For us at Muodonmuutos, customer feedback is the best incentive in our work. We recently conducted a customer satisfaction survey so that we could have our hand on the pulse of what our customers truly think about us and what kind of design company they think we are.
A few months ago we conducted a customer satisfaction survey that brought to my mind the quip allegedly made by author Mika Waltari: “Good is a long way from perfect.”
According to the results, we are not doing things totally wrong to say the least, as many of the points brought a satisfied smile to my face. On the other hand, the responses also contained comments that made us look in the mirror and gave rise to a need to improve the way we operate.
A design company is expected to offer new idea, flexibility and good vibes
Let us begin with the happy findings of the customer survey that speak to both the expectations customers have for design companies as well as their thoughts on Muodonmuutos specifically.
Firstly, customers expect a design company to provide new ideas and fresh perspectives. Secondly, they expect us to be flexible and able to adapt to both changing project situations as well as conditions in the world. Based on the responses, our customers also appear to appreciate a down-to-earth vibe that stems from extensive experience – that you are not floating high in the clouds but instead work with purpose and a realistic attitude.
To my absolute delight these expectations seem to be met where Muodonmuutos is concerned.
“I am happy that the discussions we had with Muodonmuutos helped us challenge and change our own opinions, as it resulted in decisions that were right for the final product and we ended up with a good outcome“, stated one of our customers.
However, my heart was warmed the most by something that is hard to put to words, something that cannot be created artificially. It is something that one can sense when it is not there, though. I am talking about good vibes. That is something we have always striven for at Muodonmuutos, as we believe that doing things with a good rhythm and feel produces better results of higher quality. Fortunately this can also be seen from the outside.
“One good thing I noticed while visiting Muodonmuutos was the good vibes they had going on.”
Everything can be done better
So, the results of our customer satisfaction survey were quite flattering as a whopping 72 % of respondents gave Muodonmuutos a recommendation grade of 9 or 10, which means our net promoter score (NPS) is as high as 72. However, this in no way means that we intend to simply rest on our laurels, or that we even could do so. In addition to the roses we also received, well, if not actual thorns, then at least firm wishes to improve our operations in certain respects.
On my own work list, the most significant target of development is communication where we should shape up our act in at least three ways.
The first thing that needs improvement is dialogue, especially in the early stages of a project. Design work always entails a certain amount of tweaking, and the project’s goals are shaped and specified along the way, which is perfectly natural. However, unnecessary zigzagging should be avoided like the plague as it is both costly and frustrating. This can be mitigated by simply defining the goals and boundary conditions of the project as precisely as possible right in the start. To this end I dare to present a humble wish to my customers: please let us know about your thoughts and needs in as much detail as possible even before the actual design work begins. For our part, we promise to listen to you with big ears and do everything in our power to weed out all unnecessary iterations from our joint projects.
Secondly, we must develop ways to keep our customer updated on the progress of their projects. This wish is more than justified so we promise to tackle this issue.
Thirdly, our customers hoped that we would make some more noise about ourselves and our services, and that we would also serve as a mouthpiece for the design industry by reporting on the goings-on of our field. In this respect I am glad to say that we have already gotten the ball rolling. Let this first blog in the history of Muodonmuutos and our first newsletter that we recently published be indications of this.
There is more to come, so stay tuned!
Christian Gschaider