RDB Consulting sees positive CRM survey results

Business clients are demanding higher levels of service, and the increasingly popular outsourcing model enables them to easily change service providers if they feel they are not getting the value they deserve. For outsourcing providers, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) underpins the success of their business model, since the ability to understand the needs of their clients and whether they are happy or not is key to retaining their business and continuing profitability.

The starting point of such understanding requires interaction with clients, often in the form of surveys which provide vital information that allows outsourcers to measure their value in the eyes of their clients. Surveys can also help service providers gain an understanding of what they are doing right, and more importantly where they are going wrong, providing a solid basis from which the outsourcer can improve service delivery, client retention and profitability.

However, notes Jaroslav Cerny, CEO at RDB Consulting, clients are often reluctant to fill out surveys, therefore the data obtained from such an initiative may be incomplete or inconclusive due to a lack of response.

“Surveys are often seen as invasive as they tend to be time consuming to complete and include a lot of irrelevant detail. To counter this, we have developed a very short survey containing only four questions, which takes a matter of minutes to complete and highlights the important facts about our service delivery from the client’s perspective. We deliver this survey in person to each of our clients to personalise the experience and ensure higher response levels,” he explains.

RDB Consulting’s innovative service delivery questionnaire is based on years of experience at understanding what is important to the client. It has been designed to obtain the facts that RDB Consulting needs to know about their clients to improve their service levels and cross or up sell, without taking up more than is necessary of their clients’ valuable time. The survey delivers measurable responses which provide specific points that can be actioned to improve service. It also allows the outsourcing provider to measure the performance of specific consultants to ensure consistency of service delivery across various resources.

Says Jennifer Mbesa, Office Manager at RDB Consulting, “We have obtained a very good response to the survey from our clients over the past four years since we adopted this survey model. Part of our high success rate is due to the fact that our survey is short and to the point, requiring only a few minutes to complete. By analysing the results we obtain, we are able to understand what we need to do to keep our clients happy, manage our clients’ expectations, and streamline our processes to deliver continuous service delivery improvements.”

“For our contractual clients, the fact that we conduct this short survey on an annual basis provides them with peace of mind, knowing that they have a regular means of communication with us to ensure we are meeting their anticipated levels of service and Service Level Agreement (SLA) targets. It also allows us to find out what the future needs of our clients may be, so that we can gear up for this in advance,” he adds.

Managing client relationships and ensuring consistently high levels of service delivery are of the utmost importance in the modern, highly competitive business world, particularly for outsourced providers. RDB Consulting’s annual Service Delivery Survey illustrates the company’s commitment delivering true, lasting and constantly improved client service across the board.