For nearly three decades, a mid-size home improvement company in North America has fended off competition from larger national chains by delivering premier customer service to “mom and pop” shops and older-age consumers within their community. Historically, the company enjoyed relatively high marks in customer satisfaction, particularly among their primary demographic of “Age 55 and over.” By early 2014, however, the company started to worry that their scores were becoming too stagnant. Fearing future loss in market share, the company engaged CFI Group to find out what matters most to their customers and discover how they could push customer satisfaction to new heights.

In the spring of 2014, CFI Group noted that many surveyed customers commented they were not greeted in the store, and/or sales people continued to chat with colleagues rather than help them. After re-slicing the data, CFI Group found that 38% of respondents were NOT greeted by an associate. More importantly, that seemed to have a big impact on customer satisfaction—generating a 12 point improvement in satisfaction for customers that were greeted (87) compared to those that were not (75). Based on these results, CFI Group advised the company to encourage all associates to greet every customer in the store.

In late 2014, the company launched a new corporate-wide initiative to reaffirm the importance of a simple customer greeting. After implementing the new greeting program, the percentage of customers who were not greeted by an associate fell 13% through the second quarter of 2015. During that same time period, many key customer satisfaction measures reached 9-quarter highs, including “Associate Availability” which posted its highest quarterly and year-over-year gain by jumping three points from an 84 to an 87.

• After implementing the new greeting program, the percentage of customers not greeted feel by 13%
• During that same time period, many key customer satisfaction measures reached 9-quarter highs

The company is thrilled that CFI Group helped them identify an easy, actionable, no-cost way to elevate customer satisfaction and enable them to continue to compete effectively in the home improvement market.