Measuring Success in Customer Satisfaction

Measurement is useful for many reasons in the business environment. As a marketing major, the first thing i could think of to measure for a business was customer satisfaction, and/or wants and needs of one's target market. Without a system to measure customers/clients demands we'd still be at square one, asking ourselves "what should we make/offer to our market?"

First we need to think of what questions to ask, ie market research, then we need to find a way to categorize, store and measure those results. One must also embrace the concept that it takes continuous effort to maintain high customer satisfaction levels.

Since completing his master's degree in 1998, Kevin Cacioppo has been working for the leading integrated enclosure manufacturer. In his present role as global account leader, he has applied both theory and experience to support the world's largest semiconductor original equipment manufacturer in the United States and abroad. His work continues to indentify, in the perception of the customer, what steps must be taken to solidify relations and secure future business. E-mail him at http://www.blogger.com/kcacioppo@qualitydigest.com

"As markets shrink, companies are scrambling to boost customer satisfaction and keep their current customers rather than devoting additional resources to chase potential new customers. The claim that it costs five to eight times as much to get new customers than to hold on to old ones is key to understanding the drive toward benchmarking and tracking customer satisfaction."Kevin Cacioppo

Business Performance Measurement Systems

We talked about measurement earlier this week, and it really got me thinking, why is measurement important to business?

Vince kellen, the CIO of Depaul University in Chicago says that Business Performance Measurement Systems have grown in use and popularity in the past 20 years.Its no suprise is it? As the global shift looms ever closer firms must maximize efficiency to stay competitive. Measuring success, or failire is the first step of that process. Firms/companies may adopt BPM systems for a variety of reasons, but mostly to gain a level of control over the firm that was never achievable before.

However wonderful BPM systems are, they can be very difficult to implement. Issues range from great amounts of diversity of fields of study in the workplace,lack of affilitation with strategy, poorly defined identification process, etc. Learn more at:http://www.kellen.net/bpm.htm

Kellen goes on to explain how you can prevent these problems by first identifying "a minimal set of four criteria for designing successful BPM systems, along with 12 BPM system factors to be considered." By defining what you want in a BPM before hand, you can head off many of the most frequent problems.

Anna's 2nd blog

This week I was really interested in the information because it relates to my other classes. Right now I'm also taking computer science 101 and we're learning about the binary system. Honestly, I'd never heard of the binary system before two weeks ago. It is amazing that so much can be said through all 0s and 1s, but I think it would drive me crazy trying to convert everything into binary.

We also learned about measurements and their use in the business world. Measurements are used to make decisions in the business world so we thought of different measurements used in different business careers. I especially understand how important measurements are in accounting because I'm taking an accounting class right now. The link describes different measurements used in accounting, such as assets, liabilities and expenses.

The information about logic was familiar to me because I've taken a few philosophy classes. It is funny because computers and philosophy seem to be nothing alike but they actually both apply the rules of logic. I always like when my classes intertwine because it shows that what we're learning is applicable in many ways, and it helps me understand the information better.

Business Measurements

In my post today I would like to talk about business measurements. Measurements are very important in running a successful business. Some fields of business such as accounting, are almost completely composed of measuring financial data. All fields of business are centered around measurements even if it does not seem like it. For example a cook has to know how much of any particular ingredient he has before he can make a dish. Another would be the a salesman would want to know the demographic of their target customer base in order to cut out people who most likely would not be interested in his products. Almost all information is relevant in business even many of the obscure facts.

For a business to be considered successful it has to be profitable. In order to achieve this status, a business must use measurement to find out where they can be most efficient in the use of their capital (money, resources, labor). Without these measurements most businesses would be sure to fail, because they would have no way to determine how they were doing, and information would be inconclusive as to whether they were making money or not. Also without business measurements in place it would be very easy for people to steal from a business, as they could not prove that they were missing anything.

Measurements are important for more than just for their own good however, business measurements are also for the good of the stockholders and the customers. A stockholder always wants data on a business before they invest money into it. also a customer may want to see how a business is holding up financially before buying a product or service from that business. Especially if they think they might want to return a product that they buy, or in case they need replacement products from that company. In conclusion business measurements are a fundamental part of business, and are important for the growth and longevity of any industry.

Number Two

Last week I introduced a rather daft theory about Google possibly taking over the world. I would like to talk more about this as there have been some very interesting developments regarding Google's relationship with China in the past two weeks. However, since part of our last lecture was about measurements, I thought it would be a nice opportunity to discuss one of the most advanced systems of business measurements.

A great deal of Google's success as an advertising giant has been their unwavering commitment to measuring internet usage. No matter how important or irrelevant a person or piece of information may be, Google Inc. has taken it into their hands to ensure that no data slips through the cracks. At the beginning of our class, Dr. Drake posed a question; how do we determine what is important to our business? At one point in time Google executives probably asked themselves this very same question. In response, they deduced that Google aims to be the most elaborate internet company in the world and therefore any piece of information that uses the internet medium is relevant to their company. From click throughs on billion dollar company websites, to tracking search engine inquiries, to how many times "kittens inspired by kittens" is viewed on YouTube, every piece of data has its use in some way or another. (I am a firm believer that the extraordinary view count of the "new haircut" video was the main influence leading to the conception of the hit TV show Jersey Shore, but thats a discussion for another time and place.) This logic is what took this innovative company from a mere search engine to a technological giant. By taking responsibility for measuring every single aspect of how people use the internet, Google has positioned itself as one of the most powerful corporations on the planet. Their amount of intellectual property is second to none. However what is most impressive about all of this his how Google has managed to utilize this data. It's not just sitting around somewhere in a computer archive but rather it is being recorded, analyzed and applied to business decisions around the world. If a company wanted to launch an online marketing campaign, it would likely ask Google where its ads would be most effective in reaching their target market.

The problem inherent in all this is that if Google can obtain information from us electronically, certainly anyone can obtain info from them the same way. It seems that people are starting to recognize this. People are also starting to recognize the value of the data that Google has been able to amass. Proof of this notion lies in the recent attacks on Google stemming from Chinese hackers. They have been able to utilize extremely advanced programming language and algorithms to circumvent some of Google's safety measures. These attacks have caused a tremendous backlash and I will talk more about these events in my next blog.

Measurement as a Competitive Advantage

Measurement is extremely important in the world of business. They are used to make informed decisions to ensure success. As discussed in class, measurement affects all areas of business, including: finance, accounting, production, and marketing. As we learned, measurements are often used as a competitive advantage. To expand upon this, I will focus on the world of marketing as that is my career focus.

Marketing is constantly using measurements. They are used to project sales, customer satisfaction, distribution routes, and advertising outlets. One of the newest ways in which marketing uses measurement is through a Strategic Performance Measurement System. This system. This is a comprehensive systems which takes the industrial structure measurements, performance measurements, market analysis, and organizational objectives to detect new consumer markets and demands. If this is done properly it can dramatically increase the success a firm has.

Along with a Strategic Performance Measurement System, many marketing firms are hiring Web Analysts to break down their website traffic to determine how customers use their website. This directly correlates to what we discussed in class about website and gaining a competitive advantage. This advantage is partly achieved because understanding how and why people do what they do on the Internet, is like gaining insight into your consumers thought. If you understand your customers thought process, it become increasingly easier to adapt your marketing strategy to fit your customers needs and wants.

To learn more about marketing and gaining a competitive advantage you can visit these websites:
http://www.itchannel.ro/faa/402_pdfsam_ICEA_FAA_2009.pdf
http://www.foresightresearch.com/competitive_advantage.htm
http://www.springerlink.com/content/u60402812v775034/

Measurements and Their Importance

Businesses have a lot of things to worry about. Things ranging from inventory, salaries, customer satisfaction, employee efficiency, and shipping and recieving just to name a few. Without any sort of system to organize all of this information, chaos would erupt and order would be thrown out of the window, forcing businesses to shut down. All of these things have to be kept track of and the information needs to be readily accessible at any given time to ensure that the company is profitable and is running as efficiently and smoothly as it can be. This is where measurements come in.

Measurements are the key to organizing and tabulating all of the information thrown at businesses on a daily basis. Take my first example, inventory. If companies had no idea how much materials cost or how much is needed or has been used, it would cause a lot of problems. Materials need to be measured in a way that is clear and precise to both the company buying and the company selling those materials. Having universal measures such as pounds, feet, or gallons allow an easy way to convey orders and measure how much is used or needed.

Measurements are also important for things other than materials and other things directly related to the good such as customer satisfaction. The most successful businesses are the ones with the highest customer satisfaction, so this is an important thing for businesses to keep track of and be aware of. There are many different programs and techniques to measure customer satisfaction. One of these such programs is Kampyle. This program helps website owners to create feedback forms that are made easily available to viewers on the website by simply clicking a button that takes them directly to it. The information from the form is then sent back to the website owner, allowing them access to all of the measurements Kampyle had made.

Measurements is a key integral part in the business world. Efficient businesses are aware of their importance and have systems that help them keep track of all of the different measurements they have to deal with.

Blog #2: Measurements In Accounting

This week in class we discussed measurements and how they are important to a business. Different segments of business have different forms of measurements. In accounting, they use things like financial statements and ratios to measure how a business is performing. The finance industry also uses ratios as well as interest and share prices. Other business professionals use such things as labor costs, price, and sales to measure performance. These tools allow managers and other decision makers to evaluate how the business is performing, and to make changes based on this information. In accounting, there are qualitative characteristics that are used to make sure that the information being provided on financial reports is relevant and reliable to decision makers and others that have a stake in the performance of a company. Without proper measurements, this information would be difficult to interpret, would be subject to the whim of each individual organization, and would become useless.

This is a chart of the qualitative characteristics used in accounting practice:



This chart and more information regarding it can be found at the McGraw-Hill Online Learning Center (text book site for Intermediate Accounting).

These characteristics were developed by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), and are part of their seven Statements of Financial Accounting Concepts (more specifically, SFAC #2). The other SFAC sections also deal with accounting measures and how they should be handled.