In the the August 2008 editorial titled Customer Service : Can’t Get No Satisfaction published in the the NZ Marketing Magazine analysis undertaken of the disconnect between brand promise and customer experience.

The results of the survey revealed that only 33 percent of respondents were satisfied with the level of customer service they receive. (The remaining 67 percent were either dissatisfied or had neutral feelings.) The survey also highlighted that women were more likely to be satisfied than men (34 percent versus 27 percent) and that the over-30s tended to be less satisfied with levels of customer service.

Customers identifed three key areas where they wanted to see improvements. These were:

1. A willingness to help
2. The ability to listen and understand the customers’ needs
3. Take responsibility and ensure those needs are met

Pretty easy really, the hard part is trying to figure out where to focus your attentions. This is where a customer survey is pretty handy. Survey resulst will enable you to idenitfy your strengtsh and weakness in the deliveri of the customer expereince. We all know that we need to keep our customers satisfied, what we often don’t know is where as an orgaisation we may be letting our customers down. The soultion – seek and you shall find, or more simply put, just ask!