CUSTOMER PERCEPTION 2014 BENCHMARK REPORT · EFQM SHARES WHAT WORKS We are committed to helping organisations drive improvement through the EFQM Excellence Model, a comprehensive

CUSTOMER PERCEPTION

2014 BENCHMARK REPORT

EFQM SHARES WHAT WORKS We are committed to helping organisations drive improvement through the EFQM Excellence Model, a comprehensive management framework used by over 30,000 organisations in Europe.

To help you implement our Model, we provide training and assessment tools as well as recognition for high performing organisations. But our real talent comes from gathering good practice and sharing them through our network.

We at EFQM, a not-for-profit membership Foundation founded in 1989, aim to share what works, through case studies, online seminars, working groups, conferences and thematic events.

Sharing our members’ enthusiasm, their motivation and the results they achieve; that is what we work for.

WE SUPPORT THE UN GLOBAL COMPACTEFQM not only supports the ten principles of the UN Global Compact, we actively promote them to our Members and the wider global community through the EFQM Excellence Model. The introduction to the 2013 Model states “an excellent organisation will respect and comply with the 10 principles of the UN Global Compact, regardless of whether legally obliged to do so.” In this way we ensure that every organisation that uses the EFQM Excellence Model is aware of the ten principles of the UN Global Compact.

© EFQM 2015No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a re-trieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means (be this electronically, mechanical-ly, through photocopy or re-cording, or otherwise) without either the prior written permis-sion of, or a license permitting restricted copying and use for a third party, from the publisher.

1Customer Perception - 2014 Benchmark Report 2014

Contents

Foreword 2

Compiling this Report 3

Creating Comparable Data 4

Identifying the Common Themes for Comparison 5

Identifying “Good Practices” 5

Segmentation of Data 6

Data Presentation 6

How can this report be used? 6

Good Practices: Adding Value for Customers 7

Nilüfer Municipality - Turkey 8

St Mary’s College - United Kingdom 11

Cedar Foundation – Northern Ireland 15

All applicants 19

Large Organisations 22

SME Organisations 26

Private Sector 30

Public Sector 34

Finalists 38

Prize & Award Winners 42

2 Customer Perception - 2014 Benchmark Report 2014

Foreword

Happy Employees = Happy Customers

The Key to Happy Customers? Take Good Care of Your Employees. What goes along with keeping your customers happy is who is helping to keep your customers happy - your em-ployees. If you build a positive working environment for your employees it’ll be much easier for them to deliver a positive experience and add value for your customers.

Customers form strong emotions about your organisation based on their experiences with your people - and those emotions strongly influence their buying decisions.

Customers who love your company - your true believers - say that they “can’t live without it.” They shop more often, buy more, tell others about it, and - most importantly - are less price sensitive. Customers who don’t like your company spread negative messages to stop others from doing business with you. In the end of the day it is all about promotors and detractors.

Customer strategy that does not take into account this phenomenon is not going to guaran-tee delighted customer. Understanding how and why consumers make certain buying deci-sions is integral to provide products and services that customers not only want and buy but also promote those for you.

A successful organisation identifies and measures what their customers value and uses this information to improve their internal processes, products and services and delivers increas-ing value for all customers. In doing so, an organisation can focus on the right products and services and eliminate processes or products that are not providing any added value for cus-tomers.

Some of the approaches that could be considered are: Having a robust approach to collect feedback on perception of value, focusing on key

expectations and determining the importance and nature of the relationship with the cus-tomers.

Using measurement that is linked to important customer requirements throughout their lifecycle with your organisation.

Comparing the results with other organisations will enable to put the performance in con-text and adjust the design of processes that deliver the experiences.

Analysing feedback and communicating it to all relevant people in the organisation. Time is set aside to review the results and initiate improvement actions.

Samuli PruikkonenSenior Manager Membership, EFQM

4

Foreword Happy Employees = Happy Customers The Key to Happy Customers? Take Good Care of Your Employees. What goes along with keeping your customers happy is who is helping to keep your customers happy -‐ your employees. If you build a positive working environment for your employees it’ll be much easier for them to deliver a positive experience and add value for your customers. Customers form strong emotions about your organisation based on their experiences with your people -‐ and those emotions strongly influence their buying decisions. Customers who love your company -‐ your true believers -‐ say that they "can't live without it." They shop more often, buy more, tell others about it, and -‐ most importantly -‐ are less price sensitive. Customers who don’t like your company spread negative messages to stop others from doing business with you. In the end of the day it is all about promotors and detractors. Customer strategy that does not take into account this phenomenon is not going to guarantee delighted customer. Understanding how and why consumers make certain buying decisions is integral to provide products and services that customers not only want and buy but also promote those for you. A successful organisation identifies and measures what their customers value and uses this information to improve their internal processes, products and services and delivers increasing value for all customers. In doing so, an organisation can focus on the right products and services and eliminate processes or products that are not providing any added value for customers. Some of the approaches that could be considered are:

Having a robust approach to collect feedback on perception of value, focusing on key expectations and determining the importance and nature of the relationship with the customers.

Using measurement that is linked to important customer requirements throughout their lifecycle with your organisation.

Comparing the results with other organisations will enable to put the performance in context and adjust the design of processes that deliver the experiences.

Analysing feedback and communicating it to all relevant people in the organisation. Time is set aside to review the results and initiate improvement actions.

Samuli Pruikkonen Senior Manager Membership, EFQM


Compiling this Report

The data contained in this report has been provided by applicants from the EFQM Excellence Award processes from 2010 to 2014. These organisations have achieved a known and compa-rable level of excellence, as determined by the Jury.

As users of the EFQM Excellence Model, we understand the need to compare our perfor-mance levels with external organisations to understand where we excel and where we may need to make improvements to stay competitive and deliver sustainable benefits to our stake-holders. These comparisons can be made both within the market we operate and beyond, to bring in new ideas and innovative ways of working that will enable us to make “breakthrough improvements” or gain access to new markets.

The EFQM Excellence Model provides us with a “common language” for sharing information, ideas and good practices between organisations. Once the “level of excellence” of an organ-isation has been determined through assessment against the Model, it is possible for them to compare their performance against organisations who have achieved either a similar level of maturity or to compare themselves with members who have achieved their target “level of excellence” to understand where they need to make improvements in order to achieve this.

Obviously, benchmarking goes far beyond comparing numbers but this can be a useful step in identifying gaps and which areas to focus on. Aligning this to the strategic objectives will help identify the priorities for improvement. Once these priorities are agreed, the process of benchmarking approaches can begin.

Acknowledgements

The information in this document has been contributed by a number of EFQM Member Or-ganisations. Without this contribution, publication of this report would not have been possi-ble. We therefore thank all the individuals and organisations who have taken the time to share their knowledge, experience and expertise with us.


Creating Comparable Data

There are 2 common issues encountered when people try to compare perception data:The questions are worded differentlyThe scoring scales are not the same

What tends to happen is people buy benchmark data from their survey provider, although often have little idea who they are benchmarking against, therefore how valid the benchmark is. This also does little to promote the exchange of ideas.

However, whilst the wording of the questions might be different, the themes explored are usually the same, such as “Overall Satisfaction” and “Accessibility of Staff”. For example, one company may have a question worded “How easy is it for you to contact us when you need to?” in their Customer Perception Survey and another may ask “Are you able to easily speak to a member of staff?” In essence, these both ask about the same thing and the approaches adopted in a company that will drive this result will have the same objective. By identifying the common themes, we can ask the participants to select the relevant questions from their survey which measure perception against these themes.

The other issue is the range of different scoring scales used. Ultimately, if someone is highly satisfied, they will give you a high score and, if they’re not, they’ll give a low score. Calculating the average score and converting this to a percentage, we can create a common approach to scoring that enables us to create a benchmarking index to identify companies with very high levels of customer satisfaction. For example, if the organisation is using a scale of 1 to 5 and the average rating was 4.0, this would be equivalent to 75%. Whether the comparison be-tween organisations A & B is 100% accurate is not the point. The objective is to identify areas where organisation A could learn from organisation B.


Identifying the Common Themes for Comparison

To identify the “common themes” which were being used to measure customer perception, we took a sample of submission documents from the last 3 years and ensuring we had a mix of private and public sector organisations. We then compared the data presented in the “Cus-tomer Perception” criteria and compiled the following list:

Overall SatisfactionProduct / Service ReliabilityProduct / Service QualityCommunicationsFlexibility (to customer needs)On-time deliveryAfter-sales service / Ongoing Sup-

portTechnical support

Accessibility of staffResponsiveness of staffCompetency of staffValue for MoneyEnvironmental PolicyReputation / Brand ImageWould repurchase / reuse (loyalty)Would Recommend

Identifying “Good Practices”

The Assessor Teams identify and describe “Good Practices” during the assessment process, based on the 8 Fundamental Concepts of Excellence which underpin the EFQM Excellence Model. These provide the EFQM Award Jury with further information on the applicant and why the Assessor Team feel they should be considered as a “role model” for other organisa-tions.

The “good practices” identified are documented in a standard template, based on the RA-DAR. The “good practices” included in this report have been taken directly from the feed-back reports produced by the Assessor Teams. These examples should give an insight into the different types of approaches adopted by organisations recognised through the EFQM Excellence Award process as “excellent” which can be adapted for use within other member organisations.

Adding Value for Customers

Creating a Sustainable Future

Developing OrganisationalCapability

Harnessing Creativity & Innovation

Leading with Vision, Inspiration & Integrity

Managing with Agility

Succeeding through theTalent of People

Sustaining Outstanding Results

©EFQM 2012


Segmentation of Data

For this report, we have segmented the data into 7 categories:All applicantsFinalistsPrize and Award WinnersLarge OrganisationsSmall and Medium OrganisationsPrivate Sector OrganisationsPublic Sector Organisations

For each category, we have included data on the “Average” of the group, plus the Maximum and Minimum scores achieved each year. This may not always be the same organisation i.e. Applicant A might have the maximum score in 2013 but Applicant B could have the maximum score in 2014.When the size of the sample after segmentation is not big enough, data has been omitted.

Data Presentation

As described previously, we asked the applicants to send the average rating given, expressed as a percentage, for each of the themes we had identified. We have presented the data in both tables and in graphical format:The theme appears at the top as

the title of the graph,The average rating for each or-

ganisation has been given as a percentage. For example, if they are using a scale of 1 to 5 and the average rating was 4.0, this would be 75%,

The Average, Minimum and Max-imum ratings for each segment are presented as a percentage.

Note that the results before 2014 can slightly differ from the ones presented in previous Perception reports as a result of changes in the sample.

How can this report be used?

Organisations compare results so they can identify where they have “competitive advantag-es”, where they need to improve and how much they need to improve by, to achieve their strategic objectives.This Benchmark Report can be used by members to: Understand where they are particularly good compared to a suitable peer group, de-

pending on their current or desired “level of excellence”; Identify priorities for improvements; Calibrate their target setting processes and aspirations; Understand key approaches adopted by leading organisations.

8

Segmentation of Data For this report, we have segmented the data into 7 categories:

All applicants Finalists Prize and Award Winners Large Organisations Small and Medium Organisations Private Sector Organisations Public Sector Organisations

For each category, we have included data on the “Average” of the group, plus the Maximum and Minimum scores achieved each year. This may not always be the same organisation i.e. Applicant A might have the maximum score in 2013 but Applicant B could have the maximum score in 2014. When the size of the sample after segmentation is not big enough, data has been omitted.

Data Presentation As described previously, we asked the applicants to send the average rating given, expressed as a percentage, for each of the themes we had identified. We have presented the data in both tables and in graphical format:

The theme appears at the top as the title of the graph,

The average rating for each organisation has been given as a percentage. For example, if they are using a scale of 1 to 5 and the average rating was 4.0, this would be 75%,

The Average, Minimum and Maximum ratings for each segment are presented as a percentage.

Note that the results before 2014 can slightly differ from the ones presented in previous Perception reports as a result of changes in the sample.

How can this report be used? Organisations compare results so they can identify where they have “competitive advantages”, where they need to improve and how much they need to improve by, to achieve their strategic objectives. This Benchmark Report can be used by members to:

Understand where they are particularly good compared to a suitable peer group, depending on their current or desired “level of excellence”;

Identify priorities for improvements; Calibrate their target setting processes and aspirations; Understand key approaches adopted by leading organisations.


Good Practices: Adding Value for Customers

The “good practices” included in this section were identified by the Assessor Teams during the EFQM Excellence Award assessment process under the Fundamental Concept of “Adding Value for Customers”.

The ConceptExcellent organisations consistently add value for customers by understanding, anticipating and fulfilling needs, expectations and opportunities.

How the Concept is put into practiceExcellent organisations know and intimately understand their customers. They understand that customers are the final arbiters of product and service quality. They also understand that customer loyalty, retention and market share gain is maximised through a clear focus on the needs and expectations of both existing and potential customers. They are responsive to those customers’ present needs and expectations. Where appropriate they segment their customers to improve the effectiveness of their response. They monitor competitor activi-ty and understand their competitive advantage. They effectively anticipate what customers’ future needs and expectations will be and act now in order to meet and where possible ex-ceed them. They monitor and review the experiences and perceptions of their customers and where things go wrong they respond quickly and effectively. They build and maintain excel-lent relationships with all their customers.

BenefitsDelighted customersStrong customer loyalty and retentionEnhanced market shareSustained success for the organisationMotivated employeesUnderstanding of competitive advantage


Nilüfer Municipality - TurkeyPrize Winner in 2013 EFQM Excellence Awards

Organisation OverviewNilüfer Municipality is one of the seven central district municipalities of Bursa metropolitan which is the 4th biggest city in Turkey and which takes place in the southeast of Marmara Sea and northwest of Uludağ (Olympus Mountain). Nilüfer is named after the Nilüfer river. Established in 1987, the Municipality of Nilüfer has created a city with modern standards in all aspects and today became an attraction centre.

As per 2011 census, 303.142 (316.753 including surrounding villages) people live in Nilüfer. The age distribution of the population is 28% aged 0-19; 64% aged 20-59; 8% aged 60 and over. The change during the years in the population structure of Nilüfer, demonstrates that the district is the most rapidly urbanised region of Bursa. As of today, within the 50.756-hectare, there are 42 neighbourhoods and 22 villages.

The slogan adopted by Nilüfer is “Smile you are in Nilüfer”. This means that people always have a smile on their face, because all around is the beauty of the Water Lily (Nilüfer) reflect-ing on the water surface. Nilüfer citizens smile because they are the administrators of the city rather than being administrated. The progressive administration means that as governing the city with citizens, governance, and democratic pluralistic participation, are processed with all institutions and rules within Nilüfer.

Approach The Municipality has defined different tools, systematics and practices to get closer to the citizens, to help hear their demands and answer proactively.

With the strategic Vision and Mission, Nilüfer Municipality is focusing on all relevant groups in society and their different needs (Culture, Art, Eco, Manufacturing, Education, Science and Technology, Health and Sports).

Different methods and tools have been defined to have a close relationship with its citizens, from the Mayor to all levels of employees at Nilüfer Municipality. “The Mayor is listening to Nilüfer” initiative must be highlighted.

In a 10-month period starting from February 5, 2013; 109,135 households and 6,000 workplaces were visited. Teams were interviewed with 84,436 people in homes, Citizen Report Cards were pre-

pared, requests, issues and recommendations were reported. Municipal affairs and services were directed to the relevant directorates in order to find

a solution. Business and services except for municipal authority / responsibility were directed to external agencies such as Bursa Metropolitan Municipality, General Direc-torate of Highways according to the request. Requested subjects were followed up on, reported and feedback was given to its citizens for their information.

The most important problems in neighbourhoods were determined with interviews with the citizens. These problems were highlighted on the neighbourhood maps. These data are important in the studies of strategic plans.

Besides this, many tools and methods are in use to get the citizens’ needs and expectations; such as meetings, call centre, help desk, internet, surveys, kiosks, social media (even used by the Mayor himself).


All applicants:

Average 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Overall Satisfaction 80% 81% 85% 90% 86%

Product / Service Reliability 84% 77% 84% 81% 87%

Product / Service Quality 86% 79% 85% 83% 87%

Communications 85% 79% 81% 83% 84%

Flexibility (to customer needs) 82% 82% 79% 83% 85%

On-time delivery 86% 81% 84% 87% 89%

After-sales service / Ongoing Support 82% 83% 85% 84% 90%

Technical support 84% 83% 86% 87% 91%

Accessibility of staff 82% 80% 80% 82% 90%

Responsiveness of staff 87% 85% 88% 87% 96%

Competency of staff 87% 84% 88% 89% 94%

Value for Money 89% 83% 87% 88% 86%

Environmental Policy 92% 82% 85% 88% 82%

Reputation / Brand Image 78% 89% 86% 91% 91%

Would repurchase / reuse (loyalty) 96% 89% 91% 88% 96%

Would Recommend 90% 89% 90% 89% 93%

Maximum 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Overall Satisfaction 100% 100% 100% 99% 98%

Product / Service Reliability 98% 100% 100% 100% 100%

Product / Service Quality 97% 98% 100% 100% 96%

Communications 95% 95% 100% 100% 97%

Flexibility (to customer needs) 98% 100% 99% 100% 100%

On-time delivery 99% 100% 100% 100% 100%

After-sales service / Ongoing Support 98% 100% 100% 100% 100%

Technical support 96% 100% 100% 100% 98%

Accessibility of staff 99% 100% 100% 100% 100%

Responsiveness of staff 98% 100% 99% 100% 100%

Competency of staff 98% 100% 100% 100% 100%

Value for Money 96% 93% 100% 100% 95%

Environmental Policy 100% 100% 100% 100% 98%

Reputation / Brand Image 98% 100% 100% 100% 100%

Would repurchase / reuse (loyalty) 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

Would Recommend 98% 100% 100% 100% 100%


22

2014 Benchmark Report - Customer Perception

23

22

22

22

22

© EFQM 2015No part of this publicati on may be repro-duced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitt ed in any form or by any means (be this electronically, mechanically, through photocopy or recording, or otherwise) without either the prior writt en permission of, or a license permitti ng res-tricted copying and use for a third party, from the publisher.

ISBN: 978-90-5236-796-5

EFQMAvenue des Olympiades 21140 Brussels, BelgiumTel +32 (2) 775 35 11Fax +32 (2) 775 35 [email protected]

Documents

CUSTOMER PERCEPTION 2014 BENCHMARK REPORT · EFQM SHARES WHAT WORKS We are committed to helping organisations drive improvement through the EFQM Excellence Model, a comprehensive