Inside ASI-AP

As has been mentioned by Bob in his quarterly CEO teleconference and posted by me back in April, we are using a new customer survey for 2007 that is far more aligned with our Balanced Scorecard strategy map.

The survey is intended to determine if ASI is delivering on the promise of the value proposition we make to customers. The questions are as follows:

About ASI ...
1. ASI is a stable company worthy of our organisation’s long-term investment
2. ASI understands our organization and adds value to our mission
3. ASI provides my organization with modern technology
4. ASI provides satisfactory customer support options

About iMIS Products/Services ...
5. I am satisfied with iMIS
6. iMIS is an upgradeable product
7. iMIS supports most of my organisation’s business operations
8. I am satisfied with the services provided by ASI
9. iMIS products and related services are delivered on-time and on-budget
10. iMIS products and related services are affordable and a good value over time

The answers are given in the 1-5 range (Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Agree, Strongly Agree, Completely Agree).

We are calling 1/4 of the iMIS customers every quarter, so that by the end of the year, we will have called everyone. Last year, we only did a single survey campaign, and this made it hard to get to everyone, plus it gave us no measure on any improvements as the year went on.

In April and May, we called 67 customers and a total of 43 customers responded. The customers we missed will be added to the call list again for next quarter.

Overall, the results are good, but not good enough. A total of 77% of customers answered 'agree' or better to the questions. While this appears to be down from last year, it is a completely different survey this year, and far more thorough, so it is impossible to compare.

The average answers to ALL questions was between 'agree' and 'strongly agree'. That by itself is a great result.

Of the questions that we ranked higher in - 'iMIS is an upgradeable product', 'ASI provides my organisation with modern technology' and 'ASI is a stable company worthy of our organisations long term investment' were all bordering on strongly agree. So the message of keeping iMIS upgraded is getting out and being understood.

Of the questions we ranked lower in - 'I am satisfied with the services provided by ASI/solution provider' and 'ASI provides satisfactory customer support options' - were closer to agree rather than strongly agree. So we have some work to do in giving great support.

I think it is also important to highlight the links between these questions and our customer for life promise. We promise customers to keep them upgraded with both technology and business processes, and we promise to give them great support. And by doing those two things, they will be a customer for life, and never have to purchase a system like iMIS again.

Our first round of customers surveyed are telling us directly the upgrade message is 'strongly agree', but the great support message is just above 'agree'.