Case Studies

A large service provider wanted to offer an enhanced service to a broader customer base.  But the very high capital cost made the decision process particularly challenging and fraught with pitfalls. One way to add clarity to the risk-reward ratio was to conduct sensitive and objective research among the marketplace. This helped both the basic go/no-go decision as well as shed light on the marketing challenges should the decision be made to move ahead. This research also had to be sound and credible as it was being reviewed by people at the highest levels within the client organization.  RKS maintained a long-standing relationship with this client, and therefore had proven credentials. Therefore RKS became a natural fit within the client’s taskforce. Building on knowledge of the client and industry, RKS developed a research approach that provided sensitive, credible and actionable information within a reasonable timeframe. Outcome: With solid results in hand, the service provider was able to move ahead  with confidence.

RKS has a rich history in tracking customer satisfaction readings for many long-standing clients.  These studies started to reveal an important challenge: the tech savvy customer segment was dissatisfied with the way the company was communicating to them.  What’s more, the number of tech-savvy customers within the customer base was growing quickly so that it would soon become the largest segment.

RKS approach featured a multi-pronged methodology of both qualitative (focus group) and quantitative (survey) research to find out what tech savvy customers want to hear about and how they want to be communicated with. This provided our client insight from many angles to diagnose a challenging new customer segment dynamic

Outcome: Not only was RKS instrumental in bringing life and a deep understanding to this emerging customer segment, but RKS was also able to identify key elements to increase satisfaction and re-establish the connection between company and customer.

RKS has a long standing utility client that was facing the challenge of having to raise their rates.  Because of a poor economy, this client expected backlash from their customers.
The business challenge became finding ways to neutralize the expected backlash as effectively as possible. RKS was chosen to complete research that would help the utility achieve this goal because of our in-depth experience and knowledge with the client’s customers.

RKS started the process by asking “what do we already know from all of the research we’ve done previously”.  By conducting a deep dive into historical results that covered prior years findings, RKS developed several working hypotheses about how to neutralize the expected backlash.
A follow-up survey to test these hypotheses confirmed that expectations within the organization about the anticipated backlash were overblown:  while customers would not welcome the increase with open arms, they would accept it because the utility was credible. And customers believed their word.

If the utility company properly and clearly communicated and justified their rate increase, most customers would accept it, and would not penalize the utility with lower customer satisfaction scores.

Outcome: RKS was able to tease out information the client already had in hand and combined with a fresh survey developed tools needed to effectively educate the customers on the need for a rate increase, including the appropriate content needed and channels to do so.