Imagine it – you're at a conference with all of your biggest competitors. You hear a whisper, see a quick glance – you can tell they’re strategizing. But you sail past without a worry. You know what matters, and it’s not them. 

Why are you so confident? Because you have what they don’t - a data-driven list of what matters to your customers right from the horse’s mouth; You put the time and money in to build a benchmark. A customer benchmark is the best way for your business to prioritize the most important wants/needs/goals of your people. Anecdotal feedback can be confusing – who knows if it’s just one angry person or a huge issue that’s a risk for your company. A benchmark turns down the noise and gives you the edge you need to learn more about customers and turn it into action faster than the competition. And let us tell you, your competition really doesn’t like that. 

Benchmarking data is the fuel for your strategic initiatives. It propels your business forward in a way most other things can’t. Plus, it gets more valuable the more you do it. Benchmarks done over time track how your internal business decisions are affecting your customer experience.  

So, are you ready to get started? As a good partner, it’s only fair that we tell you what you’re getting yourself into. It’s hard work, but it’s worth it. Companies that act on customer feedback out perform competitors by up to 1800%!  -- Don’t just trust us, take a look at the ASCI index. We’re going to let you in on the secrets your competition doesn’t want you to know – the common benchmarking pains and how to solve them. 

#1 Cause of Benchmarking Pain: Data 

The first, and typically biggest, source of pain when starting a benchmark is the company’s data. Now, we are not blaming you! Most companies do not realize the gaps in their customer data until they start a benchmark. Most commonly, when we work with companies, we find that they have different data in multiple systems. This can cause a fair amount of work to combine the information into one dataset. For example, company names are spelled differently, some locations have emails, some only have phone numbers, different types of revenue are stored in separate systems, etc. All this data confusion can cause a real headache. It also creates more work on your part than you probably expected coming into the benchmark process – heck, that’s why you hired an external partner! 

The Solution: Prioritize the Data that is Important to You 

Company A has 200 locations across North America. Company B has 10 locations in the Northeast of the USA. Company A would get great insights from regional comparisons of the data, as they have numerous locations in various regions. Company B would not get any insights from a regional comparison of the data as their locations are all grouped close together. 

This exercise of thinking through what data is important to YOUR company is always our first step in the data discussion with clients – it also sets you up to get the insights you need to make smarter, faster, business decisions. What views of the data will give you the most insights: Location, Region, Top Customers, Lowest Revenue Customers, Position, Line of Business, etc.? These are all various breakdowns of the data that we have done for clients. What is important is that you and your external partner discuss what data is important to you – this step cannot be a cookie-cutter solution, it must be customized to your business!  

Once you determine the data that is important to you, now you must gather it. Here is where many companies we work with realize their customer data is a mess. But never fear! A great external partner should offer all the help you need to organize your data, though there is still a good amount of work on your part to sift through your data.  

If you don’t have the data that you would like to have, it can always be added to the survey and asked to customers. A word of caution here: be careful what you do ask customers. Perception is everything. For example, asking them to confirm the Lines of Businesses that they use is perfectly fine as the survey can then be customized to their responses (e.g., if they use Warehousing and Transporation, they answer questions on those Lines of Business, but not questions about Packaging). Whereas asking a question such as “How long have you been doing business with us?” can be perceived negatively by some that you don’t know how long they have been a customer. Again, your external partner should guide you here. There are ways to phrase such questions so that it seems like you’re confirming the information rather than you don’t know the answer.  

#2 Cause of Benchmarking Pain: Response Rate 

With bad data comes low response rates. Without accurate emails or phone numbers, there is no way the survey even gets to your customers. The ultimate goal is to survey 100% of your customers. More realistically, with good data, a better goal is to survey 80% of your customers– this reaches statistical significance, and you can be confident that the results extend to your entire customer base. We’re big believers in the 80/20 rule – specifically, have we addressed the most important customer segments to give you confidence to act. It could be 80% of your revenue, 80% of your accounts, 80% of your growth targets. You don’t need to reach out to your entire customer base taking this approach. Eighty percent is ideal and usually takes a few rounds of benchmarking to achieve -- in the first year of a benchmark, response rates can be as low as 30%. 

The Solutions: Get the Word Out, Build Ongoing Trust, and Be Clear About Your Action  

Getting the Word Out

A secret to driving response rate is for YOU to send emails to customers. This is probably, like gathering all the data on your customers, more work than you had anticipated. I mean seriously, what are you paying an external partner for?! But emails from leadership or customers’ main point of contact at the company will emphasize the importance of the survey. This is also a way for you to ensure the survey gets to the customer. Spam filters make it hard for a digital survey from an unknown email to enter a mailbox. Since customers should be familiar with your email, telling them about the survey will have them be on the lookout for it. Follow-up emails will remind them to check their spam folders. 

Yes, sending these emails is more work on your part, but your external partner should be prepared to help ease this burden on you. For example, at PATH we have email templates that have been shown to increase response rates – and are customizable to your business  

Building Ongoing Trust

The solution to increasing response rate is showing your customers that you care about what they have to say. We think about this in two ways – the initial ask and closing the loop. The initial ask has to come from leadership and the rest of the company needs to reiterate it – down to the front-line employees. Once your customers participate, they want to know you heard their feedback and are going to do something about it. There is no more powerful response rate driver than taking action on what they told you matters. Response rate will likely be the lowest in the first year of the benchmark but will quickly improve each year you complete the benchmark if your customers feel their feedback matters. We often hear from customers that they fill out these surveys and nothing changes at the company. If their feedback isn’t being used to improve the customer experience, what motivation do they have to complete additional surveys? 

Be Clear About Your Action 

It can be a struggle to find actionable insights in the chaos of the data – this is where your external partner should bring their expertise. At PATH, we use advanced statistical analysis, decades of experience in business management, and deep industry expertise to prioritize the areas that you can action to drive growth and profitability in your business. These are the three most actionable insights that the company can work on immediately to improve their customer experience. When the company has a clear plan for moving forward, then customers can see the changes being made. Now they feel like their feedback matters and are more willing to complete additional surveys. 
 

Trust Us – Benchmarking Only Gets Better with Time 

The great news is that once you get through the first year of a benchmark, each subsequent benchmark gets easier, and the insights get more powerful.  

Getting a benchmark off the ground is like learning to ride a bike. The first time is painful – falling off on to pavement, cuts, and scratches from bushes, screaming at the adult how they promised they wouldn’t let go – but once you get the hang of it, you forget all the pain. The outcome – something your competitors don’t have: A customized and optimized process for learning more about customers and turning the data into action faster than the competition. Now that’s the confidence you need to ignore the chatter and outperform the market.