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Archive for the ‘Customer Satisfaction Research’ Category« Previous EntriesThe 5 Pillars Of Good StrategyFriday, December 16th, 2011  First, you must choose a distinctive value proposition. Which needs will you serve, which customers, at what relative price? Have you staked out a positioning that’s different from rivals? Second, and far less intuitive, you must choose to tailor your activities to that value proposition. Competitive advantage lies in the activities, in choosing to perform activities differently or to perform different activities than rivals. These ultimately are the choices that result in a company’s ability to charge premium prices or to operate at lower cost. (Remember, we’re talking about quantifiable performance.) The third test of strategy, making trade-offs, may well be the hardest. It means accepting limits — saying no to some customers, for example, so that you can better serve others. Porter explains why trade-offs are an important source of profitability differences among rivals, and why trade-offs make it difficult for rivals to copy what you do without compromising their own strategies. The essence of strategy, says Porter, is choosing what not to do. Fit is the fourth test. Great strategies are like complex systems in which all of the parts fit together seamlessly. Each thing you’ve chosen to do amplifies the value of the other things you do. That’s how fit improves the bottom line. It also enhances sustainability. Says Porter, “Fit locks out imitators by creating a chain that is as strong as its strongest link.” Continuity is strategy’s fifth test. While managers are often berated for changing too slowly and too little, it is also possible to change too much, and in the wrong ways. Faced with the latest New Thing, managers must choose whether to embrace it or not. Continuity of strategy helps companies to make good choices about whether and how to change in the face of turbulence. Good choices will strengthen tailoring, sharpen trade-offs, and enhance fit. Whether it is competitive advantage, the value chain, five forces, industry structure or differentiation, Michael Porter’s frameworks are the foundation. If you want to understand how companies achieve and sustain competitive success then buy this latest book from Harvard Business School called ‘Understanding Michael Porter: The Essential Guide to Competition and Strategy’ Click here to buy Understanding Michael Porter: The Essential Guide to Competition and Strategy The Net Promoter Score is RubbishThursday, September 22nd, 2011  Paul Hague this week advocates a simple, new metric to measure value. In less than 10 years, the NPS or Net Promoter Score has become familiar jargon in business boardrooms. It is a single metric, a golf handicap score, that leaders can easily understand and which they can use to ruthlessly drive their businesses. The Net Promoter Score is a measure of customer satisfaction and loyalty and who can deny that these two factors are crucial to the success of any business. It is easy to understand and the fact that it requires a simple calculation gives it a sort of scientific kudos. Let us remind ourselves what the Net Promoter Score is. We ask customers one simple question – “How likely is it that you would recommend COMPANY X to a friend or colleague?” The response is recorded on a scale from 0 to 10 and the percentage of companies giving a score of 6 or less is subtracted from the percentage of companies giving a score of 9 or 10. Those in the middle ground giving scores of 7 or 8are ignored. However, the NPS is not without its deficiencies.
We think that the NPS is a good metric but we also recognise that it is dangerous to drive a company on this number alone. The NPS does not measure the value that people attribute to a brand and this must be one of the most important metrics of all. Towards this end we have developed a measure which is fast gaining ground. It is called the Net Value Score or NVS and it measures the value that people attach to a brand or a supplier. Pat Kenny, Vice President Of Corporate Marketing at PPG Industries, said the following about the NVS:
To arrive at the Net Value Score, one simple question needs to be asked:
Using answers to the question, the following steps result in the computation of the NVS:
Calculating The Net Value Score For more information on the Net Value Score, visit http://www.netvaluescore.com/ The New Metric For Judging A Company’s SuccessThursday, August 18th, 2011  During a recent global branding study for PPG Industries Inc., B2B International developed a set of questions and a unique algorithm, which led to the creation of a new tool providing the market’s perception of benefits and price on brand. PPG Industries – the multibillion-dollar supplier of paints, coatings, chemicals, glass and fibre glass – found the tool so useful, that B2B International branded it the Net Value Score (NVS), and has since used it in a number of studies carried out for the company’s other Fortune 500 clients. The NVS is a metric that provides the market’s view on the perceived value offered by each company supplying a market. It can also provide the perceived value of a company’s different business units, indicating where the company’s value proposition is seen as the strongest and weakest. The NVS is based on a calculation that is arrived at through asking just three questions in a market research survey. For each supplier, questions are asked about how the supplier compares relative to other suppliers in the market on (i) its product and service benefits, (ii) its pricing, and (iii) its total value. The data are then run through the algorithm to result in the Net Value Scores. The tool illustrates the strength of a company’s brand relative to competitors, and indicates where more work is required to improve the level of perceived value – be it through better communicating certain benefits to specific market segments; better differentiating benefits so that they more strongly stand apart from those of competitors; or adjusting pricing so that prices are more in tune with the benefits offered. A company with an NVS which is significantly higher than others with which it competes will be one which enjoys a rising market share. The NVS can also change the way a company thinks. A supplier is very aware of the benefits offered by its products or services, but these benefits only resonate with the market if people recognise them. In other words, perceptions are shaped by communications. Companies can therefore increase the level of perceived value they are seen to offer by selling on value (such as lifetime cost) as opposed to price. This in particular refers to the sales force and distributors who frequently talk price instead of value. Patrick Kenny, Vice President of Corporate Marketing for PPG, states, “PPG Industries is fully committed to providing our customers with compelling value and so the NVS is a new metric that provides an ideal way to measure customer-experienced value. It is an excellent, adjacent metric to other popular customer advocacy scores that companies should embrace.” B2B International is currently building a comprehensive databank of industry-specific Net Value Scores for benchmarking clients against other companies (in both similar and different industries), so that learnings can be shared from those who are performing strongly on perceived value. Director Julia Cupman, Head of the company’s North American operations, states, “The Net Value Score is an example of our commitment to thought leadership. We hope more companies will recognise the importance of measuring perceived value and that they start benchmarking their performance with the NVS. One should not underestimate the power of this simple tool in providing critical metrics and research findings, which if acted on effectively, can lead to significant business success.” To learn more about B2B International’s Net Value Score, please visit: Net Value Score Website www.netvaluescore.com Net Value Score White Paper: The Metric For Judging A Company’s Success Saturday Night BelieverFriday, June 3rd, 2011  5 days on and Peter Mullarkey is still trying to get over the disappointment of Manchester United’s loss in the Champions League Final. He hopes that by reading his TNI you will not be disappointed in business. Special events should be celebrated and Saturday night was no exception. Manchester United & Barcelona, the two finest team in the world, came together to do battle in the Champions League Final. Two years had passed since that night in Rome, a lesson in football was all we walked away with, a 2-0 defeat which I still feel was jinxed by my meal of paella that evening! So it was with great hope and excitement that I entrusted my emotions to the men in red, white and black for the rematch. All the words beforehand were positive, the team stayed fit and the preparation had all been about this game since winning the record 19th Premier League. I honestly thought that the lessons had been learnt since 2009. After a hearty Lancashire hotpot (good omen, or so I thought), I took to my lucky seat, all the usual pre-match rituals were taking place, all the while feeling that tonight would be the night to lift our 4th European Trophy. The game kicked off, we pressed well, won the ball, looked lively and pressured them into making mistakes with their passing. It was a great start, 7 minutes of real promise… yet it can all fall apart in front of your eyes. After the 90 minutes, I could have no arguments; Barcelona yet again delivered a master class in how to play the beautiful game.  It left me feeling disappointed at something that I could never control, I tried my best, singing, shouting and willing them on, even though they were 180 miles away. Conducting customer satisfaction market research can help you to identify the areas to which more focus is required. B2B Internationals are experts in this area having conducted hundreds of studies over the past 12 years. We have developed vital and informative tools, such as IMPSAT®, NPS and Correlation Analysis, and with our services we can help develop any disappointing areas into strengths. All the while playing up your successes, such as a 19th Premier League Title! The Office In My PocketFriday, September 24th, 2010
In his first Thursday Night Insight, Peter Mullarkey looks at how the Smartphone has drastically changed since Michael Douglas portrayed the Greedy Gordon Gekko in 1987. On seeing the trailer for the new Wall Street movie, I noticed the size of the mobile phone Gordon Gecko is handed as he leaves prison; to be honest I would have been hard pushed to have missed it, it’s huge! This led me to think about the development of technology within mobile phones and how in 23 years since the Motorola DynaTAC, a phone made to make and receive calls only, has changed into a device with such diversity that we are seeing the leading manufacturers develop differing mobile phone handsets for the needs of the modern consumer. Cellular mobile phones are a fairly recent innovation; however, they have been freely available in the UK for over 20 years. This takes me back to my first mobile phone in 1999, the Motorola Colorado. This large bulky telephone, with an antenna, was the first time I had used text messaging and apart from calls, it didn’t do much else. But the latest phones offer so many different features.  Smart phones are reinventing the modern office. With access to e-mail, Internet, calendar and more advanced OS systems, with the ability to view attachments, meaning that work can be dealt with in the palm of your hand. But it is not just these features which have helped them to become such vital additions to pocket. Applications are also adding to the way that we use mobile phones. Apple and Android lead the market, which means I can now check the weather, to make sure I don’t get wet when running for my next train home that I know will be running two minutes late, While sat on the train I check my bank account to make sure there is enough cash for the Tesco shopping delivery that I did yesterday on the new Tesco Groceries App, while on my lunch. It can also find the answer to the little questions that pop up during conversations and pub quizzes (I know it’s cheating, but it is usually for a gallon of cider!), all this at the click of a few buttons. Last week I wanted to remember the name of the shop at the end of my road, but for the life of me I’d forgotten, I reached into my pocket, opened a new browser and soon Google street view was feeding the picture of the shop on to my screen. I find that this saves time in the short term which is what makes it such a great tool. In my house I don’t have a landline as the mobile phone has replaced this for me. I am not alone in this, I found that at the end of 2009 14% of all adults in the UK live in this same way and this number will keep increasing. My thought on this is why pay for two contracts a month when my mobile makes all the calls I need, has a voicemail facility, caller ID and with “Say No To 0870” I can usually find a landline number for these rather expensive calls. Here at B2B International, With all the telephone based market research that is undertaken we understand the best way to contact people via the telephone. When speaking with professionals it is best to call on their work phone, with people in the trades in can be best to contact them on their landline when they return from the field and more importantly, the mobile phone is always within arm’s reach wherever you go! With it being so accessible and portable, you can talk anywhere, doing anything. So if like Gordon Gekko you’ve been out of touch with your customers for quite some time, then maybe you should contact B2B International and we can get in touch for you. « Previous Entries |
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