We have discussed about the importance of customer relationship management (CRM) and customer delight in this column several times in the past. And you all know the importance of retaining existing customers over acquiring new customers, whether it is of cost considerations or time delays.

One of the key elements of a company's success is never losing sight of the customer and, therefore, the customer satisfaction age­nda. In this rapidly changing and highly competitive market, customer-centric companies interact with customers constantly, because they understand how quickly the requirements of a customer segment or marketplace can change. A company that lacks real-time or effective communication of customer satisfaction information can lose critical intelligence and customer loyalty.

While communicating for the customer satisfaction information within the organisation, it is important to understand the needs of both the audience (employees) and the corporate culture. Below are five ways to effectively disseminate customer satisfaction data within the organisation. However, the success of these methods relies heavily on how well they are implemented and the level of employee participation throughout the organisation.

Make maximum use of technology: To provide real-time communication of customer satisfaction information and customer feedback, some companies have developed online applications inhouse that link all the customer touch points together. When a customer provides feedback or answers a customer satisfaction survey via e-mail, phone or LiveChat on a company internet site or by some other means, the customer data is systematically documented or tabulated and automatically routed to the right people. Other companies leverage existing CRM technologies to get the same results. The benefits of making this a priority are the company's ability to monitor the satisfaction level of each customer at all times, to take immediate corrective actions on customer issues, help retain key customers and develop long-term customer relationships, improve productivity; and increase competitive advantage. And, today, all types of technological advancements make it easy for companies to do almost everything a company wants.

Make use of the company’s intranet: Some customer-centric companies that lack rich IT resources have built a customer satisfaction website — with the title customer satisfaction dashboard or something similar-on the company intranet and linked it to one of their highly trafficked internal websites. The customer satisfaction page displays the latest customer satisfaction information in a concise format for employees' easy reference, and all other satisfaction data for cross-reference, including customers' top issues, the source of their greatest satisfaction and their opinions of competitors' products and services, the trends in customer satisfaction, industry customer satisfaction benchmark data, customer loyalty index and other data. The benefits are increased access to customer satisfaction information by all departments, remote access to the information for employees in remote locations and a complete picture of customers' wants and needs at all times.

Create an e-mail alias or online message board: Some customer-centric companies have created email aliases called “customer satisfaction”, “customer listening” or something similar for employees. Others have built online message boards that focus on resolving customer issues and ways to improve customer satisfaction. The benefits of this approach are improved information-sharing across the organisation, maximised leverage for solving tough customer satisfaction issues, data-collection costs savings and increased focus on customers.

Conduct road show presentations: Another effective way to disseminate customer satisfaction information is to stage road show presentations for each department or business unit. The benefits are the ability to provide customised information for each business unit, increased opportunities for face-to-face dialogues and help in reinforcing the customer-focus message.

Use the all-employee company meetings: To increase the visibility of the customer satisfaction data and reinforce the concept's importance, some firms use regular all-employee meetings to discuss critical customer satisfaction data with the entire organisation. The benefits are the ability to relay key customer satisfaction information to a large number of employees at once, to help ensure everyone is working toward the same goals and to provide an opportunity to help clear up any confusion.

When it comes to communicating, there is one thumb rule: Seven times, seven different ways. By using a mix of media (such as telephone, email, video and town hall meetings), message and audience, this can be easily achieved. The advise we give to companies is simple: Communicate, communicate and communicate. Many companies also make use of balanced scorecard mechanism to plan all types of communication within the company.

(The writer is CEO and MD of CustomerLab Solutions)