In-house Research’s enhanced systems get completed customers surveys to clients within minutes

In-house Research, the UK’s leading telephone research company offering customer satisfaction measurement to the new homes industry, reports that their enhanced systems can now deliver completed customer surveys to clients within minutes.

Surveys that take forever to achieve (particularly postal surveys) and which only deliver brief statistics and tables are practically useless in terms of both improving customer satisfaction and achieving service recovery when there is a problem. 

The In-house telephone research system can deliver content-rich feedback within minutes of a call taking place. So if a customer isn’t happy about something and they have agreed for their details to be given to the client, not only does the survey show the score, but it also tells the client, in detail, why the customer is unhappy. 

And there's another bonus, the telephone system achieves c70% response rates whereas a typical postal survey will only deliver about c40%.

Says Malcolm Pitcher, Managing Director of In-house Research, ‘Despite the downturn in the market, we’ve spent a lot of time and effort in improving our systems and making sure they are the best. We want to ensure that we give our clients the best service we can. Key to our continued success is to get feedback to our clients in record time. Fast responses to our clients when it comes to reports and feedback can defuse a potentially tricky situation. Our clients can also see easily, their strengths and weaknesses. We ensure that our reports are easy to understand and interpret ensuring our clients can act quickly if anything needs to be sorted’.

In-house Research clients score high in HBF Customer Satisfaction Survey

In-house Research is proud to announce that three of its largest clients are amongst the top 5 builders listed in the Home Builders Federation (HBF) National New Home Customer Satisfaction Survey.

When it comes to Quality of the Home and Recommend to a Friend, Barratt Developments, CALA Homes and Galliford Try all ranked with 4 stars.

Says Malcolm Pitcher, managing director of In-house Research, "We’ve been watching these three companies over the last 5 years and have monitored massive improvements".

"People still often grumble about developers and the new homes industry but we have certainly seen vast improvements in overall customer satisfaction over the last few years. We believe that several of the developers are now proving themselves worthy of a status with some of the major retailers in the UK".

In-house Research has built its reputation over the years through specializing in continuous customer satisfaction measurement The company offers a confidential benchmark as well as a Net Promoter^TM scoring programme allowing clients to rate their customer satisfaction results against the average, best and worst performers.

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Note to Editors

In-house Research was formed in 1998 to specialise in continuous customer satisfaction measurement. The company prides itself in being specialists in all aspects of market research particularly homeowner and offering a confidential benchmarking service to all clients, allowing them to rate their customer satisfaction results against the average, best and worst performers. In-house Research also offers customer service, new home demonstration, sales and handover training. Face-to-face customer interviews, telephone research, mystery shopping, consultancy and evaluation of customer service procedures to all industry sectors are other areas of expertise.

Issued on behalf of In-house Research by In-house Associates Ltd. For further information, please contact: Cary Davey at In-house Associates – Tel: 01793 874969 – Mobile: 07748 770103 –Email: cary@inhouse.uk.net

Net Promoter Scores help endorse improvements in customer satisfaction amongst new house builders

In-house Research famous for measuring and benchmarking customer satisfaction within the new housing industry for over 11 years has now started measuring and benchmarking Net PromoterTM scores as well.

The company recently completed two years of testing and has now successfully launched Net PromoterTM with 15 of their leading clients including CALA, Miller Homes, Barratt Development, Redrow Homes, Berkeley Homes and Stewart Milne.

Says Malcolm Pitcher, managing director of In-house Research, ‘We are clearly number one when it comes to measuring customer satisfaction, by telephone in the new homes market and as a result we are continuously seeking ways to improve our offers to our clients. Net PromoterTM does exactly this. In the last two years we have witnessed a significant upturn in customer satisfaction scores. Many of our clients have Net PromoterTM scores of well over 50. This would be considered a very high score in any retail market and demonstrates that many of our clients can deliver customer service at the very highest levels’.

And how does Net PromoterTM work? Net PromoterTM is both a loyalty metric and a discipline for using customer feedback to fuel profitable growth in a business. The principle has been adopted by leading companies worldwide as the standard for measuring and improving customer loyalty.

On a scale of 0 to 10 customers are asked to score how likely they would be to recommend a company. Anyone scoring 9 or 10 is classified as a Promoter – a loyal customer who will keep buying from you and promote you to others. Those scoring 7 or 8 are classified as Passives – satisfied customers but easily swayed away with the right offer. And anyone scoring 0 to 6 is classified as a Detractor – an unhappy customer who can cause untold damage to a company’s reputation through negative comments.

So to calculate a company’s Net PromoterTM score simply take the percentage of customers who are Promoters and subtract the percentage who are Detractors.

Malcolm continues, ‘We have been preaching the need for loyalty and referral programmes to our clients for many years. With improved customer satisfaction scores and the upturn in the market, we believe that this is the ideal time for referral marketing to finally take its place in the marketing mix. Net PromoterTM will put a loyalty metric right up front’.

‘We also believe that we are the first company in the world measuring and benchmarking Net PromoterTM scores for house builders’, Malcolm adds.

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Note - Net Promoter, NPS and Net Promoter Score are trademarks of Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain & Company, and Fred Reichheld.

Note to Editors

In-house Research was formed in 1998 to specialise in continuous customer satisfaction measurement. The company prides itself in being specialists in all aspects of market research particularly homeowner and offering a confidential benchmarking service to all clients, allowing them to rate their customer satisfaction results against the average, best and worst performers. In-house Research also offers customer service, new home demonstration, sales and handover training. Face-to-face customer interviews, telephone research, mystery shopping, consultancy and evaluation of customer service procedures to all industry sectors are other areas of expertise.

Issued on behalf of In-house Research by In-house Associates Ltd. For further information, please contact: Cary Davey at In-house Associates – Tel: 01793 874969 – Mobile: 07748 770103 –Email: cary@inhouse.uk.net

Major UK fencing manufacturer endorses commitment to customers

One of the UK’s largest fencing manufacturers, Jacksons Fencing has undertaken a major piece of customer satisfaction research. The company wanted to make sure that it is offering the right products and services to its vast customer base.

Jacksons recruited the expertise of In-house Research to undertake this independent specialist piece of research on their behalf.

‘As one of the most influential fencing manufacturers, it’s imperative that we remain on step ahead of our competitors. We want to ensure that our Clients are getting the quality of products we promise and the highest level of service. We also wanted to make sure that our product range remains at the forefront of the industry’ said Richard Jackson, Chief Executive. ‘In-house Research talked to a wide variety of customers including specifiers, end users and contractors to get their feedback. The insights from the study have been extremely beneficial and endorse a great deal of what we are currently doing but it is also helping us in the development of new ideas, services and products.’

Says Malcolm Pitcher, Managing Director of In-house Research, ‘Key to our success is a fast response to our clients when it comes to reports and feedback. At a glance, clients can see their strengths and weaknesses. Reports are easy to understand and interpret ensuring that clients can act quickly if anything needs to be addressed’.

Founded in 1947 and based in the south east of England, Jacksons Fencing is a family run business and believes in offering a traditional service second to none. The company designs, manufactures and installs a vast range of fencing and access products from timber to metal, from domestic to commercial and from decorative to Government tested and approved high security solutions.

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Note to Editors

In-house Research was formed in 1998 to specialise in continuous customer satisfaction measurement. The company prides itself in being specialists in all aspects of market research particularly homeowner and offering a confidential benchmarking service to all clients, allowing them to rate their customer satisfaction results against the average, best and worst performers. In-house Research also offers customer service, new home demonstration, sales and handover training. Face-to-face customer interviews, telephone research, mystery shopping, consultancy and evaluation of customer service procedures to all industry sectors are other areas of expertise.

Issued on behalf of In-house Research by In-house Associates Ltd. For further information, please contact: Cary Davey at In-house Associates – Tel: 01793 874969 – Mobile: 07748 770103 –Email: cary@inhouse.uk.net