Measuring is the key to improvement

Customers who have worked with Technopolis for some time are accustomed to the fact that they are regularly surveyed about how satisfied they are with the Technopolis customer service. Technopolis has gathered comparison data since 2011, and the response rate has always been high. More than half of the decision-makers and contact persons at the customer companies take part in the survey once a year.

Technopolis CEO Keith Silverang wants to provide his customers with an excellent service experience every time. He has ensured that this approach is applied throughout the organization, and the results have been outstanding.

One element in the improved services has been the 'insourcing' of the lobby services to Technopolis' own staff. The lobby services have been one of the strongest selling points in all Technopolis campuses for years, but the same service attitude is implemented in all our services and the results have improved year by year.

"The right service attitude and quality are the things that we are proud of and that our competitors cannot copy. We do everything to make our customers feel at home at Technopolis," says Silverang.

Technopolis uses a wide range of methods and techniques to measure the customer experience in relation to the various services. In our everyday work we have found out that there is no single solution that would suit all services. Our online survey is the framework, and we also collect feedback about changes in our customers' development and requirements that we can use in our strategy through interviews. From the perspective of actual service situations it is best to be able to receive feedback at the time.

Over the past few years, Technopolis has worked closely with BrandWorxx Oy and it has invested in developing the measuring techniques. Practical contact persons take part in short mini-surveys four times a year, decision-makers in an interview exploring the company's development once a year and in a mini-survey also once a year to determine the customer relationship. The survey is now more focused and targeted; and customers are only asked about issues that really matter to them. Responding is even easier and faster.

The measuring methods are digital and most of the questions can be answered online or using a mobile device, which makes it very convenient. In 2014 Technopolis ranked among the top five percent of Finnish exchange-listed companies in terms of the efficiency of measurement. Technopolis gained merit especially on its ability to react on the results of measurement.

Picture 1: Techopolis' average customer satisfaction score, on a scale of 1 to 5, has been rising for years. From 2014 to 2015, the leap was considerable for all other services except lobby services, which have always received a very high score.

"Customer satisfaction surveys are useless if they do not translate into action," says Perttu Pöyhönen, who works as a consultant at BrandWorxx (Picture 2). "If this is the case, people should not take part in the survey or the survey should not be carried out at all. Technopolis surveys are very responsible – no obvious questions are asked. Their surveys are a relevant channel for feedback, and the answers also lead to action and they are used for improving operations."

Technopolis staff often gets in touch with customers in person as a result of their feedback. If there is any kind of problem at customer service level, it can be addressed promptly.

NPS, Net Promoter Score, is a tool used by many companies all over the world, and it can be used for comparisons across countries. The survey is easy and quick to carry out, and participants only answer one question: on a scale of 0 to 10, how likely is it that you would recommend us to a colleague or friend?

Respondents are divided into three categories: those with a score between 0 and 6 are detractors, 7 to 8 are passives and 9 to 10 are promoters. The result is calculated by subtracting the relative proportion of detractors from the relative proportion of promoters, so that the result can be anything between -100 and +100.

"For Finnish respondents, a typical score is between 6 and 8," says Pöyhönen. 9 and 10 are really high scores. The NPS varies significantly in different industries, but typically +/- 20 is good and anything over +20 is excellent. The average score of all Technopolis campuses was +30 in 2015. However, this is not enough for Technopolis. The results are constantly analyzed and new features are developed – to ensure we have happy customer

Picture 3: All Technopolis campuses have done extremely well in the NPS surveys.