Do Your Customers Know More About Your Company Than You Do?

Well yes actually they probably do - in the sense that their perception of your company is how the market sees your company, and no matter what the reality, or how you believe the company is seen, the customer is (at least in this case) always right!

Those customers have a valuable insight into your company, how it compares with competitors, what aspects of the product/service are the most critical to the customer and what could be improved - effectively how appropriate and well your strategies are working.

Customer Research

MCi undertakes customer research on your behalf to tap into this rich stream of information and by using a third party professional company your company benefits from a number of key features:

Your company gains a major PR activity. Your customers will be delighted to have an opportunity to give their opinions and the demonstration that you are interested in their comments will further enhance their view of you

The respondents provide a franker assessment to a third party (its human nature)

The responses are appraised cold, as a third party we have no ‘axe to grind' or need to filter data to suit any purpose other than to provide you with a frank assessment

Applications

Some of our clients undertake this survey as a one-off "snapshot" of how their customers view them. More often, this is part of a regular (often annual) programme of performance monitoring. The research provides valuable insight and input into marketing plans and strategic decision making.

Method

For new clients, we prefer for the consultant who will be undertaking the assignment to visit the company in order to get a deeper understanding of the products and issues that may arise as well as to discuss the particular areas of interest to the client. This enables a much more meaningful discussion to be undertaken with the interviewees and is helpful in analysing their responses. It also allows you to meet the individual who will be acting on your behalf in front of your customers.

By discussing with management your client portfolio we can also advise on appropriate levels of interviews. Having agreed the approach and contact list with management, the Customer Insight programme involves a series of telephone interviews undertaken by a single consultant. This allows for the interviews to be conducted by a professional who has discussed the issues direct with you. It allows that consultant to develop each interview according to the issues identified by previous interviews. This is an important part of gaining the most useful information possible for you, and in professionally representing your company to maximise the PR benefit.

Our interviews with customers take the form of open discussions. While we are able to guide interviewees in the areas of interest, our experience shows it is more useful to allow the interviewees to identify the areas that they see as important (now we really do get to the important issues to the market rather than the ones that we or you pre-judge to be the issues). Typical areas of investigation include:

As with all MCi research, we seek to understand why, not just what to deliver you with the greatest value.

What Clients Get From Customer Insight

As well as a fully documented analysis of each interview, each report analyses and summarises the key findings of the interview programme, highlighting perceived strengths and weaknesses, giving you sound qualitative and quantitative analysis. This can be supplemented with a presentation by the consultant who undertook the project. In addition, the interview programme itself acts as strong PR for your company, demonstrating to your customers that you are prepared to invest in ensuring that you continue to meet their needs.

You will find out what really matters to your customers - what you are doing right and where any improvements would lead directly to more business, as well as gaining an insight into the effectiveness of your strategies.

Who We Are

MCi is a specialist business-to-business research house with experience and expertise in a broad range of market sectors. All our interviews are carried out by highly experienced consultants who are either Members of the Chartered Institute of Marketing or MBAs.

Our experience indicates that companies are often more candid with third parties and will tell us what they really think. Our consultants are trained and experienced in getting the key salient feedback from your customers.

Cost

The cost of this programme is determined by the number of interviews to be undertaken. This in turn varies according to the client and the industry.

To discuss your requirements or arrange an exploratory meeting, please contact:

Robin Leggett, Associate Director, Commercial Due Diligence
T: +44 (0)7966 182128
E: robinleggett@mbdltd.co.uk