Voice of the Customer
Why do your customers do business with you?
Beacon's experts will create a targeted study according to the questions that you want answered. The sections below include examples of questions asked by our clients and the insights we provided to help them make sound business decisions.
What's the main reason customers buy from you?
| CLIENT NEED | A side-to-side comparison of the client with its competitors. |
| BACKGROUND | A prominent electronic design automation (EDA) software firm wanted to examine how its customers perceived its products and service levels, compared side-by-side to several rival companies. To ensure that the information was accurate and unbiased, the firm asked Beacon to carry out the research. |
| BEACON'S RESEARCH | Beacon created a "perception audit" for the firm, which showed how customers of the Beacon client sized up its products, functionality, service, support and pricing compared to customers of competing EDA firms. The study was conducted first in North America and then expanded to include responses from Europe, the Middle East and Asia. As part of our research work, we used the translation services of our trusted strategic partner ABLE Innovations. |
| HOW WE HELPED | Our client used the research findings to map the company's strengths and weaknesses across product lines and regions directly against competitors. This was then incorporated into a larger effort to bolster weaker product lines and leverage competitive strengths in new sales and marketing initiatives. |
What’s the main reason you lose customers?
| CLIENT NEED | To identify which customers the client was at risk of losing – and why. |
| BACKGROUND | A leading publishing firm was concerned about customer complaints concerning its instructional materials and wanted to know if these were isolated incidents or were indicators of broader, more systematic problems and concerns. |
| BEACON'S RESEARCH | Beacon conducted a phone-to-web survey that involved a combination of email solicitations and follow-up phone interviews with non-responders. Because of the sensitive nature of the questions, the Beacon client was never identified to the participants. Research techniques that we used also included leverage analysis and in-depth interviews. |
| HOW WE HELPED | The study showed conclusively that delivery problems were systemic, linked directly to customer dissatisfaction, and were highly correlated with eroding market share to competitors which were better organized to exploit the opening created by the poor customer service. The client was then able to address its customer service issues. |
What are the most important products, services or features that you need to focus on fixing?
| CLIENT NEED | To measure customer satisfaction with the client's products and services, and to highlight areas that needed to be improved. |
| BACKGROUND | A leading supplier of semiconductor MCU-based solutions was interested in measuring customer loyalty across multiple dimensions – how its customers perceived hardware and software quality, technical support, and information sharing. |
| BEACON'S RESEARCH | The global survey conducted by Beacon Technology Partners included both current engineering customers and those who had evaluated the customer's semiconductor MCU-based solutions, in order to help determine areas of excellence as well as areas needing improvement. The tool we used was leverage analysis. |
| HOW WE HELPED | Beacon's study uncovered problems with the manufacturer's hardware and software development tool chain as being a major cause of dissatisfaction. These problems had existed for some time but had been masked by the appearance of customer delight with the cost-effectiveness of the solution itself. |
| CLIENT NEED | To find out why some of the client's customers were unhappy. |
| BACKGROUND | An IT hardware manufacturer had conducted a survey of its customers, but was unable to detect the underlying reasons for customer unhappiness and defections. Beacon was requested to re-analyze the data from the survey to uncover the causes of attrition. |
| BEACON'S RESEARCH | Data from the customer survey was matched with internal data supplied from the client's own internal records about each customer. Beacon utilized data mining techniques to build a predictive scoring model that could then be applied to the client's entire customer base. |
| HOW WE HELPED | Beacon's analysis not only uncovered the causes of customer unhappiness, but through its predictive model, it also pinpointed which customers were "at risk" due to issues related to technical support, poor sales follow-through, and waning perceptions of value. These customers were then singled out for specific attention by the client's senior management team. |
How much is a satisfied customer worth to you?
| CLIENT NEED | To provide concrete evidence of the financial benefit of improving customer loyalty and satisfaction. |
| BACKGROUND | The North American marketing team of an Asia-based components supplier had been concerned for some time about its ability to satisfy demanding North American design teams, but had been unable to get the attention of its Asian colleagues about the seriousness of the issue. The team needed independently gathered evidence to present to the supplier. |
| BEACON'S RESEARCH | Beacon surveyed customers who had personally designed products using the client's semiconductor components. The survey compared the collective experience of these customers with their interactions with competing IC firms across a variety of performance dimensions: service and support, supply chain management, product functionality and capabilities, information delivery, and perceived value. Tools that we used for the study included leverage analysis and data mining. |
| HOW WE HELPED | Beacon created a predictive model that translated changes of market share at various customers with revenue gain/loss potential. The survey results revealed that each increase or decrease in supplier preference translated into over 100K gain or loss of revenue per customer. |