4. Program the survey using a third-party, professional customer survey application.
Pro Tip: While SurveyMonkey may be a viable option for your bank, working with a third-party vendor with proprietary survey software can convey professionalism to customers. Designed and branded surveys can also evoke faith in customers that their information will be treated with care.
5. Inform the organization of the survey effort, including goals, anticipated outcomes, and how to answer questions from customers.
Pro Tip: Don’t forget to let employees know the WIIFM ("What’s In It For Them") of customer feedback. By connecting your survey effort to their individual and departmental successes and goals, you will likely get greater cooperation—not only in encouraging survey responses but also acting on the results.
6. Launch the survey and send reminders.
Pro Tip: Typically, you'll need to run your Wows and Woes survey for up to two weeks. Make sure to include a separate reminder to customers who have partially completed the survey, to encourage them to finish it. Also, send a reminder to all customers who have not yet clicked on the link.
7. Download and clean the data file.
Pro Tip: Data cleaning is an important step in your data analysis process. You should look for outliers in the data set, as well as flat-liners – customers who have responded to all questions straight down the line. It is likely that they were not giving you honest or thoughtful feedback, which could skew your results.
8. Run your statistical and descriptive analyses. Analyze open-ended comments.
Pro Tip: A regression analysis will help you to identify what really matters to your customers (i.e., key drivers). You'll get not just the areas of strength and weakness, but also their priorities for building a loyal, lasting relationship with your bank.
9. Overlay performance scores onto your key drivers. Find your Wows and Woes.
Pro Tip: Focus on your priorities (top key drivers) that are lower performing (woes) to help improve the experience you are delivering today.
10. Create a strategic presentation and share with leadership.
Pro Tip: As much as possible, weave a story from your Wows and Woes data. Who are your key customers? What matters to them? What is working today? Where do you need to focus your improvement efforts? What is the anticipated return on an investment in creating higher levels of advocacy and loyalty?
Weaving the answers into a story can help your results resonate with leadership, and set you up for successful customer experience strategy.
Get a Free Sample Survey
Interested in seeing a sample of Wows and Woes survey questions? Then download our free survey sample below to get started.
If you'd like to talk more about our Wows and Woes study or get more information about how we can help you in your customer experience strategy, then contact us.
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