[Training] Cancelling Customer Cancellations

Two customer cancellations were averted during the first month that Schendel Pest Control, Topeka, Kan., used a new customer satisfaction survey.

Called "Data Now," the computerized survey was developed recently by Interview Technologies Inc. (ITI); a Boston, Mass.-based human resources consulting firm. It’s designed to accurately and quickly gauge customer service and enable a company to take immediate corrective measures if needed. ITI has been working in the human resources arena almost exclusively with the pest control industry for the last eight years.

ITI developed Data Now because the company had observed a need to get a better handle on customer service response for the pest control industry.

"Until now, our company had never put a standard on customer service," explains Brent Boles, Schendel’s general manager. "But we wanted to be able to grade our individual service techs and each of our branch offices on their performances. We thought they would have high scores and we wanted to confirm that. But in the rare event that customers are dissatisfied with us, we were hoping for a continuous mechanism in place that would alert us 24/7 to that dissatisfaction so we could intervene quickly. Data Now is helping us do this.

"We believe that unless you can measure and quantify customer service, you really don’t know about the quality of that service," Boles added.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION. ITI created a personality profiling mechanism for Schendel in recent years and knew that the company was ready to come up with a better way to measure customer satisfaction.

Boles says that in the first month the program was up and running in his company that’s exactly what happened. "One customer had actually mailed us a cancellation letter after he responded to the survey. Because we immediately received the data analysis of his response, we actually phoned him before we received his letter. That impressed him and gave us the opportunity to save the business, which we did," he says. Another unhappy Schendel customer used the survey to indicate his dissatisfaction with the company and Boles moved quickly on that also.

Boles describes Data Now as "a simple, computerized survey" enabling them to study the data and generate many reports on a daily basis. "Our branch managers can sign onto the appropriate surveys and see what kind of responses they’re getting — putting their fingers on the pulse of their customers. When there are glowing reviews, they can take the opportunity to recognize the employees who prompted those positive remarks. We now use this to help determine our technician of the year award."

Data Now sends Schendel an e-mail if a survey comes in below a certain standard. "It tells us the customer’s name and what the response was. We then have someone phone that customer immediately and address their concerns. This enables us to quickly respond to unhappy customers. We never had that mechanism before."

According to Boles, many people, even though they might be unhappy with the service they’re getting from a company, don’t like to make a phone call to complain. "They don’t like confrontation. But they will go to a Web site or a telephone survey to do it.

"During the first month of the program, we printed postcards with the survey questions to hand out to our customers. The survey is also printed on our invoices in a bold area that’s headed ‘We Want Your Opinion.’ The customer is asked to answer nine questions and is instructed to go to our Web site or to our 800 phone number or our fax number to submit it."

Schendel’s survey asks for customers’ opinions about the service they’re getting from the company’s customer service and sales representatives, as well as service technicians.

Data Now is unbiased and customized. Schendel can ask any questions they think necessary. If the company wants to focus completely on its service technicians for three months, questions could be asked that just relate to technicians. If they want to get information about competing pest control companies, they could ask customers how they compare with the competition.

Before ITI developed Data Now, Boles says his company determined that they needed a great deal of resources to manage a customer service survey. "We would have had to manage the program by taking all the data manually and putting it into a meaningful report. We now can pull up information on a standard uniform basis that will tell us which offices, and which individuals have the highest customer service scores and which have the lowest. The bottom line is this: Data Now is a much more cost effective way of getting this done."

He cites another benefit of the program: "Our first experiences with Data Now showed that one of our customers was very dissatisfied with how our service tech was communicating with him. We reassigned another tech to that job. That increased our awareness of the importance of good interpersonal communications and we’re now determined to train our people to communicate better with our customers. The tech who was the cause of the complaint is now being trained to be a better communicator.

"The survey submitted by the second customer showed he was unhappy with how we were treating for brown recluse spiders. I went to the customer’s home and found that our tech had been doing the service treatment incorrectly. I assured the customer that it would be done correctly, and trained the tech in the right procedure. The customer was happy with our commitment to help and decided not to cancel," Boles added.

The significant benefit of Data Now, Boles says, is that his company prevented two cancellations and improved employee training in the program’s first month. "That’s a solid indication of how powerful the program can be. We’re excited about its future with our company."

The author is a freelance writer from Milwaukee, Wis. He can be reached via e-mail at jfox@pctonline.com.

For more information about Interview Technologies, call 866/225-5484 or visit www.getyourdatanow.com and www.interviewtech.com.