Customer satisfaction survey results are often a key component of a multi-unit organization’s corporate bonus structure. Such programs ensure that customer satisfaction remains top of mind for managers at all levels within a company. While the decision to link survey results and employee rewards must ultimately be made by each individual organization, it is certainly worth investigating. If your company decides that such a bonus program is right for you, it is important to give serious consideration to the approach you will take and to be mindful of the possible risks and complications.
What Works
Quarterly bonus payments work well for many organizations. They offer a nice compromise in that they occur often enough to maintain interest but are spaced far enough apart to give managers an opportunity to impact their scores. Compensation plans with a tiered pay out are often very effective. With a tiered pay out, most participants can achieve the lowest level of compensation, while the very highest level of compensation is reserved for only the best performers. These payments work well when they are based on two criteria:
1. Progress towards a corporate goal- Managers at or above their goal should be motivated to stay at that level. It’s easy for customer satisfaction to slip without continuous effort.
2. Demonstrated improvement over last quarter- This is also a good time to identify strong performers and set them up as mentors for those who missed the mark.
Inherent Risks
While data integrity is always of great importance in any research effort, the connection of compensation to customer satisfaction survey results on this sort of program heightens the potential for fraudulent activity. However, there are ways to establish customer feedback systems that reduce the risk of this occurring.
Take, for instance, the data integrity associated with using Interactive Voice Response (IVR) as a means of collecting customer feedback. This is a commonly used method for collecting feedback among organizations with multiple locations. Customers call a toll-free number and use their telephone keypad to input answers to questions about their experience with a product or service. Unfair survey practices using IVR data collection are noticeable in some fairly common ways:
As we look for signs of better things to come, will we see a super hero streaking across the sky? Making a connection between business recovery and a fictional crime fighter might seem improbable, unlikely or even silly.
In fact, we often find ourselves “looking up” for guidance…especially to the most highly respected companies that seem to outperform all others, year-after-year. Yes, we want to know who’s on top but we REALLY want to know why. We want to know what companies that are succeeding in today’s new economy have done in the recent past to maintain their top position. We also want to know what they are planning to do in the near future.
Questar took a look at what their clients did over the last several years. We found that those clients that fit into the category of top companies (market leaders, or runner up position in their industry), had not abandoned their leadership and talent development efforts in favor of short-term pressures. While spending in 2009 was down 20% across the board, at no point did the discussion of organizational development ever fall off the table. What we saw was that top companies remained steadfast in their focus of developing talent, in part to retain them but mostly because it was simply a part of their organizational DNA. (more…)
