The Voice of the Customer
at the MEDC
June, 2012
Voice of the Customer Background
Governor Snyder challenged state departments to recognize citizens and endusers of State services as valued customers.
Greater focus on customer service is part of a broader initiative of “reinventing
our government”, part of the Governor's 10-Point Plan.
Monitoring the Voice of the Customer (VOC) is a core component of a balanced
scorecard, but not currently comprehensively captured at the MEDC.
A regular and comprehensive VOC process is critical to understanding how to
allocate resources for driving value-adding customer behavior.
The MEDC designed and launched a VOC initiative targeted at the MEDC’s six
customer segments: Businesses, Entrepreneurs, Tourists, Travelers, the
Workforce and Communities.
2
Annual VOC Work Plan
An ideal VOC process iterates a six step improvement process each quarter.
Detect
Disseminate
Diagnose
Discuss
Design
Deploy
• Capture the
VOC
• Distribute
results
• Analyze
problem areas
• Identify
improvements
• Improve
processes
• Implement
solution
Jan
Apr
Detect
Jul
Detect
Deploy
Deploy
Disseminate Design
Disseminate Design
Diagnose
Discuss
Oct
Detect
Deploy
Disseminate Design
Diagnose
Discuss
Diagnose
Discuss
Detect
Deploy
Disseminate Design
Diagnose
Discuss
3
Integrating Across Customer Segments
Satisfaction indices integrated customer segments will provide a view of overall
customer satisfaction and customers’ likelihood to “recommend” Michigan ...
Overall Customer
Satisfaction Index
Businesses
CS Index
Entrepreneur
CS Index
Likelihood to Advocate for
Michigan
Communities
CS Index
Travelers
CS Index
Tourists
CS Index
Workforce
CS Index
High index scores correlate with customers engaging in behavior that advances the strategic plan.
… the following slides present results from the first customer survey deployed in May.
4
Characteristics of Business Survey Respondents
The majority of respondents are business owners or C-level executives representing
both small and large companies—mostly in the manufacturing industry.
Role in the Organization:
• 56% are business owners or C-level executives
• 21% are other employees of a private sector business
Size of the Organization:
• 27% have 10 or fewer employees
• 18% have more than 250 employees
Organization Type:
• 48% are manufacturers
• 13% are professional, scientific, technology companies
Incentives:
• 20% received incentives
5
VOC Business Results Overview
The activities of the MEDC drove a satisfaction index of 48, and a likelihood to
advocate for Michigan index of 63.
What the numbers mean:
• Respondents are asked to rate satisfaction on numerous attributes on a 1
to 10 scale
• Results are converted to 100-point index (1 = very unsatisfied, 100 =
extremely satisfied)
The things that the
MEDC does …
Entrepreneurship
Business Growth
Access to Capital
Vibrant Communities
Talent Enhancement
Image
Seamless Delivery
Overall Satisfaction
with the MEDC
48
Advocate for
Michigan
63
6
Components of Satisfaction with the MEDC
Customers are most satisfied with the MEDC’s efforts at branding the state, and
least satisfied with efforts to facilitate access to capital.
Activity
Satisfaction
Pure Michigan Branding
68
Business Growth Assistance
51
Supports Entrepreneurship
48
Business Incentive Assistance
48
Community Development
48
Employee Hiring Assistance
47
Workforce Training/Education
46
Facilitates Access to Capital
46
Overall Satisfaction
with the MEDC
48
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Drivers of Satisfaction
(Overall Satisfaction Index)
Customers who received incentives and had recent contact were more satisfied
than others. Owners or C-level executives were less satisfied than staff.
Incentives
Received Incentives
57
No Incentives
44
Contact
Recent Contact*
55
Historical Contact*
42
Role
Staff
Owner or C-Level
59
47
* Recent contact is contact within a month of receiving the survey, historical contact is contact more than a month prior to receiving the survey.
8
Drivers of Advocacy
(Advocate for Michigan Index)
The same drivers of satisfaction are reflected in the likelihood to advocate for
Michigan—supporting a link between satisfaction and value-adding behavior.
Incentives
67
Received Incentives
No Incentives
58
Contact
70
Recent Contact*
54
Historical Contact*
Role
70
Staff
Owner or C-Level
63
* Recent contact is contact within a month of receiving the survey, historical contact is contact more than a month prior to receiving the survey.
9
C-Level Executive Advocacy Distribution
Half of C-level executives are either “very likely” to advocate for Michigan or “very
unlikely” to.
How likely are you to recommend Michigan as a place to start a business to a friend or colleague?
23%
26%
19%
17%
16%
11%
10%
7%
6%
6%
5%
Very
Unlikely=1
2
3
4%
4
5
6
7
8
9
Very
Likely=10
10
Characteristics of Negative C-Level Executives*
Those C-level executives who had strongly negative feelings about the state are more
likely to be small business owners who did not receive incentives.
Industry Type:
• 56% are manufacturers
• 18% are combined construction and other
Size of Organization:
• 32% have 10 or fewer employees (vs. 27% of total respondents)
• 20% have 11 – 25 employees
• 7% have 250 or more employees (vs. 18% of total respondents)
Incentives:
• 12% received incentives (vs. 20% of total respondents)
* C-level executives choosing “1” or “2” in response to “How likely are you to recommend Michigan as a place to start a business to a friend or colleague?”
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Business VOC Summary
1. A broad cross-section of the MEDC’s business customers provided feedback
on their satisfaction with the organization and the state’s business climate
2. Likelihood to advocate for Michigan was correlated with satisfaction with the
MEDC
3. Across the MEDC’s activities, satisfaction with Pure Michigan branding was
highest while satisfaction with access to capital was lowest
4. Receiving incentives and recent contact with the MEDC were correlated with
higher satisfaction, while being a C-level executive correlated with lower
satisfaction
5. C-level executives reporting low satisfaction were more likely to run small
businesses rather than large, and less likely to have received incentives
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VOC-Driven Improvement Opportunities
1. Develop a robust capital access intake process to maximize positive outcomes
and experiences
2. Ensure high-touch account management for customers not matched with
capital access or a incentive solution
3. Maximize the deployment of the Pure Michigan brand across MEDC services
4. Establish a small business executive roundtable to provide regular, robust
feedback on needs to the MEDC
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Lessons Learned
1. Understanding the drivers of satisfaction requires multiple survey deployments
a.
b.
“Element” questions have to address the experience of most respondents
The respondent list needs to be “clean” and target the right customers
2. The design of the invitation to the survey is critical
a.
b.
Better response rate when email is sent from Department Director and flagged as important
Indicating who the survey is targeted to, its value and offering to share information is helpful
3. Spend the time to categorize open-ended comments
a.
b.
By topic
By tone (i.e., positive vs. negative)
4. Size of target pool impacted by multiple factors
a.
b.
c.
d.
Need statistically significant number of responses
Certain completed surveys will need to be discarded (e.g., contaminated list)
Segmenting respondents reduces sample size and may drop under statisitcal significance
Need to reserve portions of the list for the next survey to avoid survey “fatigue”
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Next Steps
1.
Develop and deploy satisfaction models for remaining customer
segments (late August)
2.
Complete development of business improvement process
3.
Finalize recommendations and implement process improvements
4.
Coordinate with employee engagement effort
5.
Finalize lessons learned and communicate
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