As you approach the end of your contracts lifecycle, its important to understand how your agency customers view your performance. This can make the difference between winning and losing the re-compete. But don’t worry, we can help!

Click below to learn more about what you can do to better prepare your company for a re-compete.

The reasons for demise can range from issues related to “soft skills” like professionalism and communications, to hassles related to billing, and to everything in between. While these types of issues may not be “deal breakers”, they often drive agency customers to seek out vendors that can meet both the contractual obligations and the non-contractual expectations.

Market Connections recently helped two such clients prepare for more effective re-competes. One client for whom we’ve been conducting contract satisfaction surveys for many years was nearing the re-bid of an important civilian agency contract. We modified their satisfaction survey for this particular customer to get additional insights into ways they could improve the effectiveness of their re-compete. The targeted agency personnel gladly participated in the study and were largely positive about our client’s performance. Their only complaint was that the contract’s structure limited the number of personnel our client could provide, often leaving the agency understaffed. As a result, our client modified the staffing clauses in their re-compete proposal to ensure they could meet the agency’s fluctuating requirements.

Another client was facing a re-compete on a long-standing ERP and process improvement contract with the DoD. Long before the RFP was announced, Market Connections interviewed senior personnel within each of the customer divisions our client served, who overall gave very high marks to the quality of their services. However, they also revealed for the first time that they wanted the services to be more customized to their individual departmental needs. We also learned that they wanted more frequent executive-level meetings and briefings. While the contract didn’t require our client’s executives to regularly touch base with agency leadership or conduct high-level milestone briefings, agency personnel perceived their failure to do these things as a sign of disinterest.

By combining their strong contract performance with new detailed processes to identify departmental needs as well as increased executive outreach, our client easily won the re-compete and is now perceived as a critical partner by the agency.

People and organizations are often slow to complain. You could be putting your client contracts at great risk by not proactively asking what you could be doing better. Acting on the results of contract renewal research – conducted well in advance of the re-compete – significantly improves customer retention rates. And, remember, customers will give more thorough and candid responses to a third-party research firm than to your in-house staff or executives.

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As a result, it’s highly likely that many organizations’ customer status assumptions from even just six months ago are wrong.  That’s why market leaders are now developing new strategies to maximize satisfaction, retention and loyalty.

Customer satisfaction surveys play such a critical role in maintaining loyalty in challenging times such as these.  A customer satisfaction survey can help answer all kinds of questions such as:

Which of our customers are truly loyal, generally satisfied, on the fence, or unhappy?  Equally important, why? How can we enhance the good and eliminate the not-so-good in our performance? 

How is the economy specifically affecting our customers’ decision-making and buying patterns?  How will these changes affect the demand levels and sales cycles of our portfolio offerings?  How do we best respond to those changes?  Will customers be downsizing and, if so, will we be interacting with different people?

Do we provide enough flexibility in our portfolio?  Are our offerings scalable enough in features and price so that customers can adopt and embrace them at their own pace?  As customers’ needs shift, can we affordably introduce new offerings or “lite” versions of current offerings to provide new value?

What are the new risks that customers are facing and is it possible we can help absorb some of those?  Are our contracts and terms not only competitive, but favorable?  Would it make a meaningful difference to customers if we spread out their payments more and demand less upfront?

Is our value proposition strong enough?  Can we reduce the costs of meeting customers’ needs through maintenance, upgrades, bundles, and so forth?

Are our customer communications still effective?  How clearly are we reinforcing the benefits of doing business with us?  Have we correctly prioritized our messages and are we communicating frequently enough?  Are customers aware of all the ways in which we could help them, or only those offerings they currently purchase?

In today’s economy, timely and flexible execution of smart customer-retention strategies can mean the difference between failing, barely surviving, turning a profit, and actually growing.  Those that act quickly on thoughtful customer research will be better armed to succeed.

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But, as organizations strive to continually optimize processes for improved efficiencies and performance, they often overlook an area of the business,?? the internal service providers.  While employees in “back office” departments like legal, human resources, accounting, administrative support, and proposal development don’t typically come into direct contact with external customers, they serve others who do.  In fact, the quality of service provided by these departments is critical to the performance of those on the front lines with customers, not to mention the morale of everyone in the organization.

For example, we know of one organization that has an internal legal department of six attorneys.  But, it takes that department three to four weeks to produce a simple one-page vendor contract addendum, which delays the vendor starting work on time-sensitive projects.  And, when marketing needs legal’s approval on an ad or direct mail program, the six in-house attorneys send it to outside counsel, who requires a minimum of two weeks and a few thousand dollars to review and provide an opinion.  Needless to say, when it comes to dealing with legal, the marketing staff’s responses range from perplexed to highly frustrated and even angry.

An internal customer satisfaction survey would shed light on the issues in this particular legal department and provide insights on how to correct them.  Utilizing a different structure and set of questions than general employee satisfaction surveys, internal customer satisfaction surveys are carefully designed to uncover internal service providers’ specific strengths and weaknesses in areas such as process and staff efficiency levels, communication effectiveness, technology or system obstacles, responsiveness, professionalism, and more.

The findings reveal the true needs of the internal “customers” and whether or not those needs are being met.  If and when necessary, management can then convene with those departments hindered with problems to identify and implement corrective actions.  In fact, some organizations form cross-functional teams, who use the survey results to develop improvement recommendations for management’s review.

Market Connections typically designs and implements internal customer satisfaction studies as online surveys.  Of course, all responses are anonymous.  And, like other employee surveys, the response rate is usually very high,?? typically between 75 and 90%.

If you suspect your organization may have room for improvements within its back-office departments, seriously consider engaging an experienced research firm to uncover insights into the problems and potential solutions.

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All contracts of recent vintage require some formal evaluation of performance.  These “check the box” methods of evaluation are fine,?? they make sure you are qualified going forward.  They make sure you won’t immediately be discounted for re-compete.  These evaluations, however, won’t necessarily win you work.  Nor will they necessarily give you the mechanism to know if you are satisfying your customer right now (making re-compete a much smoother process).

What we have found in our work for large, services contractors is that relationship AND transactional evaluation data are essential to a long-term relationship within any contract.  Sure, your sales teams have regular contact with the client.  They talk with their point of contact and have spent hours (and many dollars) building a strong relationship with this person, but do you really know what the “boots on the ground” are telling your contact on a regular basis?  Just like there may be things you won’t tell your best friend, there are things that your contact might not be telling you because you’ve done such a good job at building a personal relationship.  Nobody likes to hurt a friend’s feelings.  If you knew what the whole organization thought of your work, wouldn’t it make your relationship stronger with the agency?  What happens when your contact leaves or moves to another position?  Are you sure the new person won’t look elsewhere because of an issue you weren’t aware of?

If you are not in a position to implement a formal, third-party ongoing evaluation of your contracts, at least consider regular conversations or meetings with contract staff without your contact person present.  Get in the trenches and talk with those who must work with your product and people on a regular basis.  I’m sure the feedback will only make you stronger.

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Customer satisfaction is a key building block for future business, especially in the federal government market.  Contractors are constantly asked to demonstrate their success in providing the government with high quality services.  Do you have the information you need to win future contracts with new and existing customers?

Customer satisfaction research is a great way to provide this information.  You can increase your understanding of how well you are meeting or exceeding customer expectations and be able to identify issues more quickly, which can save key contracts and accounts.

Don’t be blind-sided in the New Year!  Implement a customer satisfaction program today, or reassess what you may already have in place, to ensure that you know what your customers think. Contact us today to find out how we can help you with this process!

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First of all, you need to understand exactly who your market is.  It is difficult to build relationships with too many different people at once, so some segmentation should be done.  Choose one or two niche markets you most wish to serve (or that you are already in) and concentrate on them.  You can always expand later, once you’ve honed your relationship-building skills.

And don’t forget about your current customers!  Generally, 80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your clients.  Get to know that 20%ââ?¬â?their needs, their likes, their pet peeves, their quirksââ?¬â?go that extra mile and make them feel special, because they ARE.  You definitely don’t want to lose them!

One of the biggest mistakes companies make is not contacting prospects and clients often enough.  The truth is, in this modern cluttered world, you have to maintain almost constant contact to be even remotely memorable to your prospects and clients.  To put it numerically, it takes 12-18 contacts a year to turn a prospect to a client, and 24-36 contacts each year to keep a client.  This can be as easy as forwarding news articles of interest, calling “just to check-in”, or sending nice cards in the mail at holidays.  Other great ideas include inviting them to a webinar your company is running or sponsoring, hosting special invitation-only “mini-events” at tradeshows and seminars, and sending them white papers your company has released that they will find interesting.  Never be insistent or overbearing, and make sure every single outreach adds some value for them.

Make sure that building relationships with clients is a top priority to your company and you will be well on your way to increasing your bottom line!

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What a way to find out about an unhappy customer! Would Comcast have benefited from a customer satisfaction survey? Maybe. Maybe not. It isn’t any secret that Comcast is historically renowned for being less than responsive to customer needs. The challenge for Comcast going forward, as it is for all of us, is knowing how to react to customer complaints and suggestions. Many first reactions involve getting defensive, citing specific policies you have in place, and trying to marginalize the complainer as just “a bad seed.” However, this doesn’t help alleviate the next complaint,?? or keep your company’s name off the front page and out of the blogosphere.  In fact, taking a defensive posture can often make you look far worse than if you are forthcoming about some of the challenges you’ve had in the past.

Some of the most important things you can do when trying to improve the quality of your customer satisfaction include: identifying short and long-term milestones for improvement, having clear strategies and institutional support, and holding people internally accountable. Does that mean linking salaries, or their jobs, to improving customer satisfaction? Not necessarily. But those working with customers need to know who is responsible for improvements (everyone thinks it is the other guy). They need to know that their efforts to improve customer satisfaction are appreciated. As someone once said, “It’s always better to be the hammer than the nail”. 

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We will often hear that from the folks we interview. Their service provider just couldn’t deliver on all their promises. Rather than focusing on the great innovation or new feature of a new product or service, the consumers can only see those things that the company said they could deliver, and ultimately didn’t. It doesn’t matter that the specific failed feature wasn’t of great importance; ultimately promises were broken and expectations were not met. Our focus groups and surveys often identify scores of needs and desires of the market. Our challenge at that point is to help our clients identify those 2-3 features that are most important. Making promises on 2-3 features and ultimately delivering on them ensures avoidance of making the Edsel mistake.

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Our clients are typically thrilled to receive both positive and negative feedback (as any customer feedback is a gift); however, upon hearing negative feedback, they often come back to us with one question: What can we do to improve our image?

FCW featured a commentary entitled “Fixing an Image Problem” in its August 20th issue that reinforces what we frequently tell our clients,?? capitalize on your successes! Contractors should consistently be highlighting their successes whenever possible, whether showcasing them on company websites, marketing collateral, or in the press. Should you find yourself in the midst of an image problem, think of General Electric. The article’s author, Michael Lent, reminded us that despite GE’s current positive image, it was once laden with False Claims Act settlements and price-fixing issues.

As we tell our clients, the best way to boost your image is to share your successes with your target audience and, to Lent’s point, “earn it” back.

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No. Neither have I. I’m just too darn busy.

Have you ever been so dissatisfied with a rude cashier or long lines at the bank that you asked to speak to a manager or took the time to write a letter to the corporate office?

I can say, I have occasionally taken the time to complain, but more often than not, I kept my mouth shut. I always hoped I would receive better customer service. If I didn’t, I usually just stopped doing business with the establishment. I am what companies hate the most,?? the silent customer. Silent customers usually don’t complain to management but they most certainly will share their experiences with their friends, neighbors and co-workers. Not a good thing!

Studies show that typically only one in ten customers will proactively convey their dissatisfaction to a company, whereas 31% go on to tell friends and family. The impact of negative word-of-mouth can be more devastating then ever as tools that amplify word-of-mouth (Internet) are increasingly more powerful.

Whether your customer-base is families or Fortune 500 firms, all businesses need to remember that a customer complaint is a gift. A customer or client that complains about a bad experience gives the company the chance to right a wrong. It provides an opportunity to improve.

Outreach efforts such as customer satisfaction surveys are a great way to identify those silent customers that might go unnoticed. Are there some that still will choose to remain silent? Yes, but providing a mechanism for customers to give feedback is a good first step at identifying shortcomings that will ultimately lead to process improvement, increased customer satisfaction, and customer retention.

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