CustomerPerception

2009BenchmarkReport

EFQMShareswhatworks
Forthepasttwentyyearswehavesharedwhatworksbetweenourmemberorganisationsasa
waytohelpthemimplementtheirstrategies:amissionwhichisasimportantasever.

Throughournetworkofmemberscomprisingprivateandpublicorganisationsofeverysizeand
sector,manyactivearoundtheworld,EFQMappliesitsknowhowandextractsoutstanding
approachesbyengagingwithexecutivesandfrontlinemanagers.

Ricoh/EFQMPactProject
In 2007, the EFQM Board of Governors developed the concept of PACT Membership. Leading
companieswereinvitedtoestablishPactProjects,formingapartnershiptousetheircollective
knowledge,skillsandexperiencetogeneratenewandinnovativeproductsandservicesthatwould
benefit all EFQM Members. This report has been developed as part of the Ricoh / EFQM Pact
Project.

WehavebeenworkingcloselywiththeEFQMMemberstoidentifyspecificareasofinterestand
best practice to improve the knowledge sharing between member organisations. As with most
knowledgemanagementsystems,thereisntasinglesolution.Wewillbedevelopingdifferent
methods of sharing the knowledge and experience of members; giving real examples from real
organisations.

Theoutputofthisprojectwillbeaseriesofbenchmarkingreports,casestudiesandbestpractices
thatwillbemadeavailabletothemembershipinavarietyofformats.

Throughthesereports,aswellasthroughourotherproductsandservices,EFQMaimto"Share
WhatWorks".

Acknowledgements
The information in this document has been contributed by a number of EFQM Member
Organisations.Withoutthiscontribution,publicationofthisreportwouldnothavebeenpossible.
Wethereforethankalltheindividualsandorganisationswhohavetakenthetimetosharetheir
knowledge,experienceandexpertisewithus.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means (bethis electronically, mechanically, through photocopy,or recording or otherwise) without either theprior
writtenpermissionof,oralicencepermittingrestrictedcopying,anduseforathirdparty,fromthepublisher.

ThisreporthasbeenwrittenbyMattFisher,RicohEurope,amemberoftheEFQMStrategyCommittee.Anyenquiries
relatingtothecontentofthisreportshouldbeaddressedviatheEFQM(info@efqm.org).

Contents

Introduction

BestPractices

Section1:AllApplicants

Section2:Finalists

Section3:Prize&AwardWinners

Section4:LargeOrganisations

Section5:Small&MediumOrganisations

Section6:PrivateSectorOrganisations

Section7:PublicSectorOrganisations

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CustomerPerceptionBenchmarkReport2009

MovingIdeasForward
Forallorganisations,therealmeasureofsuccessisthatofcustomersatisfactiondeliveredacross
allareasofthebusinessandthroughthe,productsandservicesdelivered.CustomerPerception
Surveys are a key tool in understanding and improving the customer experience and the vast
majorityoforganisationshaveadoptedthisapproachtogatheringfeedback.

These surveys are vital to reviewing and improving the processes for developing, delivering and
providingongoingsupportfortheproductsandservicesdelivered.However,theyonlytellushow
wellweareperforming.Benchmarkingwithotherorganisationshelpsustounderstandgeneral
trends,identifyadvantagesandlearnnewwaystoensureourorganisationremainscompetitive.
Making comparisons with our competitors provides us with vital information to understand our
market.

However,all"ourcustomers"haveexperienceswithmanyotherorganisationsintheirdailylives.
Gaininganinsightintohowthecustomerexperienceismanagedinothersectorsisasourcefor
newideasandinspirationwhichcanleadtothedevelopmentofinnovativeproductsandservices,
perhapsinnewmarketsthathadpreviouslynotbeenconsidered.

The EFQM Excellence Model provides organisations with a common language, enabling the
exchangeofideasbetweenmembers,regardlessofsizeorsector.Itisourabilitytolearnfrom
these examples that determines our ability to move our ideas forward, meet the challenges we
faceandsucceedinachievingsustainablebenefitsforourstakeholdersintothefuture.

SteveSaito
President,RicohEurope
MemberofEFQMBoardofGovernors

Introduction

CompilingthisReport
ThedatacontainedinthisreporthasbeenprovidedbyapplicantsfromtheEuropeanExcellence
Awardprocessesduring2007,2008and 2009. Theseorganisationshaveachievedaknown and
comparablelevelofexcellence,asdeterminedbytheAwardAssessorTeamswhovisitedthemas
partoftheassessmentprocess.

As users of the EFQM Excellence Model, we understand the need to compare our performance
levelswithexternalorganisationstounderstandwhereweexcelandwherewemayneedtomake
improvements to stay competitive and deliver sustainable benefits to our stakeholders. These
comparisonscanbemadebothwithinthemarketweoperateandbeyond,tobringinnewideas
andinnovativewaysofworkingthatwillenableustomakebreakthroughimprovementsorgain
accesstonewmarkets.

TheEFQMExcellenceModelprovidesuswithacommonlanguageforsharinginformation,ideas
andgoodpracticesbetweenorganisations.Oncethelevelofexcellenceofanorganisationhas
beendeterminedthroughassessmentagainsttheModel,itispossibleforthemtocomparetheir
performance against organisations who have achieved either a similar level of maturity or to
compare themselves with members who have achieved their target level of excellence to
understandwheretheyneedtomakeimprovementsinordertoachievethis.

Obviously, benchmarking goes far beyond comparing numbers but this can be a useful step in
identifying gaps and which areas to focus on. Aligning this to the strategic objectives will help
identify the priorities for improvement. Once these priorities are agreed, the process of
benchmarkingapproachescanbegin.

CreatingComparableData
Thereare2commonissuesencounteredwhenpeopletrytocompareperceptiondata:
Thequestionsarewordeddifferently
Thescoringscalesarenotthesame

Whattendstohappenispeoplebuybenchmarkdatafromtheirsurveyprovider,althoughoften
havelittleideawhotheyarebenchmarkingagainst,thereforehowvalidthebenchmarkis.This
alsodoeslittletopromotetheexchangeofideas.

However,whilstthewordingofthequestionsmightbedifferent,thethemesexploredareusually
the same, such as Overall Satisfaction and Accessibilityof Staff. For example, one company
may have a question worded How easy isit for you to contact us when you need to? in their
CustomerPerceptionSurveyandanothermayaskAreyouabletoeasilyspeaktoamemberof
staff? In essence, these both ask about the same thing and the approaches adopted in a
company that will drive this result will have the same objective. By identifying the common
themes, we can ask the participants to select the relevant questions from their survey which
measureperceptionagainstthesethemes.

The other issue is the range of different scoring scales used. Ultimately, if someone is highly
satisfied,theywillgiveyouahighscoreand,iftheyrenot,theyllgivealowscore.Calculatingthe
averagescoreandconvertingthistoapercentage,wecancreateacommonapproachtoscoring
that enables us to create a benchmarking index to identify companies with very high levels of
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CustomerPerceptionBenchmarkReport2009
customersatisfaction.Forexample,iftheorganisationisusingascaleof1to5andtheaverage
ratingwas4.0,thiswouldbeequivalentto75%.Whetherthecomparisonbetweenorganisations
A&Bis100%accurateisnotthepoint.TheobjectiveistoidentifyareaswhereorganisationA
couldlearnfromorganisationB.

IdentifyingtheCommonThemesforComparison
To identify the common themes which were being used to measure customer perception, we
tookasampleofsubmissiondocumentsfromthelast3years,takingamixof75pageand25page
submissions and ensuring we had a mix of private and public sector organisations. We then
comparedthedatapresentedintheCustomerPerceptioncriteriaandcompiledthelistbelow:

OverallSatisfaction
Product/ServiceReliability
Product/ServiceQuality
Communications
Flexibility(tocustomerneeds)
Ontimedelivery
Aftersalesservice
Technicalsupport
Accessibilityofstaff
Responsivenessofstaff
Competencyofstaff
EnvironmentalPolicy

IdentifyingBestPractices
TheAssessorTeamsidentifyanddescribebestpracticesduringtheassessmentprocess,based
onthe8FundamentalConceptsofExcellencewhichunderpintheEFQMExcellenceModel.These
providetheEEAJurywithfurtherinformation ontheapplicantandwhytheAssessor Teamfeel
they should be considered as a role model for other organisations. The best practices
identifiedaredocumentedinastandardtemplate,basedontheRADAR.

The best practices included in this report have been taken directly from the feedback reports
producedbytheAssessorTeams.Theseexamplesshouldgiveaninsightintothedifferenttypes
ofapproachesadoptedbyorganisationsrecognisedthroughtheEEAprocessasexcellentwhich
canbeadaptedforusewithinothermemberorganisations.