By Bob Kobek, President, CustomerCount® by Mobius Vendor Partners
This is a very self-serving article because it has to do with the way some technology companies charge for services, including ours – CustomerCount® online feedback management system.
To design and deploy a survey, using any platform, there is a requirement that the ‘engineer’ think. Think about the questions, the type of questions, the number of questions, the required reports, how many, what to do with unstructured questions, and if they really are thinking, an almost unlimited number of variables that combine both the art and of science feedback.
These variables can include the users, the number of users, the length and style of the survey invitation will determine the placement of the survey in the respondent’s email. Properly designed and configured, there are hundreds of variables to accommodate for, and bring them all together to display a user-friendly survey.
So, who does that. Someone on your team? Someone in IT? How about a CX professional?
In our case, we are consultants that specialize in business process. It is with that background that we bring true expertise in designing and deploying feedback systems. Controlling all variables is an improbable goal, but done correctly, through intelligent consulting the art part combining with the science part, the feedback is deployed correctly. 95% of the program is under the radar, like an iceberg, it is never viewed by anyone other than the configuration pro (consultant, engineer).
Or, if not, it should be like a big wedding, if something is wrong, you want to be the only one that notices.
Enter, Professional Services. NOT start up costs.
Professional services as in employing professional business consultants who bring in significant expertise in configuring a survey.
The reality is, it is our job to consult, it is your job to listen and collaborate. If you choose not to listen, do that at your own peril. Thus is the unspoken creed of professional consultants. This is the most critical component of all consulting agreements and the one that is the true spirit of the 3–150-page consulting agreements.
A well designed and deployed survey contains all reporting requirements, in all required languages, with all required sentiments, that looks good, is simple to the respondent, attractive to the eye and available functionality to analyze the data, both structured and unstructured.
It will also reduce head count. CX professionals should not be in the survey business; they should be in the business of acting upon the data received and reported.
