“Survey Says…”

We all know that old familiar catch phrase from the popular game show, Family Feud, “Survey says...” When the results of any survey are revealed, the answer is often what we expected, and other times it reveals a “surprise” answer. Surprises can be nice, but not when it comes to making sure you have happy customers. That’s why we’ve put our own survey process in place here at Okuma where we collect feedback from new users. This process has proven to be very valuable for everyone.

The NPS – A Key Metric

One of our primary strategic goals is to enhance our overall customer experience, so we survey new customers ninety days after a CNC machine installation. Okuma partners with a company that specializes in conducting these kinds of surveys for manufacturing companies, and they develop what’s called an “NPS”, or Net Promoter Score. There is an 11-question survey and one of the questions reads “Based on your recent installation experience, how likely are you to recommend Okuma to someone else?” This is a key measurement of customer experience. The rating is a 1-10 scale with 10 being ‘very likely’. There are several different categories in which the customer is placed according to their answer to this particular question:

• Promoter (9-10 rating) – Loyal customer; likely to promote Okuma machines to others
• Passive (7-8 rating) – Often satisfied but not enthusiastic
• Detractor (6 & below rating)– Dissatisfied customer

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is calculated based on responses to this question. What we’ve learned so far is that Okuma’s NPS is above average for our type of industry. Of course we want to continuously improve this, but that’s a good start. Knowing our NPS is great, but there are some other benefits to the survey process that have a more tangible impact for Okuma users.

Feedback as Opportunity

Of course we’re very happy when we see the “Promoter” scores coming in. That pretty much gives us goosebumps, and is definitely the result of a lot of hard work from a lot of people. What happens when we uncover a “Detractor”? This is a wake-up call, and it’s an emotional process too. In a way, these CNC machines are our babies. We do our very best to raise them right so they can make us proud when they go out to make their mark in the world! The good news is, once we discover that a customer has an issue of some sort, just knowing it’s out there means the troubleshooting process is underway. The surprising thing that happens is, we show so much dedication and passion as we work to resolve the issue that this ends up really impressing the Detractor. They know they’re the center of our universe at that time and feel the skills of so many experts working on their behalf. Because of this experience, very often our Detractors are transformed into our biggest Promoters.

Enhancing the Customer Experience

Although a Promoter rating makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside, the Detractor feedback brings us back to earth and helps us improve even further. We dissect all results and take each comment into consideration. We aim to be the best in the industry, while helping our customers be as effective and productive as possible. The survey is one way that Okuma and our Distributors are enhancing the customer experience.

Dawn Davis is Customer Care Advocate, Okuma America Corporation.

Learn More: Watch this video where Okuma America VP of Service, Ira Busman, talks about working with The Daniel Group and the Net Promoter Score.