How US Cold Storage uses the employee satisfaction of its Truck Drivers to compete and differentiate.

By: HappyOrNot
Translation : FeedbackSmiley

United States Cold Storage (USCS) operates 42 warehouses across the country. These are multi-million-cubic-foot temperature-controlled storage hubs that see as many as 5,000 food shipments per day. The importance of maintaining proper food temperatures cannot be understated. The vital U.S. food supply chain would break without it.

With so much activity, the company must work in harmony with independent transportation services to ensure the integrity of the chain. These drivers are in demand, and when multiple companies have competing needs to transport goods, good relationships count. USCS engaged HappyOrNot to ensure that drivers are treated efficiently and respectfully – a key part of the company’s strategic plan.

Demonstrated commitment to the driver experience

The company launched a trial of placing Smiley Terminals in seven locations in late 2018, with a further rollout to a total of 13 locations in the fourth quarter of 2019. “We wanted to focus on the quality and efficiency of their loading and unloading experience and how they were greeted on site, from the security gates to the loading docks,” says Keith Mowery, Vice President of Logistics.

USCS immediately began to see value. “We started getting positive reports on how our employees interacted with drivers, which allowed us to identify employees whose performance may not have been apparent before. We could quickly see when an employee was letting a driver in and out quickly, even when that driver was late for an appointment,” Keith says. “That’s exactly in line with our key objectives.

 

What is your workday like?

By Paul Overmars | Achmea

Measuring employee satisfaction with “Happy or not” column

A terminal with four smileys (two red and two green) to measure satisfaction. I know this so-called “Happy Or Not” column from Schiphol Airport. There, customer satisfaction is measured at the gate. For two months we also put this column in our department at Centraal Beheer. We asked our colleagues, “How is your working day?”. With this we measure employee satisfaction. An ideal tool that generated many positive responses! Both on the working day and about the column itself.

Many positive reactions to this interesting concept

From day one it was printed a lot. After two weeks it had already been printed more than 700 times. On LinkedIn it was also found interesting by many. This also generated many comments , including this one:

“Awesome concept. Also works amazingly uplifting when other people happily print on it :)”

Sharing results and recognizing trends

Other uses of the column

“Happy or not” column in our department.

We had two ideas to use the column in other ways as well:

Deploy it with a different question
Asking for specific feedback at events.

In the end, we didn’t ask a different question. The purpose of the pilot was to ask our own employees’ satisfaction. Using this question and continuing to do so consistently seemed to be the best application for this. Once we did deploy the column at an event. Around our demo we asked what visitors thought of it. The great advantage here was that we could ask for feedback very specifically about that time period and for that activity. The disadvantage of this was that these answers “polluted” the other results because all the input ends up in one bin.

How does the column work technically?

The column does not need to be plugged in because it runs on long-lasting batteries. There is also no need to connect to wifi. This is because the column communicates with a SIM card. As a result, the results are immediately online and become available real-time (every 15 minutes) in the dashboard. The response interval can be set per second.

Conclusions after two months of measuring

Now that the “Happy Or Not” column has disappeared from the department, it is noticeable that it is missed. Apparently, it was routine for some colleagues to press it regularly. Now that the two-month pilot is complete, we can draw these conclusions:

  • During the pilot, there was an average of 65 presses per day.
    A total of over 2,600 times were printed.
    The daily record is 142.
    The weekly record is 385.
    Tuesday saw the most printing.
    Friday saw the least printing.
    The day with the most positive response is Friday (96% average!). Followed by Wednesday (93%).
    We are least positive on Thursdays and Tuesdays (85% average).
    Of all votes during the pilot, 67% were very positive (dark green).
    Of all votes during the pilot, 87% were positive (dark green + light green).
  • Graph with results: 87% positive!

Where can I order a “Happy Or Not” device?

Would you also like to measure employee or customer satisfaction? Then visit Feedbacksmiley.ae for more information.

Improving the customer experience improves bottom line results

 

By Sofia Sapojnikova | HappyOrNot

Translate: Bee-Line  | Feedbacksmiley.ae

2 min reading time

Customers are at the heart of every business. Therefore, to be and remain successful as a business, efforts will need to be focused on the customer experience, and in the broadest sense of the word. A company’s success is directly dependent on its ability to win the hearts of its customers and – quite simply – outperform its competitors.

A company creates loyal customers when it fully meets their needs and provides the ultimate customer experience. As is widely known, it takes a tremendous amount of effort, company resources and marketing initiatives to turn a visitor into a customer. And yet, only half the job is done when the customer comes on board. The real effort begins with keeping the customer’s interests first. This is precisely why it is so important for companies to develop policies that ensure effective and continuous interaction with customers.

A relationship with a customer is only long-lasting and most meaningful when it benefits both parties.

Relationships with customers are only long-lasting and meaningful when both parties benefit from them. A company that has effective interactions with customers can also create customer appreciation. Effective interactions also help companies discover the source of customer dissatisfaction. With this knowledge in hand, targeted changes can then be made in order to best match the customer’s desire & expectation.

A company’s attitude towards customer experience can be seen as one of the main characteristics of an organization. If only sales is the objective, success will most likely be limited. After all, if customers receive poor service or have negative experiences, chances are they will not return. The impact of this will negatively affect company performance. Instead, success in terms of higher and greater sales depends largely on the quality of offerings and customer relationship management. Every aspect of customer interaction must be optimized to ensure so-called repeat business.

However, it is not always the case that the customer stays happy. Ok, sometimes the reasons leading to a loss of a customer are beyond the company’s control scope. However, what is important to remember is that a company must be aware of the possibility of being able to address those situations that may affect the (un-)satisfaction of the customer. This includes, for example: customer service quality, product availability, delivery times, return policy, etc.

In order to improve customer satisfaction and his/her experience, a real awareness within the entire organization is necessary; an awareness that optimizing the customer experience should be carried by the total organization. A company that embraces the importance of keeping customers happy throughout the customer journey and takes steps to ensure that the company as a whole is committed to delivering high quality and best meeting customer expectations is one that will prove successful. Just as a company is focused on repeat business, a customer expects a repeat of the excellent experience they experienced the first time.

The main conclusion: improving the customer experience through HappyOrNot creates happier customers and with this, the bottom line automatically improves. Happy customers are more engaged with – and loyal to – your company. They are also more likely to recommend you to their friends and family. This increases the likelihood that the customer will continue with you, rather than the competitor; even when the competitor’s pricing is lower.

If you are a company looking to maximize profits, optimizing customer satisfaction will need to be at the top of your list of priorities.