CEO MONTHLY / GLOBAL CEO EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2020 29 , Market Research CEO of the Year (Ireland): Emma Harte Emma Harte is CEO of one of Ireland’s leading Consumer Research firms, Customer Perceptions Ltd. Based mid-point on the Dublin-Belfast economic corridor, the company has traded throughout the island for 25 years and, today, employs 20 fulltime people and over 8,000 part-time field researchers/mystery shoppers. To date, Customer Perceptions has processed over 1.5 million customer insights through the utilisation of state-of- the-art technology. Graduating with an MA in Marketing and Psychology from Dundee University, Emma went on to win a coveted place on the AIB Bank graduate programme in Dublin where she worked as part of the Strategic Marketing Team for three years. Moving to Customer Perceptions, she completed a part-time executive MBA while working across a number of line manager’s roles in the ambitious family owned business. Becoming the Customer Perceptions’ CEO about a decade ago, Emma had two core objectives. Firstly, continue to grow the highly respected, international best practice business and, secondly, develop world- class, highly cost effective, ‘customer feedback technology’ for international markets. When asked about Customer Perceptions, Emma says “we provide retail, service and other business managers with critically important, timely and cost-effective information about how their customers think and feel”. The Customer Perceptions client list makes for impressive reading and includes dozens of household brand and product names, high-street store and hotel chains, banks, airports, Jun20528 cinemas & theatres, businesses selling online and even Government bodies who are now keen to monitor the quality of their customer care and service. “For many of our clients, the information we provide feeds directly into their staff training and strategic planning, and correctly so as 68% of customers leave, never to return, because of staff behaviour and attitudes while some 97% of unhappy customers leave without complaint” Emma concludes. But the Customer Perceptions’ team weren’t content to just rank amongst the best in the traditional consumer research industry. So, in 2012, they undertook sizeable research into the reliability, quality and timeliness of the management information being generated for the typical clients in this field. This looked at the ‘Happy / Sad Face” machines one sees at store exits and a myriad of comment cards, online surveys and other shopper/customer feedback systems. The findings showed a stark lack of information reliability and consistency: feedback questionnaires were too long and, most importantly, many systems identified unhappy customers but not the cause of their dissatisfaction. It was obvious to Emma and her colleagues that a significant part of the business’s future lay in providing their clients with simple, quick, technology based and cost-effective management information systems. And so, TellUsFirst ™ was conceived. Two years of inhouse development and ‘real world’ testing followed, involving a multiplicity of sectors and sizes of organisations in several markets and the service was launched, marking an exciting start to the Company’s third decade in business. Top of theRetail and Servicemanager’s list of things to know is (a) the likelihood of profitable customers returning and recommending the business to others [Net Promoter Score or NPS] and (b) critically, if the feedback is negative, why? TellUsFirst ™ provides this information, in real-time, anywhere in the world, in any language, for organisations of any size and type, at minimal cost and with no capital outlay. The findings from the research clearly indicated that end-user customers can be ‘hugely forgiving’ of an experience if their complaint is addressed quickly and properly. However, if not, they will tell many others of their dissatisfaction. Whilst the impact of this was often seen to be minimal, with today’s ever- connected world, one dissatisfied customer could influence the behaviour of hundreds, if not thousands, of potential customers. In this light, the TellUsFirst ™ client store or organisation makes its customers aware of the service through inhouse or other communications such as a receipt notices, point of sale (POS) and staff highlighting, among other means. Crucially, the end-user shopper is often incentivised to participate with localised and frequent competitions and vouchers, albeit, experience to date shows that this isn’t always necessary. The shopper then enters their feedback through a URL and the data is available immediately to the TellUsFirst ™ client store management team. Essentially, the data allows a real- time understanding of the overall picture of customer satisfaction and net promoter scoring whilst also allowing the manager to intervene in specific cases, often converting a potential defector to remain a loyal customer. At a higher level, the aggregate data collected by the TellUsFirst ™ clients provide exceptionally valuable contribution to many aspects of strategic planning in a challenging time for many retail and service businesses. Further, clients also control all aspects of their own personal account with ongoing support and advice from the TellUsFirst ™ team. Here, Emma takes a moment to conclude: “we now want to get retail and service managers in across the globe to make use of the TellUsFirst ™ free trial and also to work with regional Partner Agents to capture the enormous potential of this new era in consumer research. Please get in touch, we would love to hear from you.” Website: www.CustomerPerceptions.ie / www.TellUsFirst.com Email:
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