When Brian Oken became president and chief executive officer of Ventura Transfer Co in 2003, his mission was to deliver the best in customer service and satisfaction within the transloading industry. His business philosophy has been implemented on various levels, including: elevating VTC's brand identity, improving sales processes, and enhancing operations via Kaizen Lean Thinking and Rapid Continuous Improvement.
One effort Oken brought forward is an annual online customer survey. For two years, VTC has asked customers and prospects what are their important issues, and how can VTC help to meet their goals and objectives. The approach and responses were different with each survey, and 2005's generated a 15% response.
In 2004, VTC used this survey to find out what was foremost in customers' minds via a questionnaire and offering a free coffee mug for participation. “We learned what is vital to our customer's success and bottom line, and quickly implemented these findings into our customer service philosophy. We also learned that less is more. Last year's survey had 22 questions that customers had to fill out which took a bit of time. For the next survey, we reduced it to three questions and offered an incentive of a gift certificate to Home Depot. The results doubled. We went from a 7.2% response rate in 2004 to a 15% response rate in 2005,” said Oken.
Grabiner/Hall, the agency of record for VTC, managed, designed, and provided the distribution and tracking of the survey.