Inside Innovation at Xerox: a Periodic Glimpse at Work in Progress; Company Develops Innovative System That Rethinks Customer Satisfaction to Rapidly Get Feedback, Resolve Problems

Business Wire, March 3, 2005

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- If astronauts can be conditioned to sense problems and respond to them, can a business organization be conditioned in the same way? An innovative customer satisfaction tool being developed by Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX) behavioral specialists is showing that maybe it can.

Originally designed to sense and respond to customer problems, the Sentinel Customer Satisfaction Assurance System(TM) actually modified organizational behavior when it was tested by Xerox and its research partner IBRC Inc., according to Vince Vaccarelli and Barbara von Bergman, managers of the Xerox Business Research Group and inventors of the system.

In fact, the Sentinel pilot was so effective that Xerox plans to expand it around the world. So far, it is being used in some 40 major customer accounts.

A Web-based, supercharged customer relationship management system that's unique enough for Xerox to patent, Sentinel defines customer satisfaction as the absence of problems. So with the customer's permission, Sentinel e-mails a simple question to every worker that relies on Xerox at specific customer sites: "Do you have any problem, comment or suggestion for Xerox?"

That question may sound like a standard customer satisfaction survey, but Sentinel is about as much like one as radar is like a flashlight. It differs in both scope and execution, according to Vaccarelli.

While traditional satisfaction surveys are administered periodically to a sampling of people, Sentinel e-mails a monthly "check-in" to everyone at the customer site who might rely on Xerox in any way.

That way Sentinel catches emerging problems. More important, it routes problems for immediate resolution. Happy workers simply delete the e-mail or click on a happy face and write a comment or suggestion, but people with problems click on a frowning face, opening a dialog box and starting what is known as an "adaptive loop*," Vaccarelli said.

Respondents are linked to a Web site where they explain the problem in their own words. The system instantly and automatically notifies the designated Xerox account manager that there is a problem, creates an electronic problem ticket, prompts an immediate telephone call to the worker, and activates a tenacious adaptive loop that keeps the issue on Xerox's front burner until the worker confirms that the problem has been resolved.

Sentinel conditions Xerox and its customers as effectively as feedback systems used by NASA condition astronauts to react to emergencies, according to Vaccarelli. It teaches Xerox people to sense what's going on and make adjustments in real time, instead of waiting for a customer complaint and then following with protracted problem solving. It conditions customers to give feedback because they know it will be acted upon.

In the pilot installation, customer satisfaction rates rose to above 95 percent, and Xerox was able to tabulate and report on problems, learn from comments and suggestions, and document satisfaction with pages of compliments.

What started as a customer satisfaction measurement tool could cause Xerox to rethink the way it delivers customer service. A future version of the system could integrate text mining and pattern recognition capabilities -- developed by Xerox researchers -- to continuously monitor and learn from customer problems and experiences, building on a Sentinel knowledge base to communicate with customers, suggest solutions, and short-circuit potential problems.

NOTE TO EDITORS: *Adaptive Enterprises: Creating and Leading Sense-And-Respond Organizations, Stephan Haeckel, 2001.

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