April 27, 2014
What we’ve learned about client satisfaction
We recently analyzed the first 18 months of data from our Client Satisfaction Survey (n = 22). This survey is administered to our clients after a project is complete so that they can provide feedback on our performance. It gives us an opportunity to evaluate how we are doing overall and in 6 key areas: People, Expertise, Management, Process, Communications, and Outcomes.
With this round we were able to learn some great things about ourselves. We now know that people really appreciate our team and that although we tackle complex problems, our clients take note of our flexibility and support. We’re proud that 100% of respondents are “very satisfied” and our net promoter score is 91 (21 promoters, 1 detractor).
The Survey: The image below is a snapshot of the survey. There are 7 sections, with 43 questions total. Each of the 6 main sections is unpacked into 5 agree/disagree statements and at the end of each section there are open ended questions for further explanation. There were 22 client organizations responding between July 2012 and October 2013.
Overall Analysis: We first looked at the survey from a more general lens, trying to understand how brightspot ranked by section and by client. In general, brightspot was ranked very well. Every section had average responses over 4.5 with the ‘People’ section on top at 4.77 and ‘Outcomes’ on bottom with 4.52. The image below represents how the sections compare and each section is discussed in greater detail below, identifying comments, strengths, and opportunities.
People: “brightspot was flexible and super supportive as we went through a tremendous change effort with significant resistance from employees” and “challenged political situations with grace”
After the five questions were asked, clients had the option to leave any additional comments. Overall, the responses praised brightspotters’ ability to facilitate project progress. There were also great comments that specified ways we can improve.
- Strength: Our team is accessible, responsive, courteous, respectful, focused
- Opportunities: Continue to provide support and positivity to complicated encounters
Expertise: “loved learning trends in the [museum] sector”
This section addresses our expertise as a team and the expertise we brought to our clients’ projects. The statements included how we approach our work with the client, if we are knowledgeable about industry trends, and so on.
- Strengths: We are thorough in our approach and knowledgeable about industry trends
- Opportunities: We need to get a more comprehensive understanding of what is going on in client organizations outside of the realm of our project
The comments section was encouraging and focused on how our clients’ appreciated when we shared our industry knowledge with them.
Communications: “you relate to our people better than we do”
This section addresses clients’ experiences communicating with our team virtually and in-person. We attempted to provide statements about the communication process with our clients from various perspectives in order to really understand where, in the lines of communication, can we improve.
- Strength: We are good listeners
- Opportunities: Our communications are not jargon-free
All the comments in this section were encouraging and positive. One statement that really stood out from the rest was “You relate better to our people than we do.” This is an eye opening comment for us at brightspot because it reconfirms the importance of mediating communication amongst various types of users.
Process: “there was patience through the struggle of facilitation process”
This section addresses our clients’ experiences with our project process and our ability to facilitate it.
- Strengths: We make overall process and interim steps clear
- Opportunities: We can improve how we diagnose problems and help solve new challenges as they arise.
Management: “adept in involving us in critical decision points”
This section addresses our clients’ experience with our project management.
- Strengths: We deal with problems openly and quickly
- Opportunities: We need to work with the client to better define the scope of the project
Outcomes: “I suspect we will be able to implement your recommendations, but won’t know for a bit longer.”
This section deals with our clients’ sense of the overall outcomes from a project; for instance, the degree to which we’ve enabled them to change as an organization. This section was the lowest-scoring of the 6. While it’s easy to discount the implementation and outcomes since much of our work is front-end strategy, we are very much taking this to heart. We are careful to structure our process to create the most client ownership and buy-in as possible. But we need to constantly evaluate the outcomes of the process and be sure our clients are in the best possible position to implement what we come up with together.
- Strengths: We show creativity in our proposed solutions and deliverables
- Opportunities: We need to be better change enablers (though we’re doing pretty well at 4.48 out of 5 with 4 = “satisfied” and 5 = “very satisfied”)
The additional comments for this section were interestingly similar; six respondents left comments, having mainly to do with time. For example, “We still have to see about the recommendations because so much is still in flux on our end.”
Final Analysis: In our survey analysis, we evaluated our strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement.
Strengths: Overall, brightspot scored highest, and received the most compliments about our people. The strengths include: (1) brightspotter accessiblity, responsive, courteous, respectful, made clients feel like a priority, and good listeners. (2) brightspotters are thorough in our approach to the work, knowledgeable about trends / benchmarks / industry trends. (3) we have a strong ability to capture client issues and synthesize them accurately.
Opportunities: (1) Make sure we are continually assessing the project to ensure useful, implementable outcomes. (2) They also feel that we need to be up to date with what is going on within the client’s organization. (3) We need to cut down on any jargon in our communications.
We look forward to future feedback!