Case Study - Customer Satisfaction Surveys

SITUATION

Greif Inc., a world leader in industrial packaging and services, formulates a specific sales strategy for each individual client as part of their overall account planning process. To further strengthen this process, the company decided that a customer satisfaction survey designed to capture ‘The Voice of the Customer’ could accomplish this. Greif would, in turn, use this data to aggressively create opportunities for itself rather than waiting on opportunities to appear. The company chose PMG’s data-driven customer satisfaction survey methods to gain insight into the customer’s mindset to improve their current strategies to achieve a positive ROI. PMG’s approach to data analysis differentiated our process from other research companies’ customer satisfaction survey platforms.

PMG SOLUTION

PMG’s strategy for this customer analysis was to pair our Customer Insight approach with Greif’s customer sales approach. Customer Insight is a customdesigned survey project that will: 

• Determine expectations of product & service performance among current customers

• Measure performance, as perceived by current customers

• Identify those aspects of product & service that are important to customers, focusing on those aspects where the client is not performing to expectations

• Determine competitive position among customers

• Identify specific opportunities for product and service differentiation

Secondary market research gathered information on glass volume, the market for returnable glass bottles, trends in glass packaging, and glass packaging plant locations. With a compiled contact list, PMG completed in-depth telephone interviews with 25 individuals at the targeted companies in positions that included logistics, operations, packaging, production, engineering, and others.

RESULTS

The Performance Improvement Maps were introduced into the client’s account planning process, which enabled them to conduct strategic discussions around matters pertaining to each customer. Every discussion led to the set-up of a perfectly designed sales call, which was an excellent catalyst for a direct and productive conversation between supplier and customer—a conversation that was profitable for both parties. The customer satisfaction survey uncovered that a few key customers felt that Greif could partner with them to improve their internal operations, so Grief worked with these companies to increase throughput, energy savings, and reduce waste. As a result, Greif picked up about $3 million dollars more in volume in very attractive markets—at a cost to them of about $150,000 to $160,000. By increasing their value proposition across the board, Greif took business from a major competitor and improved their overall market share.