Don't waste your customers' time. Make sure your questions count.

I received another oddly designed NPS/customer survey after recently flying with LH. Seeing how I was not the only one bothered by their approach, reminded me of why I actually like customer surveys (when done right).

Why I actually like customer surveys

I was once asked to take over and overhaul the customer survey / Net Promoter Score (NPS) exercise. It had resided with Market Intel for a decade or so, and some thought Marketing would be a better home. (They were right).

Be mindful of the questions

I brought many changes, the first being: 1) don’t ask what we already know (which we fixed on our end with better data, cleansing, and integration), and 2) questions need to reflect what we want to know so that we can improve. So that we can improve – bears repeating. Not just the NPS number, but so that we can improve across multiple business functions.

I want to give you feedback!

Customer surveys provide direct insights from customers, highlighting areas of strength and identifying opportunities for improvement. This feedback loop is essential for refining products, services, and the overall customer experience. I love open-ended feedback, but since customers don’t usually take the time for that, you should design your survey in a way that naturally makes participants want to give you additional notes.

Ok, what now?

As is often the case, the real value is in the follow-up - when you integrate results within the business. Customer surveys provide you with insights on strategic decisions and tactical trade-offs, aligning operations with customer expectations and market demands. The follow-up is about integrating these.

An example - thinking about S&OP for commodity fertilizer distribution, adjusting levers involves various trade-offs:

Customer Orientation vs. Growth in Volume:

• A strong focus on meeting customer needs can be leveraged to drive growth by expanding volumes with the same customer-centric approach.
• For instance, if a certain customer #segment (e.g., farmers) highly values timely delivery and consistent product quality, the distributor can prioritize these aspects to scale operations and capture more market share.

Profitability vs. Inventory and Working Capital:

• Your customer survey should help identify the right balance between maintaining profitability and investing in inventory to meet customer demand. Positive feedback on product availability and delivery times can justify increased working capital investments to sustain high service levels – or too much imbalance, and you might consider decreasing working capital.

Survey insights help showcase tactical trade-offs by highlighting areas needing focus:

Optimizing Logistics Costs vs. Accepting Last-Minute Requests:

• Feedback on delivery reliability and speed can drive decisions on whether to prioritize cost-efficiency in logistics or flexibility to accommodate last-minute customer demands.
• For example, if growers frequently request last-minute orders during unexpected weather changes, the distributor might need to maintain a flexible logistics network to accommodate these urgent demands without significantly increasing costs.

Optimizing Inventory and Carrying Costs vs. Planning Accuracy:

• NPS can reveal customer satisfaction with product availability, informing whether to invest in more accurate demand planning and maintain higher safety stock levels to address dissatisfaction with stock levels.

Different regions and customer segments (e.g., retailers vs. growers) will prioritize various factors like logistics, product quality, affordability, etc.

• Customer survey results help tailor S&OP strategies to these specific needs, ensuring that supply chain decisions are aligned with what matters most to different customer groups. In the age of AI, you can never segment too much.
• For example, if retailers in the north prioritize logistics while growers in the south emphasize product quality, the distributor can adjust its S&OP strategies to meet these regional preferences effectively.

For a commodity distributor, the NPS survey is a vital metric that goes beyond its headline number by providing actionable insights for continuous improvement and strategic decision-making. Collected and used properly, feedback can help balance key operational trade-offs, enhance customer satisfaction, and drive business growth.

Survey data can support commercial teams in explaining their actions and strategies based on customer insights - as well as aid the CFO and his team in making informed financial decisions. R&D, quality, supply chain, customer service, etc all can benefit if the right questions are asked and the results are integrated across the business... because, as I wrote: so that we can improve across multiple business functions.

Next time you get an NPS Customer Survey, see if you can guess what the company is using the collected data for.

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