Information can be collected from customers directly. It is also possible to monitor and collect information internally within the organisation. In larger organisations customer-facing staff can provide a lot of information too. For now, we’ll focus on customers.
It is likely that your organisation has many different customers. For example, a community centre might provide different services for different members of the community, rent space to other organisations/public bodies and receive funds from a funding body to deliver a community project.
These customer groups can be profiled in different ways in addition to the way they use the service. This could be according to geography, age, gender, income, occupation, lifestyle traits, personality or behaviour.
It is worth thinking in more detail about the different ways that people use the same service. Think of different times of use, different payment arrangements, frequency of use etc.
Whilst you could get good information from surveying all customers together, it is also worth considering using a different approach for each customer group.
It is also worth considering how they will view the research. Have they got time and inclination to participate in research? Do they want to see that you have their interests at heart or do they not care? These kinds of considerations will help to ensure that your approach is the most appropriate possible.
There are two key ways of collecting information about your customers
- Request feedback directly from your customers
- Monitor internal performance indicators that demonstrate either customer satisfaction or the quality of your customer service.
Direct feedback from customers
To request feedback directly from customers you could consider one or a combination of the following methods.
- Suggestion box/Comments book
- Questionnaires could be conducted by post, face-to-face, phone, email or Internet
- Feedback/evaluation sheets
- Focus group
- Participative evaluation processes
- Interviews, phone or face-to-face, could be structured or unstructured
- Complaints procedure
- Interactive wall in an office community centre – providing information and inviting feedback
Some methods require a stronger involvement and commitment from your customers than others. It is worth asking yourself how much feedback your customers want to give. Will they feel empowered or burdened if asked for feedback?
Internal performance indicators
There is a wide range of indicators that you could choose to monitor that will either demonstrate customer satisfaction or the quality of your customer service. These could include the following.
- Numbers of customer complaints, numbers of these complaints resolved
- Sales figures
- Informal feedback is given spontaneously throughout the year
- Accolades and awards
- Trends in new customers and customer retention
- Performance against targets for improving products and services, customer service and product/service delivery
- Customer requests for new products and services or improvements to the way the services are delivered
- How customers found out about you
- Referrals from partners
- Response times to enquiries from customers
- Surveying your staff to find out whether they think customers are satisfied or not. This information can be compared with customer perception to identify the differences
Sources of information refer to both primary and secondary data. Primary data is data, which is collected by the researcher themselves. This kind of data is new, original research information.
Primary sources enable the researcher to get as close as possible to what actually happened and are hands-on. A primary source reflects the individual viewpoint of a participant or observer. Primary sources are first-hand information from a person who witnessed or participated in an event.
Examples of primary data are
- Interviews
- Questionnaires
- Observations
Secondary research is using information that has already been produced by other people. A secondary source is used by a person usually not present at the event and relying on primary source documents for information. Secondary sources usually analyse and interpreted. Finding out about research that already exists will help form new research.
Examples of secondary data
- Internet
- Books/ Magazines
- Newspapers
- Office statistics
- The government statistics service
- The office of national statistics
- Centre for Applied Social Surveys
The distinctions between primary and secondary sources can be ambiguous. An individual document may be a primary source in one context and a secondary source in another. Time is a defining element. For example, a recent newspaper article is not usually a primary source; but a newspaper article from the 1860’s may be a primary source for civil war research.