A Better B2B Customer Satisfaction Metric

Measuring customer satisfaction is nothing new. Most companies — and indeed most of the Fortune 1000 — track customer satisfaction in some standardized form: overall satisfaction, NPS, and most often apply advanced analytics and modeling to identify the most critical satisfiers and dissatisfiers.

While there is much overlap in customer satisfaction methodologies for B2C and B2B companies, the opportunity to identify and address the satisfaction levels of individual customers/accounts is much more available — and has much more potential impact — in B2B companies. The ability to determine which individual accounts are vulnerable and then address those vulnerabilities directly is a pivotal opportunity to increase sales and loyalty.

Identify Vulnerable Customers

Typically, companies use one or more of the following metrics to measure customers satisfaction: overall satisfaction, intent to repurchase/renew, and likelihood to recommend to others.

Additionally, we use The Burke Institute Secure Customer Index. Using a five-point response scale, respondents are categorized into four segments, creating a ladder of customers or accounts ranked by vulnerability:

Finding the Real Power

By combining the Secure Customer Index and your customer satisfaction metrics with your database, you will know which customers are likely to repurchase/renew and which customers are not. Once you understand your secure customers, you can develop programs to enhance their relationship with you and to increase their loyalty. Next, you can evaluate what it would take to move vulnerable customers up the secure customer ladder and evaluate whether that makes business sense. Finally, adding the Secure Customer Index to your forecasting tools will fine-tune your revenue planning for renewals and repurchase, and help you develop more effective marketing actions and strategies.

The Secure Customer Index is a powerful tool for driving business results, over and above improving the customer experience. By understanding the degree of risk in your customer base your organization can allocate resources to the customers that are likely to turn into loyalists, thereby ensuring your business’s success and future growth.

Talk to Zeitgeist Research about revamping your B2B customer satisfaction program to drive business results. Click on the link to schedule a brief call. Click here.