June 08, 2009, Birmingham - Best-in-Class companies for customer feedback are 18 times more likely to increase customer satisfaction, and 44.5 times more likely to increase customer retention, according to a customer experience report based on the analysis of 150 enterprises, by Empathica, a leading provider of Customer Experience Management (CEM) programs, co-sponsored with Aberdeen Group.

The report, "The ROI on Customer Feedback: Why it Pays to Listen to the Voice of the Customer," categorised organisations based on their use of customer feedback in relation to four main performance criteria: customer problem resolution, customer satisfaction, customer retention and customer advocacy.

Companies were then divided into "Best-in-Class," "Industry Average" and "Laggard" categories based on the analysis.

Best-in-Class organisations were found to be reaping benefits from customer feedback management programs. The leading companies were more than twice as likely as their counterparts to have an established process that tracks customer feedback across all departments and channels.

Gary Edwards, EVP, Client Services, Empathica, said, "The harsh reality of a global economic recession has put companies under more pressure than ever to improve customer satisfaction and retention."

Aberdeen Group's Jeff Zabin said, "Our findings show the improvements that companies have realised as a result of customer feedback initiatives. By putting in place the right technologies, organisational resources, business processes, and performance metrics, organisations can leverage customer satisfaction to grow and succeed during these difficult times."

About Empathica
Empathica provides multi-unit retailers with comprehensive Customer Experience Management programs that help ensure outstanding service levels and engaging customer relationships across the entire brand. Using a variety of surveying methods (IVR, Web, print, etc.), we capture "voice of the customer" data and then perform rich analysis to derive the key actionable insights to help our clients establish operational excellence. For more information please visit http://www.empathica.com/ or email info@empathica.com.

To download the full report, visit the Empathica Web site: http://www.empathica.com/download_aberdeen.html

About AberdeenGroup, a Harte-Hanks Company
Aberdeen is a leading provider of fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having benchmarked more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is uniquely positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets, corporations turn to Aberdeen for insights that drive decisions.

As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen's analytical and independent view of the "customer optimization" process of Harte-Hanks (Information - Opportunity - Insight - Engagement - Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit Aberdeen http://www.aberdeen.com/ or call (617) 723-7890, or to learn more about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748 or go to http://www.harte-hanks.com/.

More information:

Tanya Pring
Fieldworks Marketing
Tel: 01435 873080
tanya@fieldworksmarketing.co.uk

Further information (external website)