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The Daniel Group

Case Study: Customer Satisfaction & Lead Generation Survey Management System

Client: The Daniel Group - www.TheDanielGroup.com

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Summary: The Daniel Group, a strategy, research, and training firm, provides services designed to deepen and strengthen connections with customers, increase sales and improve profits. Services provided by The Daniel Group and designed to:

1. Uncover new business opportunities
2. Improve profitability
3. Increase long-term business value.

Client - Caterpillar Dealers


Problem / Opportunity - The Daniel Group has a number of employees that make outbound service performance calls. Customers of The Daniel Groups clients are contacted and surveyed. The Daniel Group needed a software application which allowed them to import a large number of work orders, to feed these work orders to the remote surveyors and then record the respondent’s answers.

The surveyors also needed a way to easily communicate with one another without having to stop the phone conversations they were holding with the survey respondents.

In addition, results of the surveying needed to be easily provided back to The Daniel Group’s clients.

Solution / System - LinkConnect was built by INSite to assist The Daniel Groups many client satisfaction surveyors in gathering information useful to The Daniel Group’s clients. LinkConnect provides work order information to surveyors on a random basis that they then call the end client about. The system collects survey response information as well as potential sales opportunities or disputes.

More than half of the North American Caterpillar dealers are clients of The Daniel Group. Caterpillar has grown to be the world's largest maker of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, and industrial gas turbines.

Features in LinkConnect include: 

• Survey Creation – Daniel Group employees have the ability to easily add clients, divisions, users, and surveys to the system. The administrative area of the system is robust and allows Daniel Group employees the ability to control almost all aspects of the application.
• Surveyor Management – Daniel Group management uses a powerful employee management system to control client and surveyor quotas of work to be done for a month. The system provides quick snapshot type views of where the company stands in relation to calls to be made. Employee scheduling is also controlled from within the system.
• LinkConnect Chat – Since the majority of the Daniel Group employees are remote and working from home, LinkConnect contains an internal chat application to keep in touch with one another and their management.
• Work Order Imports – LinkConnect contains a data import system used by clients to provide work order specific data The Daniel Group can then use to survey their customer. This is an automated system from The Daniel Group and the client’s perspective. A number of checks and balances have been built into the system to ensure we do not over interview clients.
• Work Order Surveying – The most important part of the system. The functionality in this part of the application allows surveyors to ability to ask questions and receive answers on very surveys very specific to the client or client division.
• Opportunity Management – If a Daniel Group surveyor uncovers an opportunity or a dispute, LinkConnect makes sure the client receives the lead and survey information via automated emails. These leads are tracked through the system and escalated up the client company’s management hierarchy if necessary.
• Net Promoter Scoring – Companies obtain their Net Promoter Score by asking customers a single question (usually, "How likely is it that you would recommend us to a friend or colleague?"). Based on their responses, customers can be categorized into one of three groups: Promoters, Passives, and Detractors. Daniel Group surveyors are versed in the NPS concept and all surveys in the system contain an NPS question. The answers from this question are tracked over time and rolling averages are reported to Daniel Group clients. Special attention is also paid to the Detractors as the Caterpillar dealers try to convert detractors into passionate clients.
• Missing and Confirmed Client Contact Data – The Daniel Group surveyors also use the survey calls as an opportunity to confirm and cleanse customer data. This data can be provided back to Daniel Group clients so internal work order and CRM systems can be updated.
• Bench Mark Questions – In addition to the NPS question, LinkConnect allows for multiple bench mark questions a customer can answer. The Daniel Group uses data from these questions to analyze results for their clients and construct a way to address issues and to take advantage of opportunities.
• Snap and Global Reports – Various methods of reporting are built into LinkConnect. The most important of which provide for charts for tracking survey results over time.

Technology - LinkConnect was built using the following technology:

• Microsoft ASP.Net 2010
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008
• 3rd Party Controls: Telerik RAD suite, Peter’s Date Picker, ParaChat, ComponentArt Suite, ChartDirector, and Excel Export tool

Partner Involved

• lemmondsDESIGN - www.DesignIsAPassion.com
• CharlotteColo - www.CharlotteColo.com

Services Provided

• Business requirement gathering
• Database design
• Programming
• Database development
• Hosting
• Administration