Three surveys about the same organisation.
The employee survey, the customer survey and the brand survey measure different things about the same business. With one provider, they can be placed side by side: on the same unit, in the same time series, interpreted by the same consultants.
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The questions no single survey can answer.
What separates the three surveys is who they ask: your own people, the customers who already chose you, and the market – including everyone who chose someone else.
“We are losing deals. Is it because we are not considered, or because we do not deliver?”
The brand survey reaches those who are not your customers, and shows whether you are in the consideration set at all. The customer survey shows what those who chose you experience. The employee survey shows whether the people who have to deliver have what they need.
“Our promise in the marketing – does it hold all the way?”
A promise can break in three places: in what the market associates you with, in what customers meet once they have bought, and in what employees know they are expected to do. If only the last is measured, you know everyone is aware of the promise, but not whether anyone outside the building recognises it.
“One country is underperforming. Is it the market, the customers or the organisation?”
The answer lies in reading the same country across all three. Low awareness in the market is a different problem from satisfied customers who are too few, and both are something other than an organisation that is short-staffed. The difference only shows when the three numbers stand side by side.
The three can only be placed side by side if they are built for it from the start.
Comparison requires the same yardstick.
The scale, the measurement period and the way the organisation is divided must mean the same thing in every survey. Otherwise the numbers cannot be placed side by side, however much you want them to.
Each survey procured on its own
- Scales and index definitions set independently of each other
- Measurement periods that do not coincide
- The organisation divided in different ways by different providers
- Benchmarks calculated on different bases
- Changing provider breaks the time series
Gathered in one assignment
- Coordinated response scales, and index definitions that hold over time within each survey series
- One survey calendar for the year, and a complete picture of how much you are asking
- The same unit and segment structure in all three
- The method can follow the question: online survey, panel or telephone interview, without a new procurement
- An unbroken time series to compare against
All three in the same view, broken down the same way.
Over time there are several measurement periods per survey, and then the shared view becomes something other than a collection of numbers: it shows what moves together.
The same three metrics, the same markets
The image is a view from the portal, with demo data. The group on the top row, a single market below – the same three metrics in the columns, with comparisons against the previous measurement and against benchmark.
eNPS and NPS share a frame because they share a scale, −100 to +100. They measure different things, though: compare patterns, movement and segments, not the levels against each other. Awareness is measured as a share of those asked and gets its own objects – unaided awareness with a trend line, and a funnel from aided awareness to loyalty.
The views are built around you. Which metrics, which breakdown and which comparisons are shown is set up to match how you follow the business.
One view, one audience
The employee survey is usually owned by HR, the customer survey by sales or marketing, the brand survey by communications. They are presented at different meetings, to different audiences, often at different intervals.
In a shared view they get the same audience. When the eNPS for a unit stands next to the NPS of that unit’s customers, measured over the same period, the employee number becomes a question for the whole management team. And an improvement initiative up for prioritisation has evidence from two directions instead of one.
Four surveys, one group.
In the same year, a Nordic group measured its employees in three countries, its dealers, its consumer brand against a panel, and a hard-to-reach group of industrial buyers through telephone interviews.
The priority matrix in the customer survey singled out complaint handling in certain customer segments, and the service from one particular function, as most strongly linked to NPS. The next question is not settled by customer data: do those groups have what they need to do what they are about to be asked to do? The answer was in the employee survey – staffing, mandate, system support, and how clearly the task had been described to them.
Then comes the question of how to present it. Arriving at a customer service team with a new demand, without being able to say what needs to improve for them, rarely works. Our advisory covers what should be raised, in what order, and whether what is raised actually affects the customer experience.
The brand survey speaks inwards too.
The brand survey is bought to steer communication outwards. The same data answers a question that is asked far more rarely: what should you say to your own people?
Employee surveys often show that goals and direction are seen as unclear. The answer is then formulated internally, by the people who are already convinced. But the evidence sits outside the building. Brand Drivers show which associations make customers choose you – whether it is the environmental benefit, the expertise or something you did not think mattered. The promoters in the customer survey say in their own words what you solve for them.
Internal communication about purpose and vision usually rests on assertions. The evidence that would make it credible sits in another survey.
What becomes simpler in practice.
The same team
The consultants who interpret the customer data have read the employee data, and the other way round, so you do not have to brief a new team on your business for every survey. In our advisory we weigh together insights from all the surveys, and the connections between them come up every time we meet.
One calendar
The surveys are placed in an order that makes them readable against each other. If customers are measured in March and employees in November, the periods cannot be compared in the same way. Your circumstances may also differ across the year. With a plan, timing becomes a decision instead of an accident.
One agreement
One data processing agreement instead of three, one list of sub-processors, one security review to repeat. All data stays within the EU, and changing method inside the assignment requires no new review.
See what your combined picture could look like.
Book a 15-minute demo and we will show you the management view with sample data, and go through what it takes for your surveys to be readable together.