It seems self-evident that companies should try to satisfy their customers at all levels and at any cost, almost! Satisfied customers usually return and buy more, certainly in our sector here at Lestercast. Word of mouth encourages further business and if the service is good customers may well pay a premium for the privilege of doing business with a supplier they trust, respect and have a good rapport with.

Figures show that in general, the cost of retaining a customer is just 10% of the cost in attracting and winning a new one. It therefore is pretty obvious that once we win a customer, we should hang on to them, certainly in a market that is fickle and can change at the drop of a hat.

Why Customer Satisfaction Is So Important

When we purchase anything, we expect it to be right. You pay for a product, you don’t expect any issues. But have you noticed that comments, whether positive or negative are only given in the extreme? This is the case if you’re delighted with something and or a service or if you’re underwhelmed and wishing to complain. Never, or hardly ever, do you instinctively give feedback if the service was as expected, non-extraordinary and without fault.

The bar is getting higher and higher, standards and expectations are on the up as availability through the internet is increasing competition across all sectors. Delighting customers and achieving high customer satisfaction scores in this environment is ever more difficult.

At Lestercast, we are most certainly a proactive organisation and ‘hands to the pump’ with all interaction from customers. Direct contact, in a fairly informal manner is valuable to us and we are very responsive to all feedback, positive and otherwise.

2015 Customer Service Satisfaction

We have developed a customer satisfaction programme which is not just about carrying out an annual survey, it’s about the attention to detail, ongoing improvements, continuous assessment and interactivity with the customers and fundamentally ensuring all aspects of the company are under constant review and in check – from staff training, cultural change, customer handling and so on. These are of course, fully supported by the senior management at all times.

Our survey consists of five questions and for each question a graded level can be awarded purely based on the opinion of the buyer that has the most interaction with Lestercast at all stages of an order. These questions relate to service delivery, customer experience and overall satisfaction.

The end goal is to get actionable feedback that can be used to improve all aspects of the overall customer experience.