Merchants

As a global leader in the provision of contact centre, customer management and business process outsourcing solutions,Merchants places a priority on establishing and maintaining long-term, value-adding relationships with its clients.

Central to this approach is anabsolute commitment to delivering truly exceptional client service through consistent and reliable delivery, a passion for developing innovative, customised solutions, and continuous client engagement via open and honest channels of communication.

According to Merchants Director of Strategy and Innovation, Martin Dove, delivering on thesepromises requires constant feedback and input from clients and a highly proactive approach – which is why the company chose to partner with N’lighten to provide regular insight into the satisfaction levels and service requirements of its clients.

According to Martin, the results of this commitment by Merchants to formally evaluating its clients’ experiences have extended far beyond merely knowing whether those clients are happy with Merchants or not. In addition to delivering actionable analysis and intelligence from N’lighten around the expectations of its clients, the mere fact that Merchants has shown those clients that it is committed to hearing them and acting on their feedback has helped to significantly deepen the existing relationships.

While Merchants has only conducted two formal client satisfaction surveys thus far, Martin says that the positive impact these have had on the business is already evident. "We have seen a marked increase in the satisfaction level of our clients from the first survey to the second," he explains, "simply as a result of listening to what they require and acting on their feedback to improve our service delivery – and we’re confident that the results of our third survey, later this year, will reveal further big improvements in client satisfaction." "We have always known that it is very important to listen to our clients," Martin concludes, "but through our partnership with N’lighten it’s really been brought home to us just how much value can be unlocked by making sure they have every possible opportunity to provide us with their feedback."

Martin’s customer experience insights

1. Make sure it’s actionable. Getting feedback from your clients is vital. However, unless that feedback is in a format that can be translated into definitive actions and responses that improve the client experience, you are never going to unlock any real return on the research investment you make.
2. Be consistent. For best results when measuring customer satisfaction, you need to ensure consistency of metrics. It’s impossible to track your progress or improvement if you’re asking different questions in every survey or, for that matter, asking the same questions of different clients.
3. Get full buy in. Until you have absolute commitment, across the entire organization, to improving client experiences, your effectiveness in doing so will be limited. Everyone in the business, from the CEO to those involved directly in client relationships, needs to understand why client service excellence is important and how you are working to constantly improve it.