Customer satisfaction survey 2019: a short interview

At Rhein S.Q.M. GmbH, awareness of customer satisfaction plays an essential role, especially in connection with professionalism, service quality and the achievement of customer goals. Please read this short interview with managing director Wolfgang Rhein about the company’s customer satisfaction management.

Mr. Rhein, congratulations, the 2019 customer satisfaction figures for Rhein S.Q.M. GmbH exceeded the already high values of the past! How did you achieve that?
Many thanks first of all, but it always involves at least two parties: If customers or their suppliers do not “participate” in the projects and topics – which are sometimes quite ambitious – then we cannot perform. We are glad that customers still value our “hands-on approach”, the shift away from the abstract to tangible approaches and solutions, where we’ve weighed up the various risks and opportunities.

Why are the satisfaction values higher at some agencies than at others?
Our approach is: Clients should not receive standard answers just so that we can say we “did our job” and fulfilled the contract. And we don’t “hide” behind standardized forms. These can be found on the Internet without our involvement. Our customers contact us because they want or need to achieve certain goals. Business partners tell me that other consultants write them long lists of what needs to be done. So it doesn’t surprise me that this often results in catastrophic audits in which it is then discovered that much has been misunderstood. We find that such a procedure is not really helpful or effective in the operative business, perhaps serving at most as an “alibi”. In order to achieve the goals, we make it our responsibility to give our customers concrete answers. The experience of the last few years shows that our business partners appreciate this clear identification of options (not always immediately, sometimes only in the medium term) and then rate it as “very good” in terms of customer satisfaction. Every evening on my way to the hotel or to another customer, I ask myself the question: “Will my current customer recommend me to others? And – no matter what the answer is – why?”

So does that mean you can rest on your laurels in 2020?!
You’re making it far too easy for me: All right. NO, so that this must-have question is at least addressed … Anyone who spends even 10 minutes a day finding out the most important news from all over the world can guess that a painful and long-lasting recession is imminent – and then it’s no longer selling, but buying. Put simply: customers and end-users remain the most important interest groups.