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Research ProjectWave 5

Prepared for Customer Insights

December 2011

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Background and objectives

Fruity replaced their Customer Careline provider in 2006. They wanted to establish benchmarks against which to monitor the performance of the new provider. The original study was conducted in 2 phases:

Phase 1 – To evaluate service provided by the previous provider and establish benchmarks.

Phase 2 – To measure performance of the new provider against set benchmarks and identify strengths and gaps if any.

In 2010, Fruity decided to continue monitoring the performance of Customer Careline (store customers) on a continuous bases and commissioned 3 further waves. In addition, they commissioned 2 waves to monitor their Online customer service team (however Online has no letter channel).

This document reports the results of the Wave 5 Customer Careline (store customers) and Wave 2 Online customer service team.

Methodology

Telephone interviews were conducted amongst those who had recently contacted the Customer Careline either to register a complaint, raise a query or make an order (only in case of the Online team only). Fieldwork was conducted in June 201.

The breakdown of the interviews this wave, by channel of contact is :

Customer Careline (store customers) Online Customer Service teamLetter 100 n/a

Email 200 250

Phone 200 250

Total 500 500

Background, Objectives, & Methodology

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Customer Careline (Store customers) Current wave vs. Benchmark Wave

& vs. Previous Wave

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Key Findings

Satisfaction levels across all three channels have declined for a few measures versus Benchmark wave. Letter under performs on all measures.

Phone has declined for optimal solution, speed of resolution, meeting commitments and keeping updated on progress whilst letter has weakened for clarity of response, optimal solution and taking ownership of query. Email contacts are more satisfied with grammar/punctuation but are less satisfied with willingness to help and knowledge &expertise.

Comparison to

Benchmark Wave

Performance has generally improved versus previous wave. Significant improvements have been made for accuracy of information and meeting commitments for Phone and willingness to help, knowledge & expertise and meeting commitments for Emails for which performance has improved.

Comparison to Previous

Wave

Phone contacts continue to be the most satisfied with Customer Careline. Net Promoter Score for phone channel is higher than the other channels.

Best performing

channel

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Key Findings

Key drivers of satisfaction vary by channel.

Optimal solution, meeting commitments and speed of resolution are the primary drivers of satisfaction for Phone contacts.

For Letter contacts, beside the former two, knowledge & expertise and taking ownership of query are also important.

Amongst Email contacts, satisfaction is mainly driven by optimal solution, willingness to help, showing empathy and speed of resolution.

Key drivers of

Satisfaction

Taking ownership of query, willingness to help and showing sympathy are the core strengths across all channels.

Clearly, Phone and Email channels have more strengths than Letter but there are still opportunities for improvement.

Strengths

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Key Findings

Opportunities for improvement are:

Phone – Meeting commitments & keeping updated on progress (both have declined versus Benchmark wave)

Letter – Meeting commitments, providing an optimal solution (declined vs. Benchmark wave), speed of resolution, hassles free resolution, keeping updated on progress, knowledge & expertise and accurate information.

Email – Meeting commitments, providing an optimal solution, speed of resolution, keeping updated on progress and knowledge & expertise (declined vs. Benchmark wave)

Focus Areas

7 Source Q1, 4 & 7, Thinking about your overall experience and the service provided by the Customer Careline at Fruity, how satisfied were you overall on a scale of 0-10 where 0 is completely dissatisfied and 10 is completely satisfied. Base: Contacted by letter (100), Contacted by email (200), Contacted by phone (200)

Completely Satisfied

Completely dissatisfied

T3B

57

68

37

56

Phone contacts continue to be the most satisfied whilst letter contacts are the least satisfied.

Overall Satisfaction

Is significantly higher than

However, Email is significantly Lower than phone

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1

2

3

3

5

6

7

7

8

9

9

6

1

Grammer/Punctuation**

Showing empathy

Speed of call answering*

Willingness to help

Clarity of response

Ownership of query

Knowledge/Expertise

Hassle free resolution

Optimal solution provided

Accurate Information

Speed of resolution

Updated on progress

Meeting commitments made

Ensuring quick response**

Careline current wave Vs. Previous WaveCareline current wave Vs. Benchmark

Despite an improvement in performance versus previous wave, Customer Careline has seen a decline in performance vs. benchmark wave for over half of the measures.

Source: Q2,Q5,Q8 Base = All respondents (500)*Base: Telephone Only (200). **Base Letter and Email Only (300)

Note: Ranked by Wave 4 versus Benchmark

Statement not asked in benchmark wave

Performance Index of Careline - Total

Significantly higher/lower

2

3

3

0

3

2

3

3

3

9

6

2

12

5

9

6

7

7

8

9

12

13

13

13

13

16

16

Grammar/Punctuation

Showing empathy

Willingness to help

Updated on progress

Hassle free resolution

Accurate Information

Clarity of response

Knowledge/Expertise

Speed of resolution

Meeting commitments made

Optimal solution provided

Ownership of query

Ensuring quick response3

2

10

9

5

5

5

7

6

5

1

2

6

Careline current wave Vs. Previous WaveCareline current wave Vs. Benchmark

Despite some positive scores versus the previous wave, letter is the worst performing amongst the three channels.

Source – Q2: Now thinking about specific aspects of the service provided by the Customer careline at Fruityon your recent contact, how would you rate their performance on a 6 point scale, where 1 is very poor & 6 is excellent on the attributes I will read out below

Base: All who contacted Customer Careline by letter (100)

Note: Ranked by Wave 5 versus Benchmark

Statement not asked in benchmark wave

Performance Index by channel - Letter

Significantly higher/lower

10

1

1

1

3

4

5

6

8

12

2

3

1

Grammar/Punctuation

Clarity of response

Updated on progress

Showing empathy

Ownership of query

Optimal solution provided

Willingness to help

Knowledge/Expertise

Hassle free resolution

Speed of resolution

Meeting commitments made

Accurate Information

Ensuring quick response

1

2

4

6

6

9

9

10

0

9

13

6

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Careline current wave Vs. Previous WaveCareline current wave Vs. Benchmark

Source – Q5 Now thinking about specific aspects of the service provided by the Customer careline at Fruityon your recent contact, how would you rate their performance on a 6 point scale, where 1 is very poor & 6 is excellent on the attributes I will read out below Base: All who contacted Customer Careline by email (200)

Note: Ranked by Wave 5 versus Benchmark

Statement not asked in benchmark wave

Performance Index by channel - Email

Few improvements for emails vs. previous wave but compared to the benchmark wave, satisfaction has declines for willingness to help and knowledge and expertise. Grammar / punctuation has improved.

Significantly higher/lower

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1

2

3

4

8

9

10

12

15

3

2

Showing empathy

Speed of call answering

Willingness to help

Ownership of query

Knowledge/Expertise

Accurate Information

Clarity of response

Hassle free resolution

Optimal solution provided

Speed of resolution

Meeting commitments made

Updated on progress

2

2

3

1

0

1

12

4

3

3

12

5

Careline current wave Vs. Previous WaveCareline current wave Vs. Benchmark

Performance Index by channel - Phone

Source – Q8: Now thinking about specific aspects of the service provided by the Customer careline at Fruityon your recent contact, how would you rate their performance on a 6 point scale, where 1 is very poor & 6 is excellent on the attributes I will read out belowBase: All who contacted Customer Careline by phone (200)

Note: Ranked by Wave 5 versus Benchmark

Accurate information and meeting commitments have higher satisfaction in the current wave versus previous wave. But there is a decline in scores for few measures versus the benchmark wave.

Significantly higher/lower

12 Q1,4&7: Thinking about your recent experience and the service provided by the Customer Careline, how satisfied were you overall on a scale of 0-10?Base = All respondents (500)

Importance of measures varies by channel. Meeting commitments, taking ownership and providing a solution are important across the 3 channels.

Meeting any commitments made

Optimum solution provided

Knowledge/Expertise

Ownership of query

Showing empathy

Willingness to help

Speed of resolution

Accurate information

Hassle free resolution

Updated on progress

Clarity of response

Ensuring quick response

Grammar/punctuation

Speed of call answering

De

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ttrib

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to

Ove

rall

Sa

tisfa

ctio

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T3B Satisfaction Score

De

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ttrib

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to

Ove

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Sa

tisfa

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Meeting any commitments

made

Updated on progress

Speed of resolution

Optimal solution provided

Accurate information

Knowledge & Expertise

Hassle free resolution

Willingness to help

Ownership of query

Ensuring quick response

Grammar/punctuation

Clarity of response

Showing empathy

High

Low High

Q1: Thinking about your recent experience and the service provided by the Customer Careline, how satisfied were you overall on a scale of 0-10?Base = Letter (100)

Maintain

Maintain/ Communicate

Low priority improvement

Key focus

Letter clearly is the least performing channel. Over half of the total measures are areas of improvement for letter.

Speed of resolution

Clarity of response

Ownership of query

Knowledge/Expertise

Optimal solution provided

Hassle free resolution

Grammar/punctuation

Updated on progress

Willingness to helpShowing empathy

Accurate information

Meeting commitments made

Ensuring quick response

High

LowHigh

Q4: Thinking about your recent experience and the service provided by the Customer Careline, how satisfied were you overall on a scale of 0-10?Base = Email (200)

Email channel has many strengths and the focus areas are optimal solution, meeting commitments and speed of resolution.

T3B Satisfaction Score

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to

Ove

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Sa

tisfa

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Maintain

Maintain/ Communicate

Low priority improvement

Key focus MaintainKey focus

Speed of resolution

Clarity of response

Ownership of query`

Knowledge/Expertise

Optimal solution provided

Hassle free resolution

Speed of call answering

Updated on progress

Willingness to help

Showing empathy

Accurate information

Meeting commitments made

High

Low High

Q7: Thinking about your recent experience and the service provided by the Customer Careline, how satisfied were you overall on a scale of 0-10?Base = Phone (200)

Phone is the best performing channel with high satisfaction on most measures. Areas to work on are meeting commitments and keeping customers informed on progress.

T3B Satisfaction Score

De

rive

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mp

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ttrib

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to

Ove

rall

Sa

tisfa

ctio

n

Maintain/ Communicate

Low priority improvement

MaintainKey focus

16 Q14: Did you feel the response was personal to you? Base = All respondents (500), Contacted by letter (100), Contacted by email (200), Contacted by phone (200), Source Q8b: Did the member of staff dealing with your query say sorry? Base = Those who contacted by phone and made a complaint, n= 144

Was response personal & an apology given?

Response was felt to be personal to customers and apology was considered to be appropriate and genuine. Letter responses are not felt to be as personal as the other two channels.

No significant differences versus previous wave

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Frequency of Contact needed

Source: Q3a/6/9. Approximately how many times did you have to send a letter/email/speak to the Customer Careline to get your last query/complaint?Base = All respondents (500), Contacted by letter (100), Contacted by email (200), Contacted by phone (200),

No change in the number of contacts needed, which is generally only once.

18 Source Q13: Was it easy for you to contact Fruityregarding your query/complaint? Base: All respondents (500), letter (100), email (200), phone (200).

Ease of contacting Customer Careline

No significant differences versus previous wave

Contacting the Customer Careline is considered to be easy.

19 Source Q16A: If Customer Careline need to contact you, how would you prefer to be contacted Base = All respondents (500), letter (100), email (200), phone (200)

Preferred method of contact?

Preferred channel of contact is likely to be the same as the one they used to get in touch. Email is the most popular method of contact and just over a third favour phone at the total level.

20 Source Q15, As a result of your interaction with Customer careline, how likely are you to recommend Fruityto your friends and family on a scale of 0-10, where 0 is not at all likely and 10 is extremely likely.Base: All respondents (500), letter (100), email (200), phone (200).

Note: NPS= T2B (10,9) – B7B (0,1,2,3,4,5,6)

NPS Score

-6

7

-7

-32

T2B

sco

res

Likelihood to recommend

100Distribution of NPS Scores

-2

14

20

1

CarelineCurrent Wave

Careline Previous wave

Phone contacts who are the most satisfied, are more likely to recommend Fruity

Is significantly higher than

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“The service they provide for people like me is poor. I am disabled and there is no access for me to get to the store. I have been asking them to improve it for about 5 years but they have never been helpful and

they never listen to me. ”

“They are over priced and do not have the stock that you want”

“Basically, I was trying to get some help and none had any answers except that they didn’t do it and

they didn’t know why”

“Every week, there is a mistake with my bill. I

always check it when I get home and it is very

frustrating”

“The fresh products is not very fresh. You get it home and sometimes it’s not worthy of eating

and some of the staff have no manners”

“One of the main reasons is the stocking. Finding the item that

you want is actually void because it hasn't been replaced ”

“Every time I go to Fruity, the prices that are told to me at the tills are not accurate. I have been

overcharged by £9 at one time. I took the customer care person to the shelf at one time where the price printed was different and they

said it was not their problem. The tills are definitely not accurate”

Source: Q15a. You rated Fruitylow (less than 6), indicating that you are less likely to recommend Fruityto friends & family, please explain why?Base: All those who are less likely to recommend Fruityn= 164

Why less likely to recommend Fruity

“I want friendly staff, but at Fruity, they are being replaced by

machines”

“It is too expensive and I am not happy with the way they are dealing with my

complaint which has not been resolved, so I

wouldn’t recommend them ”

22 Source – Q11: Which of these statements applies to you?Base: All respondents (500), letter (100), email (200), phone (200)

Current Shopping behaviour at JS

Significantly higher/lower than benchmark and/ or previous wave

Those who contacted by email and letter are now shopping more at Fruity versus previous wave…

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Will continue shopping at Fruity

Source – Q12: How likely are you to continue shopping at Fruityin the future?Base: All respondents (500), letter (100), email (200), phone (200)

…however most shoppers are likely to continue to shop at Fruity.

24 QS4b: Which of the statements below describes the nature of your complaint? Base = Those who contacted to make a complaint, n= 345Q16b: And how would you like to be addressed by the Customer Careline agent? Base= all respondents n=500

Nature of complaint

Nature of calls from store customers were far more serious than the online customers. Almost a quarter contacted the Customer Careline team regarding serious matters. No particular preference for how they should be addressed.

How would you like to be addressed by Customer Service agent?

25Q17 a: Which of the following factors would you consider the most important while contacting FruityCustomer Careline? Base store: All respondents (500),

Most important factors

For store customers, answering the query/complaint followed by providing the right solution were of high importance.

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Key learnings and recommendations

Phone channel performs well for Customer Careline and Online Customer Service.

For Customer Careline, performance of all channels has witnessed an improvement in general versus the previous wave (high peak Christmas wave) but there are few measures for which the performance has dropped versus the benchmark wave. Low performance is witnessed on some of the key drivers of satisfaction. This will have the highest impact on overall satisfaction and hence needs to be addressed on priority. Satisfaction has declined compared to previous wave on some measures.

There seems to be a pattern here, common measures for improvement across channels are meeting commitments, keeping updated on progress and providing an optimal solution. These should be prioritised.

- Reinstate the importance of not making a commitment if not absolutely certain to colleagues.

-For serious matters, consider contacting the customer and updating them on the status of the solution.

- It would be useful to engage in follow up communication to confirm whether the customer is satisfied with the solution.

- Conduct refresher training for colleagues as knowledge & expertise performance is on the decline

For Online Customer Service, maintain the current level of service.