Improving Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty, and Profit : An Integrated Measurement and Management System [Hardcover]

Michael D. Johnson (Author), Anders Gustafsson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0787953105 | ISBN-13: 978-0787953102 | Publication Date: August 1, 2000 | Edition: 1

A Book in the University of Michigan Business School Series It's a simple equation: no customers equals no profits. So how can a company ensure that its customers enjoy a consistently satisfying experience? In this book, two experts from the University of Michigan Business School lay out a five-stage process that links all of the key measures of customer satisfaction with marketing strategy and product development to guarantee excellent customer service. Johnson and Gustafsson show managers how to break down the organizational barriers that defy great customer service and instead tie together their customer value chain to create a cohesive customer measurement and management system. So, if like most companies, yours has only a fleeting understanding of its relationship with its customers, this book offers the organizational know-how to make and keep them happy.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Most companies understand that customer satisfaction and loyalty are essential to their success. But few companies know how to link their customer's needs with their organization's processes to create the best customer experience possible. Instead, they erect walls between their customer service department and their other organizational functions.Improving Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty, and Profit shows managers how to break down these walls, find out what their customers want, and use that information to produce the kinds of products and services that will keep them coming back.Michael Johnson and Anders Gustafsson have been instrumental in the development of customer satisfaction indexes in the U.S. and Europe. Here they team up to introduce a five-stage process that establishes crucial connections between a company's marketing, sales, product development, and customer service departments in order to deliver both top-quality products and a high-level customer experience.The process begins with measurement. Johnson and Gustafsson walk readers through the steps necessary to determine a customer measurement strategy, observe and communicate with customers, create formal customer surveys, and process and interpret the survey data. Then they show readers how to use that data to build a cohesive plan for quality improvement and ongoing customer management.By helping mid-level managers assemble specific estimates of how increased quality and customer loyalty will impact the bottom line, their process allows upper-level managers to allocate the resources necessary to build a truly customer-oriented company. And by cementing the links between products, patrons, and profits, their book highlights the core competencies companies need to create both happy customers and the organizational know-how necessary to keep them happy.

From the Back Cover

Most companies understand that customer satisfaction and loyalty are essential to their success. But few companies know how to link their customer's needs with their organization's processes to create the best customer experience possible. Instead, they erect walls between their customer service department and their other organizational functions.
Improving Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty, and Profit shows managers how to break down these walls, find out what their customers want, and use that information to produce the kinds of products and services that will keep them coming back.
Michael Johnson and Anders Gustafsson have been instrumental in the development of customer satisfaction indexes in the U.S. and Europe. Here they team up to introduce a five-stage process that establishes crucial connections between a company's marketing, sales, product development, and customer service departments in order to deliver both top-quality products and a high-level customer experience.
The process begins with measurement. Johnson and Gustafsson walk readers through the steps necessary to determine a customer measurement strategy, observe and communicate with customers, create formal customer surveys, and process and interpret the survey data. Then they show readers how to use that data to build a cohesive plan for quality improvement and ongoing customer management.
By helping mid-level managers assemble specific estimates of how increased quality and customer loyalty will impact the bottom line, their process allows upper-level managers to allocate the resources necessary to build a truly customer-oriented company. And by cementing the links between products, patrons, and profits, their book highlights the core competencies companies need to create both happy customers and the organizational know-how necessary to keep them happy.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (August 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787953105
• ISBN-13: 978-0787953102
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #261,036 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Subtitle Says It All...The Book Explains It All, April 21, 2001

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Improving Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty, and Profit : An Integrated Measurement and Management System (Hardcover)

This is one of several excellent volumes in the University of Michigan Business School Management Series in which the authors provide a cohesive, comprehensive, cost-effective customer measurement and management system which consists of five separate but related stages. Specifically, they explain:

? How to identify the system?s purpose and goals, deciding which customers to include and how to group them into natural segments that reflect their interests and purchasing patterns

? How to use qualitative research to build the ?lens of the customer?, a model of customer views of the products and services that you provide, customer satisfaction, and the loyalty and retention that result

? How to use the lens of the customer to build a customer survey to measure quality, satisfaction, and loyalty

? How to use the lens again in analyzing data from the customer survey, both to determine what could be done to improve customer satisfaction and to assess the probable effect of each potential improvement on bottom-line financial performance

? How to set priorities for quality improvement, using the information developed from the survey as background for business decisions, and then implement the decisions according to the priorities set by management

Whew! That?s a lot! Fortunately, Johnson and Gustafsson devote a separate chapter to each of the five stages of the process.. They also provide three valuable appendices: A mini-case study of the Ratorp Tire Company, the NACS Customer Satisfaction Survey, and a Data Analysis in Practice. If your organization needs to improve customer satisfaction, loyalty, and profit, here is an excellent source.

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A hands on book that you can put to action, September 14, 2000

By 

Seigyoung Auh (Fishers, IN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Improving Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty, and Profit : An Integrated Measurement and Management System (Hardcover)

This is a great book for people who have always wanted to be actionable in analyzing customer satisfaction and loyalty data to make strategic decisions. The book provides concrete examples with real data to step you through in building satisfaction models that lead to bottom line performance. It is extremely well written for a broad range of audience from the novist to the experts. This book not only provides you with the necessary tools to run models but also explains in an easy to understand manner the underlying reasons and background as to how customer satisfaction and loyalty models should be approached. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who desires to have the ability to actually run customer satisfaction models and make intelligent interpretation and executive decisions.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid- with a good step-by-step on survey design and implementation, February 15, 2006

By 

Louise McCauley (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Improving Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty, and Profit : An Integrated Measurement and Management System (Hardcover)

This book focuses on linking customers' needs with a company's processes to create the best customer experience possible. The book outlines a five-stage process to create this link and thereby improves customer satisfaction, loyalty and profit.

Stage 1: Identify the system's purpose and goals. Create a customer measurement and management system to analyze and understand the company's entire system for generating profit.
Stage 2: Utilizing qualitative research, a model of customer views of products and services offered customer satisfaction, and loyalty and retention. This stage shifts the focus from the company's perspective to the customer's perspective.
Stage 3: Design a customer survey using the lens of the customer created in Stage 2 to measure loyalty, quality, and satisfaction. Various survey formats are presented.
Stage 4: The survey results are analyzed utilizing advanced statistical methods to figure out what can be done to improve customer satisfaction and to assess the impact actions will have on revenue.
Stage 5: Based on the impact actions will have on the bottom line, priorities will be set to improve quality. This system will make a direct link between quality, loyalty, satisfaction, and profit. The system allows for the user to continually review and assess quality.