Survey Case Studies

IBM Rochester determined that if customer satisfaction level increased one percentage point, an additional $257 million in additional revenue would be generated over five years. The ratio of revenue growth between very satisfied and satisfied customers was 3:1.

American Society For Quality

InfoQuest performed a statistical analysis of Customer Satisfaction data encompassing the findings of over 20,000 customer surveys conducted in 40 countries.

The conclusions of the study were:

A Totally Satisfied Customer contributes 2.6 times as much revenue to a company as a Somewhat Satisfied Customer.
A Totally Satisfied Customer contributes 14 times as much revenue as a Somewhat Dissatisfied Customer.
A Totally Dissatisfied Customer decreases revenue at a rate equal to 1.8 times what a Totally Satisfied Customer contributes to a business.

“Totally Satisfied” customers have a repurchase rate that is 3 to 10 times higher than that of “Somewhat Satisfied” customers. This is documented by research at Xerox and in other industry studies.

“The relationship between satisfaction and actual share-of-wallet in a business-to-business environment is not only a positive relationship but the relationship is non-linear, with the greatest positive impact occurring at the upper extreme of satisfaction levels.”
Research by

Fredereich F. Reichheld and W. Earl Sasser, Harvard University

By examining contract renewal rates (Johnson Controls) found a one point increase in the overall satisfaction score was worth $13 million increase in service contract renewals annually.

Timothy L Keiningham, Tiffany Perkins-Munn, Heather Evans, Journal of Service Research : JSR. Thousand Oaks

A mere five percent reduction in customer defections increases company profits by 25 percent to 85 percent.
Why Satisfied Customers Defect

Thomas O. Jones & W.Sasser Jr., Harvard Business Review

The Forum Corporation of America analyzed the causes of customer migration in 14 major manufacturing and service companies and found that 15 percent migrated because of quality issues, and another 15 percent changed supplier because of price issues. The remainder, 70 percent, moved on because they did not like the human side of doing business with the prior provider of the product or service

Tom Peters, The Pursuit of Wow

Its Totally Satisfied customers were six times more likely to repurchase Xerox products over the next 18 months than its satisfied customers
All or Nothing: Customers must be ‘Totally Satisfied’

Steve Lewis, Marketing News, Chicago

Low Hanging Fruit & Pizzas in Shanghai – pages 28 – 29 DMI – a 24-hour sales operation?

Beyond Customer Satisfaction – Business Synergetics International white paper – Beyond_Customer_Satisfaction

Abram Pulman Steel – a 30% increase in sales revenues

A six-step guide to getting the most from a customer base, published in the B2B Marketing Magazine

A two-prong approach to B2B customer satisfaction surveys in Quirk’s Marketing Research Review

Quality World magazine – getting a more valid response rate

Quality World magazine – TS16949, customer feedback and continuous improvement

Professor Fred Reichheld and the Net Promoter Score

International Lift Equipment

Atlas Copco Construction Tools of Canada

The Transport Research Laboratory

British Vita Weir Minerals

And finally, this is how not to word a survey.