Linkage Analysis

Figure 1. Companies who adopt linkage analysis get the insight that drives customer loyalty

Download free white paper: “Linkage Analysis in your Voice of the Customer Program.”

VoC Business Linkage Analysis is the process of combining different sources of data to uncover deep insights about the causes and consequences of customer satisfaction and loyalty.  Linkage analysis provides important business intelligence regarding the causes and consequences of customer satisfaction and loyalty.

The use of linkage analysis helps companies improve how they manage their customer relationships and, consequently, increase customer loyalty (See Figure 1).

Business Linkage Analysis helps answer the following questions:

• If I improve customer satisfaction/loyalty scores by X%, what is the corresponding increase in revenue?
• Which operational business metrics (e.g., on-hold time, repair turnaround time) are important to customers?
• What is the impact of employee satisfaction on customer satisfaction and loyalty?
• Do employee programs (e.g., training) have an impact on customer satisfaction/loyalty?
• Do customer satisfaction measures (satisfaction, loyalty) predict actual customer buying behavior?
• What is the impact of partner (e.g., resellers) satisfaction on customer loyalty?

Figure 3. Common Types of Linkages among Disparate Data Sources

Types of Linkage Studies

For VOC programs, linkage studies fall into three general types:

1. Financial: linking customer feedback to financial metrics
2. Operational: linking customer feedback to operational metrics
3. Constituency: linking customer feedback to employee and partner variables

Each of these types of linkage analyses provide useful insight that can help senior executives better manage customer relationships and improve business growth. Contact me for more information.

For those of you who are interested, below is a brief presentation on the topic of linkage analysis that provides a good overview of the different types of linkages and their benefit to companies.