Success Story 5

Background
The client had not undertaken a comprehensive assessment of customer satisfaction in 7 years. In the interim many changes had occurred in technology, pharmacy, company organization, competition and the customer base. An objective understanding of customer expectations, company performance and competitive performance was sought as a basis for creating a road map for directing scarce resources at the highest payoff issues.

Objectives
The objectives of this study were to uncover the following information about satisfaction with pharmacy computer systems:

A baseline measure of customer expectations.
A baseline measure of customer satisfaction.
A baseline measure of client performance against competition.
Identification of factors having greatest/least impact on customer satisfaction.
Recommended actions to increase customer satisfaction

Study Methodology
This study was conducted in four phases:

Phase I: Internal interviews with client's senior managers.
Phase 2: Internal in-depth telephone interviews with client's employees who interact directly with customers.
Phase 3: External in-depth telephone interviews with client's customers.
Phase 4: External quantitative survey with client and key competitor's customers

Results
We presented a report that showed that the client's performance was significantly below that of its key competitor on the factors that are most important and that have the highest impact on customer satisfaction. We recommended targeted improvement initiatives to redesign the work processes that were affecting the high priority factors. We also recommended a number of steps to create an ongoing monitoring system to assess the success of the improvement efforts, to understand the reasons for customer cancellations, to monitor complaints and track resolution, and to gain customer reaction to proposed new product designs. The study tested internal hypotheses regarding factors important to customers and enabled the client to make decisions based on objective information, rather than guesswork or incomplete information from the sales force and various factions within the company. The constant shifts in company direction that had left employees confused and unenthusiastic were replaced by a comprehensive plan of action that everyone could agree upon because it was based on objective information obtained directly from customers.