Managing Customer Facing Personnel survey by Edensilk.com.au

Welcome to our survey of current practices in Managing Customer Facing Personnel.

The customer interface is critical to business success.

Have you ever wondered how well you and your own team are doing?

Well now you can find out ... and at the same time contribute to ongoing valuable research.

You are one of hundreds of participants in this ongoing research project, and you will receive ongoing benefits from the moment you begin.

Many participants to date have commented that the ''therapeutic value'' alone was substantial, not to mention having ongoing access to an evolving data set, graphically presented, and manipulable ... so you can interrogate it and find answers to those questions that otherwise seem pointless to ask, such as:

- how does my performance compare to other managers in similar situations to my own?

- what are other managers doing that I''m not doing?

- what am I doing that''s relatively rare?

- are most businesses actually satisfying their customers, or just talking about it?

- what methods do others use and agree are the most effective in regard to marketing, selling, service, recruitment, selection, staff development, retention, etc?

- are most of the people in my situation satisfied in their work, and to what degree?

The following series of questions will doubtless change you and your practices, because as all of us in business and sales already know, ''asking the right questions'' is the most important step toward progress.

We hope you enjoy the experience, and continue to take advantage of the aggregated results.

If you have any questions for us at all, during or after the survey, please call us on +61 8 9271 7661.

Regards

the team at Edensilk

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Introduction

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Who is this research for?

This research is relevant to anyone who manages 'customer facing personnel' including but not limited to business owners, ceo's, general managers, marketers, merchandisers, retailers, customer service managers, managers of inbound and/or outbound sales, distribution channel managers, call centre supervisors, etc. In fact, anyone who is in charge of personnel who interact with customers and/or potential customers is requested to respond to this survey from their own perspective.

Who is behind this research?

The designers of this research, Edensilk Pty Ltd, have been assisting sales managers and business owners for over a decade. The thinking behind the survey design will be evident as you complete it. Indeed, one of the benefits of participation is that the process of questioning will be an education in itself.

Who gets a copy of the results?

You do, immediately.

All respondents will receive access to the resulting real-time online reports. So as soon as you finish this survey you will be given a url key to see the aggregate of what you and hundreds of other respondents are saying.

The results are graphical and manipulable.

Is it confidential?

The reported results are aggregated, so no one will be able to associate you with your individual responses.

We still ask you to identify yourself so that we may conduct future targeted research which could be of benefit to you and your organisation.

Accuracy

It is our policy to share all our research findings with every person who participates in the research, so you have every reason to want to participate, and to take care to respond in a considered and accurate manner. Anyone who is reckless with their responses will dilute the value of the research for themselves and others. We will monitor and edit out any obviously malicious participants, but that's really something we'd rather avoid. This research is conducted in the spirit of genuine information sharing, so please respect it as such.

Ownership of results

We, the surveyors, retain ownership of the research findings, so they are not for general distribution outside your own organisation. However, if you know others who could make a valuable contribution to this research and who would benefit from the resulting research report, please feel free to invite them to participate by completing a survey. Simply go to our refer-a-friend page to add their contact details, and we'll take care of the rest. Participation is a small investment in better results for everyone. We all understand marketing ... so let's make it viral.

Context

Please answer all the questions from the perspective of you as 'the manager'. We appreciate you may have multiple hats to wear, and sometimes get personally involved in operations. But for the purposes of this research, we want you to focus only on that part of your job that is the management aspect, that is: planning, organising, leading and controlling a team of people who are customer facing, enabling them to achieve outcomes for which you are accountable.

Terminology

We will use the terms selling, sales, marketing, merchandising, and service interchangeably in this research to include all the jobs and personnel for whom you are responsible. They may not think of or refer to themselves as sales people, but we will refer to everyone as the 'sales team'.

Similarly, we will refer to you as the 'sales manager', and your organisation as the 'company' or 'business' or 'employer'.

The words 'customer' and 'client' are used interchangeably, as are the words 'product' and 'service'.

When we ask you about customers or products, please answer with respect to the customers, products, etc that you and your own team are responsible for; not those of the company overall.

Navigation

You can go back and forward between pages, and return to a partially completed survey without losing prior input.

A red asterisk before a question indicates that it is mandatory, and you will not be able to proceed to the next page until you have answered it. We have tried to be sparing with these, as we don't want you to make guesses, but we do encourage you to be thorough.

How long will it take?

We'd like to express our gratitude in advance for your contribution to this research.

It will take you 10-30 minutes depending on your particular circumstances, because it is thorough, which makes for really useful and flexible information that you will be able to access and use immediately on completion.

Please make a start now, and it will be done!