Learning 'Who' Trumps 'What'

Here is something that has puzzled me for 25 years.

Organizations keep telling themselves, “We need a long survey so we can learn what to improve.”

No, you don’t!

You need a short survey your customers will take to learn who needs to improve. Learning who trumps learning what.

Why? More than 70% of the difference between a good and a great customer service experience comes down to how your employees make customers feel. This is why you see a variation in customer service scores across your frontline teams even though they offer the same products/services with the same pricing, policies, and systems – because of the variation in employee behavior.

A short survey with a high response rate will accurately identify both who needs to get better and what needs to get better, but don’t forget that who trumps what on your journey to improving the customer experience. 

Additional Resources:

A completely different approach to customer service: So you want to improve customer service? Start here with this whitepaper. 


Engage your team to win the heart of every customer with Leading Customer Loyalty. Register for a complimentary webcast today and learn how companies get their frontline teams to act in a way that builds customer loyalty and drives faster growth.

About the Author

Sandy Rogers

Sandy Rogers leads FranklinCovey’s Loyalty Practice. He was previously Senior Vice President at Enterprise Rent-A-Car. During his 14 years there, Sandy managed the turnaround of the London, England operation and led the teams that developed Enterprise’s marketing strategy and system for improving customer service across all branches. Before Enterprise, Sandy worked in marketing at Apple Computer and at P&G. He is graduate of Duke and Harvard Business School.

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