CustomerGauge input formats

To paraphrase Mr Jay-Z: “I have encountered nearly 100 difficulties, but loading my data into CustomerGauge cannot be counted among them”. We can help you get your data in shape to measure Net Promoter.

We offer multiple ways you can format the data – starting from a simple spreadsheet to a complex XML feed.

We can take in the data in a variety of ways – from emailing it to us (fine for a small project), loading directly into CustomerGauge, or a full integration using our API.

Details are here, now conveniently in our support section.

API v1.1.7 – now with Workflow

We just updated our API documentation to include methods of extending our firefighting workflow system. This makes our workflow tool very powerful – it allows you to pull out the status of workflow (open/closed/in-progress, plus all the notes and date information), and also to remotely update the workflow.

So if you are using an external issue tracking system like Remedy or RightNow; or CRM system like Salesforce you can do a very neat tie-up with CustomerGauge.

An example might be a transaction-triggered survey in CustomerGauge, then using Remedy to solve the customer issue. All the analytics and reporting are in CustomerGauge, problem is solved in Remedy. Alternatively CustomerGauge can serve as the Net Promoter measurement tool for your helpdesk.

This API can bring Net Promoter measurement into all of your forward facing customer systems – API 1.7.1 details here.

To have another language is to possess a second soul
- Charlemagne

For some fun last week in CustomerGauge HQ, we counted up the number of languages that we can speak. The result: 13. Maybe more – I think I forgot to count Norwegian. That certainly helps us roll-out complex multi-language solutions for our clients.

And from this week,  we can now assist our clients with a low-cost, instantaneous translation system for Voice-of-the-Customer comments from Net Promoter® Score survey.

Our new CustomerGauge Automatic Translation System uses the Google Translate™ Translation Service API to translate over 60 languages. Translated comments are stored in CustomerGauge, and can be searched and reported on. No need for cut-and-paste, no buttons to press. If you have used Google Translate before, you’ll be familiar with the idea.

Technically it’s a “Gisting” service – you can get the “gist” of a comment – but it’s not a perfect translation. We always recommend that comments be routed to local language speakers to deal with; however, the service has already proved useful for client needs. Some interesting points have already be “found in translation”.

The cost of this service is EUR 0.10 per translated comment. (equiv: US $0.13, A$ 0.13, GBP 0.09). It is available from 2 December 2011 on CustomerGauge b2c sites.

Details and examples in our presentation.

Our Client Operations team are ready to set up translations on CustomerGauge sites now. Or if you are considering a Net Promoter project, let us advise you on acquiring the gift of translation for your Net Promoter project.

Some example translations.

Download the presentation here.

CustomerGauge is now available with a full range of API (Application Programming Interface) methods to connect to enterprise systems, so now it’s simple to connect to ERP, CRM, BI and e-commerce systems and measure Net Promoter® Score. It is the first fully automated Net Promoter Score platform with an enterprise level API.

Using the API, CustomerGauge clients have already been able to integrate service-request systems, IVRs and other enterprise systems to contact customers and measure NPS in real-time, feeding results directly back into corporate systems.

One client uses the API to send customer details to CustomerGauge as soon as an agent hangs up the phone, and within two minutes the same customer receives an email survey to gather a score and a comment. The results of this activity have pushed response above 50%.

Another client is using the API to push customer issues directly into Salesforce.com in order to “Close the loop” with the wider organisation.

And another client is using multiple platforms to survey, including graphically based iPad systems, all based on communicating results to CustomerGauge with our secure API.

Using an iPad for a CustomerGauge survey

These CustomerGauge platform integrations are simple and quick to implement, and mean that NPS can be easily rolled out across organisations by connecting with diverse IT platforms.

Developers can start directly with our documentation. To understand more about how CustomerGauge can be integrated with other systems, contact us.

Security is one of the least exciting features to talk about in an application, but it is the essential foundation of a SaaS system like CustomerGauge. Safely storing the customer details and Net Promoter Scores of our corporate clients keep us awake at night. We quietly spent some of the summer months on a rolling program of security enhancements, mostly invisible to our users, all oriented to improving data protection.

Today we roll out some platform enhancements which include two security features:

• Multiple Failed Login Attempt Prevention. There may be useful acronym for this tongue-twister; suffice it to say that this helps block a nasty penetration attempt called a “brute force attack” – if someone tries to repeatedly login without success they will be blocked from the system.
• IP Whitelist: This came as a request from clients who wish to restrict CustomerGauge access to selected IP addresses, and so enhance security on the system.

Details are in a short presentation, questions can be directed to Client Operations team.

Introduction to CustomerGauge API

Free webinar: Learn how CustomerGauge can integrate the Net Promoter® Score into your company’s systems

11 October 2011

Tuesday 11 October 2011 – 17:00 Amsterdam / 16:00 London / 10:00 New York (EST) – Register Now

In this short webinar, you will learn how CustomerGauge can be integrated with enterprise systems: CRM, e-commerce, websites, ticketing systems, and social social media using our simple to use Application Programming Interface (API).

We will show you how to get data IN to CustomerGauge using examples from e-commerce and CRM systems to trigger Net Promoter Score surveys, and then show how to get scores, comments and other information automatically OUT.

Using examples of Salesforce.com, Twitter etc we can show you how to build an automated solution using the CustomerGauge platform – we even build a sample application that you can install on your systems afterwards.

The webinar will have enough detail for developers but also technically-minded marketers should find the concepts easy to follow.

Limited places – confirm your place now

(view our 4 minute video on CustomerGauge to Salesforce.com® integration)

As Salesforce.com users ourselves, we have long wanted to find a way to get Net Promoter® scores and comments from our own CustomerGauge surveys into the Salesforce.com system. Two years ago it seemed a little daunting with their APEX language but with the recent addition of REST to Salesforce we now have an excellent and reliable way of doing this, using their web services interface (SOAP / REST API ).

Functionality:

• Attach a Net Promoter Score and comment from a completed CustomerGauge survey to the right record in Salesforce.com (it adds an Activity – you can see this in the video)
• Create a “Case” containing the relevant customer comment and other information in Salesforce.com so that existing CRM workflow in your system can be used (you can also see this in the video)
• Export from Salesforce.com – Using our survey “Fire-Fighting” functionality we are able to trigger Salesforce.com to export selected records to CustomerGauge automatically (more on that in a future post)

We have added some custom fields in Salesforce to show NPS.

Image from Activity record in Salesforce.com

You can see how it works on the attached video, and we also have a presentation CustomerGauge to Salesforce.com API (139).

We would be delighted to show you how it works, and help you to try it yourself by using development accounts on Salesforce.com and CustomerGauge.

Why wait for a score?

We’d like to think this shows our commitment to showing instantaneous results from our measurement systems so our clients can make adjustments in real time. Not only can clients drill into up-to-the minute comments and scores on the CustomerGauge dashboard, but can get the results displayed, tweeted or pushed into CRM systems via our APIs. We believe there is not a comparable system on the market that show feedback in this way, or offer such flexible integration options.

We are working hard to bring the product on sale in the second half of the year – it will be available to all CustomerGauge clients as a simple plug-in, and later as a display option for other measurement providers.  More details on the AnalogGauge on request.

McQueen: "You know where to reach me"

“I’m gonna keep eating smoke, and bringing out bodies… ” quips Steve McQueen, playing the courageous fire chief O’Hallorhan at the very end of The Towering Inferno, closing one of the defining firefighter portrayals in movie history. The “Firefighter as a hero” with all the attendant risks and valour is a popular image both in film and real life, so is it possible that something so humdrum as “Fire Prevention” could be somehow more heroic?

Yes, it can – in the world of customer surveys, and in the number of lives saved.

Fireman Tony: Prevention is the key

Tony McGuirk is a hero thanks to metrics. As the Chief Fire Officer of Liverpool, he cut the number of fire-related deaths in Merseyside while holding down costs. Over 10 years the number of fires fell by half, with a similar fall in fire deaths. And this happened because of a radical rethink of the role of firefighters, who until then had focused on reducing the time getting to fires.

Instead Mr McGuirk concentrated on preventing fires in homes, especially in poor families where causes like smoking or chip fryers, and lack of fire alarms caused a disproportionate number of fatal fires. His specially recruited team evangelised fire prevention – dispensing advice, checking 350,000 homes and fitting 700,000 smoke alarms. However, it was initially unpopular. The press headlines only reported a reduction in the number of fire officers. But later, McGuirk defeated a strike with just 200 officers running a full service. “It’s not my job to be popular, it’s to deliver,” he said at the time. The results proved his case: fewer lives were lost, and less money spent, with his fire service being voted the UKs most efficient.  -  [The Economist 7 Oct 2010].

Fire at Work

To stretch the Firefighting metaphor to the world of customer care, it now seems to be a common occurence that unsatisfied customers, frustrated with poor call centre experiences are able to find the name of the Managing Director and write directly to him/her with a raging complaint. Think of this as a “Four-Alarm Fire” situation. Then the typical response: a testosterone-fuelled charge by a senior manager wanting to play fireman, breaking all processes like an axe through a burning door to try and satisfy the customer (and the boss). And that, by the way, sets the behaviour for the other employees. They start to hint to customers that an issue can be fixed by writing to the top…

Is there a better way? We think so -

Fire-Fighting the Net Promoter way

• Put the alarm system in place

  • The first step in reducing these “business fires” is to proactively reach the customers, and give them a chance to tell you if something is starting to go wrong. Many of our clients use CustomerGauge connected to their e-commerce or transaction systems. Philips, for example, has setup CustomerGauge to send an email after every sale on their online store inviting customers to rate the experience (using the Net Promoter Score®), and a comment on a short survey. There is a also a checkbox which a customer can select to request a response from Philips. You can try it here, on page 2 of this example survey.
  • 

• Planned Fire-fighting

  • The second step is to tune the response to customers. The object is to catch an issue before the customer gets frustrated. We call this “Fire-Fighting”, and in our most successful clients (judged by Net Promoter Score) customers who asked for a response get a call-back or an email within 24 hours (or one business day). That speed of response already goes a long way to diffuse a poor experience. In CustomerGauge, a “Fire-Fighting” alert email is sent to the right person in the organisation (typically call centre, but it can be setup for various situations and roles). This email has enough information to help an agent or manager to respond immediately.
  • 
  • Closing the loop: Clicking on a link in the escalation email directly reaches that issue detail in CustomerGauge, and that issue can be set to “closed”, “in-progress” or kept “open”, with some added notes from the agent. It’s easy to see if your team is keeping promises to customers in CustomerGauge – a management screen shows which issues are still open/in-progress/closed to help see how quickly your company is responding.
  • 
  • Not all customers are equal: In an ideal world, you would call back every customer instantly, but that’s rarely possible. Instead, CustomerGauge helps with Triage. You can set flags in the system to respond to VIP customers more quickly. And for e-commerce clients, CustomerGauge automatically segments top customers by showing number of purchases, or total cumulative spend, so you can prioritise response.
  • Extra workload? Not really. Proactively asking for response just time-shifts the issue forward. Either the customer will respond with a complaint (which they might anyway) or they silently defect (costing lost sales). In any case, calling out to a customer in response to the alert allows the call centre manager to schedule calls outside peak incoming call periods.

• Fire-Prevention by Metrics

  • Now you have a better tuned Firefighting System but you are still putting out the same flames, albeit more efficiently. Here’s where CustomerGauge can really help you – by showing the metrics. Analysing the data can help you understand how many times a particular blaze was tackled. And the diagnostics on our survey system, together with our Waterfall analysis can help you prioritise what actions to take to prevent further fires. As an example, one of our clients had a big issue over non-deliveries of low cost items – the process meant that a customer signature was need on every item. Turned it it was cheaper to put lower cost items in letter post (no signature needed) and immediately resending with no questions asked if the odd item went astray. Experience was much better for customers – they no longer had to wait at home all day. Just that process change alone saved thousands, and added a few NPS points.
  • Track improvements: CustomerGauge allows you to see what response your process changes make. Its continuous automatic emailing routine means that even small changes can have a visible Net Promoter impact within weeks, showing on your dashboard.

We think that it’s time for Fire Prevention to be seen as a heroic act. Key to success is a metrics based approach, like Fire Chief McGuirk, or using CustomerGauge like our clients do in their every day task of fighting customer fires.

Even The Towering Inferno’s Steve McQueen seems happier to work as Fire Preventer than Fire Fighter. As the towers architect, Paul Newman’s last line to McQueen is  “OK, I’m asking…[how to design a safe skyscaper]” and McQueen responds “You know where to reach me…”

Getting data into CustomerGauge is simple – we cover major data formats including CSV, TXT, Excel/Google Spreadsheet XLS format or XML. Transport mechanisms inlcude email, FTP, API or in-application upload. This means that we can take data from almost every CRM system, including Salesforce.com, SAP CRM, SugarCRM, Siebel and Microsoft Dynamics. Alternatively, we can take transactional data straight from popular e-commerce systems including DigitalRiver, Magento, automating the upload so it happens in the background every day.

If that doesn’t fit, our development team have almost certainly got a plug-in that can be customised to fit your application.

When you are ready to measure Net Promoter Score we are ready to assist.

Download this graphic as a JPG or PDF.

Also, see more on the file details in this post: CustomerGauge In: B2C Data Import Formats

Format details

Bring The Noise! Our growing, multi-national client lists throws out new challenges each day for our technology team, which is constantly coming up with new, bigger, better, faster solutions to deal with enormous quantities of data coming in and sending email invitations out. Last year our bigger clients were getting up to the tens of thousands of emails a day, and while our infrastructure was not exactly creaking, it seemed a good time to go to the next level. And then came a request from a new client that wanted to get into the “Million Emails a Month” club.

So to tackle this challenge, our newest programming asset Anthony was tasked with creating a  sub-system to send vast quantities of email, something that scaled beyond our existing system and could take us into new high volume areas. Anthony, who has a background in cutting edge 3D-graphics (something called “augmented reality”) wasted no time on coming up with a name for the project: The CustomerGauge Mail Monster - specified as a system so monstrous it could get through any volume of email we could throw at it. It was enough to strike fear into the other members of the team…

How the Mail System in CustomerGauge works.

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For any geeks still with us, our email system is quite complicated. Getting a consistent Net Promoter® Score survey result needs rigour in contacting customers.  Most CustomerGauge clients survey transactions continuously, so we ensure that end-customers receive a survey invitation after every customer service contact or e-commerce transaction. Our system automatically sends emails every day. There are various rules applicable for each client – for example, 1) De-duplicate similar order numbers (in case feed was sent twice), 2) Send email invitation exactly 7 days after transaction, but not if we have contacted customer in the last 45 days (never good to over-contact them). 3) Then send a reminder email after another 7 days if customer has not answered.

Creating the HTML invitation email itself is no simpler – we have 20+ languages for some clients (with western and asian characters), and conditional-merge items (like product images, signatures and order information) to increase completion rates. Delivering emails successfully means avoiding spam filters, so we also remove bad addresses, and carefully “throttle” email sending to same domains.

This has resulted in great success for us and our clients. Survey completion for CustomerGauge clients is among the highest in the industry – we regularly top 25% for B2C and approach 50% average for B2B.

What’s that coming over the hill?

Back in the lab Anthony’s Monster had started to take shape. Building on our existing highly advanced Amazon EC2 structure, he generated special server instances that could scale up as needed. He demonstrated it to an eager technology team. With an impressive combination of programming techniques Anthony had built a system that in his words “…is always looking for food [in the form of data to turn into email], and when it finds some, grows a super-monster to manage the problem, which then clones smaller, zombie-like monsters that work on the queues, turning raw data into finished emails. When there is no more email to process, the mini-monsters simply die, and the super-monster goes back to sleep, ready to awake again…”.

“So a bit like Godzilla in Destroy All Monsters?” suggested Camilla, who surprised us more with her knowledge of daikaijū movies than of the sophisticated system we had just seen. Roy asked: Why? “Well, at the end of the film, Godzilla turns out to be one of the good guys, and kills the evil Fire Dragon, and lives to protect Earth once again”. “Yes” Said Anthony. “Exactly like our new Mail Monster”.

Fight The Power

The Mail Monster has already chomped it’s way through thousands of test emails before being unleashed on the real thing – and has been successfully running for several weeks. It’s now officially out of beta and will be a part of new CustomerGauge installations from this week.

If your organisation has many customers to survey, we humbly invite you to compare your existing emailing animal with the awesome experience of our email-eating Mail Monster. Grrrrrrr.