By Bart Allen Berry

The term ‘World Class’ is thrown around everywhere in the business world today but most don’t know what it really means. 

World Class manufacturing, for example, infers that a company uses advanced quality control and inspection systems to manage irregularities and variations in finished goods. World Class might be a term that a CEO might attribute to himself as a progressive, forward thinking, best practices oriented manager.

In truth, the term World Class must not be ascribed to oneself, but is a label that the customer spontaneously assigns as a reaction to very high levels of customer satisfaction. ‘World Class’ according to the customer is a positive label worth striving for.

World Class sounds very nice, and is a term easily thrown about, but can we quantify it?  Absolutely.  In his benchmark research, customer satisfaction expert Bart Allen Berry has identified the ten domains of customer satisfaction that define and quantify the entire customer satisfaction experience.  When these factors are all measured and calculated together a 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest) scale is utilized to define overall satisfaction levels.  Customers in study after study define ‘World Class’ at approximately 9.25 on this scale. 

            The ten domains of customer satisfaction are factors we all resonate with, and they are taken from actual surveys and research from many industries, products and services.  Factors of Quality, Value, Timeliness, Ease of Access, Environment, Commitment, Teamwork, Self-Management, Efficiency and Innovation are found in any product or service delivery system. When these factors are applied to a particular company and the overall customer experience, the strengths as well as the weaknesses in satisfaction from the customer’s perspective are readily identified. 

Being a World Class supplier of products or services means that you are scoring very high in each of these ten categories and the processes and systems that affect the customer experience are tightly managed for excellence.  A World Class supplier as defined by the customer, can expect some big rewards for their efforts.

            Overall satisfaction scores as measured on the satisfaction behavior curve, show that positive return and recommend rates start at a 7.9 on the overall scale of 1 to 10.  As these overall satisfaction scores go up, so does R & R, preference and loyalty.  The benefits of being World Class in the eyes of the customer can yield R&R rates as high as 1500% ! That means that not only are customers loyal and returning to buy again, but they are telling a lot of people about their very satisfying experience.  A suppliers reputation can become so strong that their name is actually synonymous with quality.  Mercedes Benz, Rolex and Sony are brand names that achieved this distinction.

Make no mistake, it is hard work for suppliers to move beyond complacency and to become more proactive about pushing satisfaction levels higher and higher, but there is also no doubt that the rewards are there.

Berry’s research based book, “What Customers Want!”, details the steps organizations must take to baseline their current satisfaction practices, identify their strengths and weaknesses, benchmark their competitors and implement action plans to continuously improve for business success. “Most organizations”, according to Berry, “have many obvious and easy areas to improve that could push satisfaction levels higher right away.  The first step is to move from the threshold of customer indifference (4.2 to 7.8 on the customer satisfaction behavior curve) into the zone of satisfaction starting at 7.9. 

After companies deal with the low hanging fruit however, a detailed study of the interrelationships between departments, processes and delivery systems must be undertaken to squeeze out every percentage of benefit in delivering the most satisfying experience possible for customers.” Using Berry’s methodology, this is a very scientific, quantifiable and self-validating process.

The journey of transformation to a World Class enterprise, as defined by the customer, is a healthy and exciting one.  Enlightened management will educate everyone in the workforce as to how their job supports improvement of  customer satisfaction. With everyone understanding and applying these concepts any organization can make dramatic breakthroughs in customer satisfaction, preference, loyalty and ultimate business success.

Bart Allen Berry is a customer satisfaction expert, author, speaker and consultant.