Leading Customer Care Vendors Establish Customer Satisfaction Standards
Aurum, Clarify, ONYX and Vantive turn to CustomerSat to survey customers via the Internet
Chicago - March 3, 1998 - Aurum Software, Inc., Clarify
Inc., ONYX Software Corporation, and The
Vantive Corporation - four leaders in sales force
automation, customer interaction, and customer care systems
- have teamed up to measure customer satisfaction and loyalty
and to establish industry-wide satisfaction and loyalty benchmarks.
Customer satisfaction ratings embody the voice of the customer
and can help firms manage operations, recognize and leverage
strategic advantage, and identify potential vulnerabilities.
Detailed, confidential surveys were composed and conducted
for the four vendors by CustomerSat.com (Menlo Park, CA),
an Internet market research firm, using new e-mail and Web
technology. The study was announced at the DCI Sales Force
Automation Conference & Exposition here.
"Aurum is committed to customer satisfaction and using innovative
technologies to measure and enhance it," said Mark Hamilton,
vice president of marketing at Aurum Software. "CustomerSat.com
helps us understand what is most important to our customers
and what specific actions will continue our success."
"The entire front office market will benefit from this initiative
to establish and raise quality and service standards," said
Donna Novitsky, vice president of marketing for Clarify Inc.
"Clarify is delighted to help lead this important industry-wide
effort with CustomerSat.com."
"For ONYX Software, a 100% referenceable customer base is
a primary corporate objective," said Brian Janssen, ONYX co-founder
and executive vice president of customer care. "ONYX is pleased
to participate as a leader with CustomerSat.com to establish
and raise awareness of customer satisfaction standards in
our industry."
"CustomerSat.com is helping Vantive fulfill its corporate-wide
commitment to customer satisfaction by providing vital customer
feedback quickly," said John Luongo, president and CEO of
The Vantive Corporation. "Over time, more and more of our
customer satisfaction measurement and benchmarking will move
to the Internet."
"The vendors participating in this program are leading the
industry in their commitment to customer satisfaction and
loyalty," said John Chisholm, president and CEO of CustomerSat.com.
"They are also enjoying key competitive advantages through
rich, early insights into customer and market trends and requirements."
400 Companies respond to Secure, Convenient Web Surveys
Approximately 400 companies worldwide that are customers
of the four vendors have participated in the Customer Satisfaction
Benchmark Study for Customer-Interaction Systems Vendors to
date. These companies are estimated to represent about half
of the worldwide users of enterprise customer-interaction
systems, said Chisholm.
The Customer Satisfaction Benchmark Study measures satisfaction
along 45 different dimensions, including product quality,
sales force knowledge and effectiveness, support quality and
effectiveness, ease of doing business with each company, and
pricing. The study also provides detailed demographics of
customers by industry segment, database, server platform,
size of installation, and geographical location.
Positive Respondent Identification â„¢ proprietary
CustomerSat.com technology, is used to ensure that unauthorized
users cannot access the surveys and that authorized respondents
can complete a survey only once. For each customer, PRI generates
a personalized e-mail invitation containing a unique Web page
address (e.g., a URL such as http://www.CustomerSat.com/ZFJD45JK
).
Responding customers either click on the address or copy
and paste it into a Web browser to access the survey. A Web
program reads the unique address and, through a database,
confirms that it is valid and that it has not previously been
used. After the respondent completes the survey, the database
is updated to disallow use of the address again. Respondents
need not remember or type in passwords or ID codes, increasing
response rates. Charts and statistics of survey results can
be generated in real-time on password-protected Web pages,
providing nearly instantaneous customer feedback.
According to John S. Townsend, Senior Director, Network Operations
Support at Intermedia Communications Inc. (Tampa, FL), a customer
who participated in the study, "The Web survey was great.
I was able to key in my answers and comments and then just
click to send. No extra paper on my desk, no envelopes or
stamps to worry about. A great time saver."
Selected Findings from the Benchmark Study
Findings from the study are compiled for the vendors individually
and in aggregate. Performance ratings of individual vendors
are confidential to each vendor, while aggregate benchmarks
are available to all vendors who participate. Both multivariate
and univariate statistical modeling techniques are used in
the analysis. Findings fall into four categories:
1) Performance Benchmarks. How customers
rate their satisfaction with different attributes of their
customer-interaction vendors and products.
2) Importance Benchmarks . The importance
of different attributes in determining customers' overall
satisfaction with customer-interaction vendors and products.
3) Vendor Positioning. Perceived positioning
of each vendor and its competitors along five different dimensions,
by both a vendor's customers and the market overall.
4) Detailed Demographics . The composition
of each vendor's customers vs. the overall market, by industry
segment, size of customer company, server platform, data base,
size of installation, geographical region, and many other
dimensions.
Performance benchmarks and ratings for each vendor are determined
for each demographic segment as well as for the market overall.
Attributes with Highest Importance: Software Reliability
and Functionality
Of 45 attributes, the five that were most important to users
in determining overall satisfaction all pertained to the software
itself, rather than to technical support, sales effectiveness,
or ease of doing business with the organization:
- Software reliability
- Ability of software to work effectively in a client-server
environment
- Ease of using software on a daily basis
- Ability of software functionality to address business
needs
- Software performance - speed of operation
Attributes with Highest Satisfaction: Sales Effectiveness
and Software Functionality
The five attributes with which respondents were most satisfied
overall primarily pertained to sales effectiveness and software
quality:
- Product knowledge of sales representative
- Responsiveness of sales representative
- Ease of using software on a daily basis
- Ability of software functionality to address business
needs
- Ability of software to work effectively in a client-server
environment
By industry sector, customers in telecommunications were
the most satisfied overall. By size of company, customers
with revenues between $100 million and $1 billion were the
most satisfied. By geographical region, customers in the eastern
region of North America were the most satisfied.
Customer Demographics
Respondents represent the global customer-interaction market.
As of March, 1998:
- The median revenues of companies responding is $486 million.
- The median number of users of the customer interaction
systems is 71.
- 63% use Oracle databases; 25% Microsoft SQL Server; 18%
Sybase. 36% use Windows NT servers, 34% use Sun servers,
32% use HP, and 11% IBM (totals add to more than 100% due
to use of multiple servers per customer).
- 35% are in computer or software industries; 17% in manufacturing;
13% in telecommunications; 6% in utilities; and 4% in financial
services.
- 44% have had their customer-interaction systems installed
for 1-3 years.
- 38% are in the Eastern time zone; 30% in the Pacific time
zone; 23% Central or Mountain time zones; 5% Europe; 3%
Canada, 1% Rest of world.
Survey results enable vendors to identify specific actions
that will enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty by product
line, distribution channel, geographical region, industry
sector and many other dimensions.
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