Customer Satisfaction: Survey Results Into Action
“Responding to, and capitalizing on, the valuable feedback received in the latest customer survey is an enterprise-wide activity.” -James Koster, DTCC managing director, Product Management and Marketing
Customer satisfaction does not begin or end with the annual customer survey,” said James Koster, DTCC managing director for Product Management and Marketing. “While we are pleased DTCC received an overall satisfaction rating of 89% in the 2005 survey, we have spent the past several months drilling down into the data to formulate this year’s initiatives for further improving the customer experience with DTCC.”
Koster added that responding to, and capitalizing on, the valuable feedback received in the latest customer survey is an enterprise-wide activity.
Two levels
“We have created customer satisfaction action plans at the product level and at the corporate level to address areas of potential improvement,” said Art Kleiner, director of Marketing, who manages DTCC’s customer survey and oversees activities resulting from the survey.
Noting that customer satisfaction action plans have driven DTCC’s follow-up to the customer satisfaction survey for the past several years, Kleiner added that, in 2006, the company is taking this to a new plane. “We are putting improved reporting in place to better monitor the plans and to keep our customers more informed and involved in the process throughout the year,” he said.
Metrics for measurement
At the corporate level, DTCC selected cross-disciplinary teams to focus on three key attributes that drive overall customer satisfaction: how problems are resolved, how Relationship Management staffs meet customer needs, and overall customer service.
These teams analyzed overall survey data, including verbatim comments, and developed action plans with a corporate-wide scope, including metrics to ensure regular tracking of progress. “We believe using metrics-based methodologies to more effectively drive our results and shape our customers’ total experience will be key to our success,” said Donald F. Donahue, DTCC’s chief operating officer.
As one example of the focus on overall customer service, Koster cited telephone access. “Our action plan to address telephone service includes an evaluation of the structure, efficiency and effectiveness of our call centers,” he said. “This analysis will factor in whether our employees have the right information to provide timely and accurate responses to customer inquiries, and it will look to improve call center menus in order to make access easier for customers.”
At the product level, business managers analyzed the survey results for their areas and identified dominant themes. Then they came up with specific tasks and activities to address these themes, along with their own metrics to monitor progress.
Kleiner gave an example of how these plans work. “If survey feedback for a particular business indicated customer communication should be a theme, the plan for that business would include specific tasks that address communication, such as tracking customer interaction and giving product training to DTCC employees so they are better informed when communicating with customers,” he said. “These activities then are measured against pre-established metrics.”
Reviewing plans
In January, customer satisfaction action plans were presented to the company’s senior management, including DTCC’s Quality Council. This council, which is responsible for driving quality disciplines and practices throughout the organization, consists of 16 senior executives who head the company’s business units and key support areas, including Operations, Information Technology, Relationship Management, Corporate Communications and Human Resources.
In an all-day session, each presenter outlined his or her plan, the status of implementation and how success against targets will be measured. This review, in addition to keeping DTCC senior management abreast of customer-focused initiatives, served as a platform to enhance and revise the plans where necessary.
Key action plan initiatives were also incorporated into DTCC’s 2006 corporate goals. For example, one goal is to increase customer satisfaction scores on problem resolution by 10% over 2005; another is to maintain a world-class score of 80% or higher for overall customer satisfaction; and another is to reduce the time required to activate new customers for non-guaranteed services to 8 weeks.
More dialogue with customers
DTCC will also be doing more customer outreach throughout the year. “The survey provides invaluable feedback once a year, but it’s important that we get a more frequent read of customer feedback,” said Kleiner. “We will be asking customers for their input and we will be giving customers feedback on our efforts,” he said.
In addition to ongoing coverage in this newsletter about progress with the customer satisfaction action plans, DTCC is working on several new projects, including:
Operations-based satisfaction metrics. Based on the 2005 survey results, DTCC has identified a number of operational metrics that are important to customer satisfaction. To confirm that these are the right metrics, DTCC will review them with the Operations Advisory Committee at its February meeting. This committee, consisting of 18 senior executives from across the industry, advises DTCC on industry-related issues and initiatives, and provides guidance on services and policy matters relating to product development and daily operations. DTCC senior executives from the business units, Operations and Relationship Management participate in these meetings.
The metrics, which relate to quality, sense of urgency and customer service levels, range from tracking turnaround times for restricted deposits, to average resolution time for an inquiry made to the Participant Inquiry and Notification System (PINS).
Once there is consensus on these customer-driven metrics, DTCC will report on them at the committee’s quarterly meetings.
Mini-polls. Another new tool for keeping DTCC attuned to customers will be brief customer polls called Focused Tracking Studies. These intermittent polls, designed to complement the annual survey, will be concise, Web-based surveys that track specific customer satisfaction measures. Initially, this mechanism will address customer service issues, including problem resolution, sense of urgency, taking ownership and relationship management. The first poll is scheduled to be conducted by the end of the first quarter.
Communicating with survey recipients
This month, Donahue will be sending a letter to all recipients of the 2005 survey, outlining DTCC’s customer satisfaction activities, including plans to address the survey results. The letter will also be available on DTCC’s corporate Web site at www.dtcc.com, under Customer Focus. @
[For more information or to provide input on any of these customer initiatives, contact Art Kleiner by e-mail at akleiner@dtcc.com or by telephone at 212.855.5690.