Case Study
Understanding Customer Satisfaction among Commercial Decision-makers
overview
In 2012, our agency client reached out looking to conduct a customer satisfaction and brand equity tracking study for a commercial disaster clean-up company. Our client was hoping to gain an understanding of decision-maker satisfaction levels of the disaster clean-up brand and drivers of satisfaction. They further wanted to complete a deep dive into category and brand usage and advertising breakthrough, all with competitive context included.
More than 10 years later, a quantitative study is still being conducted among business decision-makers; and in 2019, the study even expanded from an annual to a bi-annual tracker.
THE PROBLEM
What is our customer satisfaction?
Our client had a fundamental lack of information on customer satisfaction and how business decision-makers thought of the category. Further, after launching national communications, our client did not have a mechanism with which to track the efficacy of their advertising.
There was a need for a single study that could keep a finger on the pulse of customer satisfaction levels relative to the competition, to track the evolution of category and brand perceptions, while also monitoring advertising breakthrough.
OUR APPROACH
Many objectives covered intuitively in one survey
A primary challenge was to design a survey instrument that could address a variety of objectives without overwhelming respondents. We wound up with a survey that flows through the entire disaster clean-up experience in an intuitive way, mixing up a variety of question types to maximize engagement. We also designed a highly detailed, visual report that is heavily utilized both by our agency and end-client.
An additional obstacle was to come up with a creative approach to target a hard-to-reach audience in a way that could be reliably replicated. In working with our client and sample suppliers, we developed a sample plan targeting specific DMAs; and we set up a system to monitor detailed firmographics in field. The level of detail in which we monitor field allows us to measure small changes in the marketplace over time and give our client confidence that any differences in the data are real and not the result of sample fluctuations.
The result
This research confirmed that our client is the industry leader in the commercial disaster clean-up space. The brand has seen continual growth going back to 2012 and has steadily widened the gap with the competitive set on all key satisfaction metrics. As the pandemic hit in 2020, the brand also had a tool in place to measure the impact on their customer base, including how their needs shifted to include disinfecting office spaces.
The results have also allowed our client to better speak to those who find themselves with an unfortunate need for disaster clean-up help and to understand their priorities more clearly. This has ultimately led to the refinement of messaging over time and even helped inform the development of a new ad campaign.
This project is a testament to how impactful customer satisfaction research can be when executed properly and how important it can be for a brand to keep a close pulse on their customer base.
proven experience
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