SUCCESS STORIES
Taking good response rates to the next level
Industry: Telecommunications
Use case: Partnership MirrorWave
This is an example of a partner relationship between a logistics company and a telecommunications business. To improve their partnership the logistics company implemented a partner-based program where both parties give feedback on the effectiveness of the partnership.
The program started well and in its first few ‘waves’ (rounds of feedback) achieved good response rates of around 60% in each wave. During this time, approximately 18 months, people on both sides of the partnership started to really understand the program and the process – and started to see that action was being taken as a result of their feedback.
The logistics company was fully committed to the program and as a result, have improved their response rates even further. In their sixth wave they have now seen response rates of 94% – an outstanding achievement!
How have they achieved such high response rates?
- They acted quickly and decisively on feedback, and communicated back to the person who had given feedback
- Feedback was reviewed by the ‘Action Assignee’ (responsible for managing an individual’s feedback), the program coordinator and higher-level management
- ‘Close the Loop’ detailed notes were reviewed, including not just the individual’s verbatim feedback but all conversation notes relating to personal follow up to discuss further, which provide a wealth of information on the heart of an issue and any future action required
- Not only did they respond to individual feedback, but they took action at a higher level – looking at company-wide processes and systems to support improvements
- In particular, they focused on 1-2 areas of feedback between each wave, where they could really make significant change, using a partnership approach to implement
This clearly demonstrated that the partnership was important and that they were committed to both listening to feedback and taking action. Now, roles on both sides of the partnership have been clarified and communication has improved significantly.
One participant commented “The relationship has moved to more of a partnership where both parties are listening to each other’s needs. Our partner has been very open to the changes lately and thus we have seen the positive rise in the metrics”.
The company’s commitment to the program has built trust on both sides of the partnership, which has seen response rates reach almost unprecedented levels – and the partnership is thriving as they are understanding each other’s needs and working better together.