A new national study conducted by the Gantry Group LLC, Linking Customer Satisfaction & Compensation, reveals that 92% of providers of technology solutions and technology-based services have active or planned initiatives in place to align customer satisfaction metrics to employee compensation.
The primary objectives for companies implementing customer-centric compensation programs are to align employee behavior with business objectives (58%) and strengthen customer loyalty (50%).
The study reveals, however, that the majority of companies with customer-centric compensation programs narrowly apply these programs to only employees in customer service (65%) and sales/account management (57%). The study suggests that companies’ difficulty in identifying appropriate customer satisfaction metrics for non-customer-facing touch-points limits their ability to link organizational performance to the many other customer touch-points.
Two-thirds of study respondents with active customer-centric compensation programs report that the programs were only somewhat successful.
The study revealed the following additional findings:
Most employees are reviewed annually (37%) or quarterly (28%) against defined customer satisfaction benchmarks.
Most respondents report that they measure customer satisfaction quarterly (33%) or annually (20%) for the purpose of setting employee performance benchmarks.
The vast majority (70%) of respondents’ decision to tie customer satisfaction to employee compensation is made by a group of senior management.
Those organizations who currently incorporate customer satisfaction with employee compensation achieve improved alignment with business objectives (41%), increased customer loyalty (38%), and increased visibility for employees into who their performance impacts the customer experience (29%).
CEO/President (84%), COO/VP Operations (65%), VP/Head of HR (64%), & CFO (57%) are the key players who drive decisions to incorporate customer satisfaction into the compensation model.
Information
Gantry Group is a strategic consulting firm that guides technology-based solution providers to build offerings that capitalize on urgent market needs and challenges. For the past decade, Gantry Group’s customer satisfaction, primary market research and ROI/TCO measurement services have armed the world’s leading technology vendors with targeted market intelligence to support their strategic business decisions and inform their solution roadmaps. Backed by over 25 years of experience, Gantry Group delivers to business executives the firsthand customer metrics, market insights and predictive measurement capabilities that allow them to accurately quantify the business opportunity and position themselves to seize the greatest market share. Additional information about Gantry Group can be found at www.gantrygroup.com.
For study results, please call Gantry Group at 978-371-7557 ext 19, or click here to download directly.
