In order to make space for our new video testimonials, the text testimonials have been removed from our website. IIC are very proud of these, and it would be a shame to have them hidden, so they are on our blog for viewing.
Below you can see some great feedback from a few of IIC’s satisfied customers:
“I would strongly recommend IIC as a guide to customer loyalty and can confirm that it has informed our thinking as a Group over the last three years.” – Phil Barton, CEO, Jelf Group
“The outputs from the process have helped us to build and increasingly tight client-focused business which not only aligns us closer to our clients but also helps bring recognition through industry awards.” – Lee Roberston, CEO, Investment Quorum
“Having completed our own customer surveys for a number of years we found that the information we obtained was becoming a lot less informative and detailed. We decided to enlist the services of IIC and found the process to be not only extremely well executed and timely but astonishingly informative. I am extremely pleased with the results.” – Nigel Bullas, Managing Partner, Clough & Company
“IIC have gone over and above my expectations. Not only did they provide us with comprehensive details of the results but also armed us with a level of detail that we can now utilise to drive our marketing plan forward.” – Clair Awty, Marking and Business Development Manager, Clough & Company
“For quite a few years we had carried out our own clients surveys but these were brief and randomly selected. The IIC survey was much more comprehensive and of course independent. This award confirms our commitment to our clients and our core beliefs in clear and regular contact with them.” – John Doney, Principal, Capital Tower
“Far more than a star at the end of the day but an insight into what customers are thinking and therefore an excellent way of understanding what needs to be done to improve customer service.” – Martin Tilley, Business Development Manager, Dentons Pensions
“At the start of the process we didn’t realise just how much information we as a business would get out of the IIC process. We now have a good understanding of how our customers view us. As a result, we are implementing some changes in order to enhance the experience customers recieve from working with Symmetry.” – Simon Kearsley, CEO, Symmetry
The latest versions of our newsletter, Intrinsic, are now available to view. This month you can download issue 3 which includes a feature on how Jelf Group uses their IIC results to improve their business, including some pointers for other IIC assessed business’ as well as some really positive feedback on our inaugeral conference.
There is also the ‘special issue’ covering some great snippets taken from our upcoming video testimonials where our clients exaplin how they found the IIC process.
Investment Quorum, the boutique financial and investment advisory wealth manager, has been awarded for its high levels of customer loyalty by Investor in Customers (IIC).
For the special award IIC took the loyalty scores of customers and employees combined from their database of over 250 surveys and Investment Quorum came out on top with an average score of 9.05 out of a possible ten.
Investment Quorum have completed three IIC assessments, each time achieving the highest possible score of three stars showing they offer exceptional levels of customer service.
Neil Craig, Managing Director of IIC, commented: “Investment Quorum go above and beyond when it comes to customer service, and the IIC Loyalty Award highlights their remarkable scores. They are a business who will go the extra mile for their clients. We know from the results of their IIC assessments that their customers are satisfied and that their formula works. It’s this attention to customer care that keep their customers coming back time after time.”
Lee Robertson, CEO of Investment Quorum, commented: “As a company which always puts its clients first we feel proud but also humbled that our clients have scored us so highly. This is a credit to the attitudes of everyone here and their commitment to service and operational excellence.”
Lee Robertson, CEO of Investment Quorum, receiving his IIC Loyalty Award from IIC Chairman, John Moret.
World Challenge has achieved the highest possible rating from Investor in Customer (IIC) for their customer service levels. The impressive score of 8.32 out of ten gives the company the three star IIC award.
School Leaders scored World Challenge particularly highly for their knowledgable and friendly staff and their excellent range of overseas expeditions. Comments included “they are an excellent company” and “I feel there is a real bond between schools and World Challenge – just keep doing what you do already!”
Staff feedback was also very positive with one person saying: “World Challenge is an awesome place to work. We are lucky to have an amazing product which has amazing benefits to the development of young people, offering them a once in a lifetime opportunity which can have a hugely positive impact”.
Our first conference held last Thursday (12th May 2011) was a great success. We would like to thank everyone who attended and all six speakers who kindly offered to take to the stage. We are pleased to have recieved some fantastic feedback which shows us that actionable information was taken from the day. We even have a couple of clients who are arranging to meet and discuss their IIC assessment results further.
Below are some photographs from the day. Feel free to leave comments and let us know how you found the conference.
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Thatchers Cider is the first drinks company to come through a national assessment of service standards led by Investor in Customers, gaining a two star, “outstanding” rating.
Undertaking the assessment for the first time, 1,000 customers, staff and management of the Somerset cider maker were asked to complete anonymous questionnaires which considered the company’s customer relationship performance.
“This is an excellent result for us,” says managing director Martin Thatcher. “For the first time of being assessed, a two star rating confirms that we put our customers first, and have many sound relationship practices at the heart of our business. Our task now is to aim for the elusive three star rating.”
Neil Craig, managing director of Investor in Customers says, “It’s clear from the strong loyalty scores that emanate from our research that there are very high levels of affection for Thatchers from many longstanding customers and employees. The high quality of the company’s products stands out by scoring highly.”
The Investor in Customers model evaluates how customers are regarded within a business, and whether this is the main driver for processes, innovation and profitability. Once the research has been completed, IIC provides detailed feedback, learning points and highlights actions where improvements could be made.
Martin Thatcher concludes, “The Investor in Customers assessment has confirmed that our company values, as “people who care about cider” – are recognised and embraced by all our employees who are extremely loyal to the Thatchers brand. Importantly, it has highlighted that our customers also recognise these values and are happy to recommend us for product quality.”
Thatchers Cider has been crafting premium Somerset cider since 1904. Run by Martin Thatcher, fourth-generation of the Thatcher family, the company is one of the country’s leading craft cider makers owning over 360 acres of orchard in Somerset. This year, Thatchers is investing over £5 million in its marketing and production facilities in support of its drive for growth across its brands. This includes the continuation of its TV campaign for its flagship brand Thatchers Gold.
Martin Thatcher, Managing Director of Thatchers Cider, with Telesales Co-ordinator Wendy Reed
With thanks to Penny Adair
The second issue of our newletter, Intrinsic, is now available to download.
If you have any comments or input for future issues please leave us a comment, all ideas will be considered. Happy reading!
The accountancy firm, Clough & Company, gained some interest from local press over their recent IIC award achievement. Below you can see a couple of press cuttings supplied by their external PR company:
It took one of our clients several months to work out the profitability of their different customer segments. Theirs is a complex business with data in various systems, so little wonder it took a while to tease out the numbers. Even for simpler business models, the analysis can be a painstaking experience because of the variety of ingredients that go into the pot.
One of the difficult areas to put a value on is the referral revenues derived from existing customers advocating the business to others via word of mouth. We know from our own experience that the characteristics of a referred prospect are different from other types of marketing leads in that:
- They are more likely to buy
- They are more likely to stay
- They are more likely to refer
So for us, building relationships through personalised quality service is fundamental to our business strategy. We find that if you delight your customers they will generally refer you to others, either on a reactive basis or, if you’re lucky, proactively. Not all clients behave in the same way of course, but it’s true to say that we tend to know who will create opportunities for us – and we will always go the extra mile for them.
So we were very intrigued by the reaction of this particular client when we fed back their results at segment level. Their segments are based around product lines and our feedback presented the customer scores (out of ten) for each of the segments:
The slide was met with a slightly furrowed brow. By way of explanation, it appears that the chart mirrored the profitability profile – but the wrong way round ie. Category 1 is the least profitable yet most satisfied and Category 5 is the most profitable but the least satisfied with the service.
One interpretation is that the business is delivering service excellence to the ‘wrong’ customers. In discussion it was easy to see why this was. Category 1 includes their corporate clients, their big accounts and well-known names, while Category 5 are personal consumers.
Not only are larger corporates generally more demanding, staff also tend to react because of their understandable perception that the client is ‘valuable’ because of who they are. This is clearly reflected in the above average customer scores for Category 1.
Arguably there is absolutely nothing wrong with providing high standards of service for these clients and in fact the challenge is to improve the customer experience for more profitable segments and bring them up to that level, and beyond.
The risk in not focusing on the service being delivered to Categories 3, 4 and 5 is that the business will alienate those profitable customers and potentially lose not just their business but also damage the referral income stream derived from those customers as well.
It will be interesting to see what happens next year when we run their 2012 IIC assessment for them. Hopefully we will find the kind of pattern that we encountered with a different client last year:
Here the client has developed different service propositions based on customer value and the impact of that is reflected in the different customer views of the service experience.
For the client, this suggests the strategy is working – their profitable ‘Gold’ customers are receiving a premium level service and are recording ‘Gold’ level scores.
Congratulations to Clough & Company for being the first accountancy firm to complete an IIC assessment, achieving the 2* award.
Below is the press release created by their PR agency:
Yorkshire accountancy firm named as best in UK
Yorkshire based Clough & Company is the first firm of accountants in the UK to complete an assessment by ‘Investor in Customers’ (IIC) and has been given a two star rating meaning it now has the eighth highest customer satisfaction rating in IIC’s entire database.
The results singled out Clough & Company’s 88 employees as being exceptional due to the team’s integrity, honest approach, willingness to help and ability to always deliver on promises.
Steven Gash, Practise Chairman at Clough & Company, explains: “We’re absolutely delighted at this result and to have the efforts of our team highlighted is testament to the personal service and individual approach that we take with every client.”
“At a time when many accountants are merging and experiencing high staff turnover we have always remained committed to staying independent and maintaining our chartered status and it’s this ethos that has resulted in such strong relationships with all our clients, whether they’re sole traders or national organisations.”
Neil Craig, Managing Director at IIC, adds: “What stands out from the assessment is that Clough & Company has achieved high scores from their clients across all metrics in the IIC model, both from their accountancy clients and also from clients of their financial advice arm, Chartford Financial Management. Their clients genuinely think of them as a great business to deal with.”
