Möbel Martin – entering the new era of feedback with Honestly

Furniture retail is a competitive business. To hold its leadership position in the southwest of Germany, Möbel Martin has to go above and beyond. The most effective way for them to do so is by quickly learning what the customers need and adapting accordingly. Through Honestly’s solution, they found a way to do just that.

Summary:

  • MÖBEL MARTIN stood before the challenge of finding a contemporary solution for collecting customer feedback.
  • Honestly now enables MÖBEL MARTIN to access their feedback data in real-time and in a meaningful and comparable format.
  • By using multiple feedback channels, including web- and terminal surveys, MÖBEL MARTIN now collects feedback all along the customer journey.
  • 10 times more feedback is collected since using Honestly.
  • Over 23.000 feedback were collected within just nine months.
  • The entire topic of customer satisfaction has manifested itself in the awareness of the employees due to the regular surveys.
About Möbel Martin

As a furnishing specialist, MÖBEL MARTIN distinguishes itself through a broad product range, high brand competence and exceptional services. As of 2018, more than 62,000 articles are available on more than 115,000 square meters of warehouse space and around 157,000 square meters of sales area. More than 2,000 employees, most of them multilingual, are passionate about providing customers with a varied, modern and family-friendly shopping experience, and provide expert advice. MÖBEL MARTIN is constantly changing with the aim of providing every customer with the best possible shopping experience.

We had decided a long time ago that regular customer surveys should be established in our company. It had become increasingly clear that we need a modern solution with which we can collect feedback continuously. We wanted the results to be displayed in real time and in a detailed, comparable manner.
Dr. Isabel Martin Managing Director Möbel Martin

Möbel Martin – Digitalizing Feedback

Möbel Martin knew early on that obtaining customer feedback is an effective way to increase customer satisfaction.

"Our mission is to know and meet the needs of our customers. Of course, the continuous gathering of customer feedback is the ideal solution to find out what's on our customers' minds, what they like, and where there is room for improvement. On this basis, we wanted to use customer feedback as a control parameter."

The only thing missing was the right solution.

Before the company came across Honestly, MÖBEL MARTIN was already actively collecting feedback. At that time, however, still completely analog. MÖBEL MARTIN used so-called feedback postcards on which customers could write down criticism, wishes and suggestions for improvement. The cards were evaluated in the respective stores and, if possible, measures were derived. Afterwards, however, the cards were disposed of. A long-term evaluation, documentation, or categorization of the feedback did not take place. Therefore it was not possible to extract concrete measures to increase customer satisfaction or even establish benchmarks.

In addition, MÖBEL MARTIN also regularly carried out an extensive customer survey. Customers were approached directly in the stores and asked to complete the paper questionnaires. Pedestrians in the cities close to the furniture stores were also asked to take part in the survey. The entire data acquisition and evaluation was carried out manually. This was an extremely complex and error-prone procedure. Therefore, MÖBEL MARTIN strived for a modern solution to digitize customer feedback. The results were to be displayed in real time and in a detailed, comparable manner.

In order to derive effective recommendations for action, the company defined the requirements for an early warning system for critical topics and a comprehensive reporting system that provides results from all channels.

Looking for the Right Partner

"The questionnaire creation is very simple and intuitive. That convinced me immediately."

After deciding that a modern and effective feedback solution was necessary, MÖBEL MARTIN set out to find a competent partner for Möbel Martin. Numerous companies were shortlisted. In the end, Honestly was able to meet all the requirements. Several factors set Honestly apart from the competition.

On the one hand, multilingualism was an important criterion. Since MÖBEL MARTIN is located in the southwest of Germany directly on the border with France and therefore serves a large number of French-speaking customers, the questionnaire should, of course, also be available to customers in their mother tongue. The fact that Honestly already offers multi-language options in the standard version was a big plus. The backend was also positively evaluated, especially due to the very simple and intuitive questionnaire creation. On the other hand, Honestly's feedback terminals were both visually and technically convincing: an appealing design in the color of the company's CI paired with the option of equipping the terminals with Apple products (this was a prerequisite for IT).

Möbel Martin chose two of Honestly’s channels to collect customer feedback: via terminals at the point of sale (POS) and via online customer surveys. The terminals were placed in the exit area of Möbel Martin stores. The online surveys are sent out daily to a selected range of customers. Both channels have decisive advantages: Not every customer has an email address, or wants to share their email address when making a purchase. Therefore, customers should also have the opportunity to provide feedback at the POS. By using both feedback channels, Möbel Martin is able to offer various touch points for feedback throughout the customer journey.

Record Response Rates

“On the feedback terminals we generate about ten times as much feedback compared to when we used postcards!”

Once the feedback terminals had been set up in the stores, customer feedback started rolling in. MÖBEL MARTIN itself was surprised by the effect of the surveys and is very satisfied with the response rate. Online, the company has had a constant response rate of almost 30% per month since the implementation of the solution. A small incentive certainly contributes to this: Following the survey, customers can take part in a sweepstake and win shopping vouchers. The tablets also generate around ten times as much feedback as the previous postcards did. In total, around 70% of the feedback is given via the terminals and 30% via the online surveys.

Möbel Martin can gain a lot of information and insights from this large amount of customer feedback. Six logistics managers and eight branch managers work directly with the Honestly solution. In regular meetings involving these managers, the collected customer feedback has been a fixed agenda item since the implementation of Honestly. The data from the questionnaires is compared, and common topics and concerns are identified. Honestly’s versatile solution then allows for new problem-focused questionnaires to be initiated.

In addition to these long-term analyses, Honestly’s solution also helps in taking immediate action to solve urgent issues. Just one example: At the beginning of this year, one branch increasingly received feedback from customers that the cash registers were poorly staffed. Especially on busy days the waiting time was too long. As a response to the feedback, the branch manager took immediate measures to optimize the staffing of the cash registers. There has been no negative feedback on that topic since. In this case Honestly’s solution helped to immediately increase the customer satisfaction.

Effects on Corporate Culture

"Thanks to standardized questionnaires and evaluations at branch level, the results are now transparent, comparable and, above all, retrievable at any time."

The collection of feedback strengthens the employees' awareness in dealing with customer opinions. Since the introduction of Honestly, the branch and logistics managers have been dealing with the topic of customer satisfaction more intensely than before. In addition, the company opted for transparent communication of information for everyone. The survey results are published on dashboards accessible to all employees increasing their awareness on the topic as well. In addition, customer feedback is also reported in the employee magazine and the figures are regularly presented to the management.

Thanks to Honestly, the customer feedback processes at MÖBEL MARTIN have become more efficient and effective. The Honestly solution eliminates the need for manual data entry and evaluation. In addition, standardized questionnaires and evaluations at branch level make the results transparent, comparable and, above all, available at any time. The fact that the questionnaires can be created by the company itself also saves a great deal of time. Another benefit MÖBEL MARTIN points out, is that even small adjustments to the questionnaires can be made directly and one does not always have to be in exchange with a service provider. Honestly enables MÖBEL MARTIN to identify strengths and weaknesses flexibly, quickly and accurately and to implement targeted measures.

MÖBEL MARTIN names the following features as three major advantages that result from the use of Honestly:

  1. Real-time feedback: Continuous and up-to-date data.
  2. The alert function in critical cases: This gives us the opportunity to process critical cases immediately and restore customer satisfaction.
  3. License: With our license we can create an unlimited number of questionnaires.

"We would definitely recommend Honestly because we are very happy with the software and the extraordinary customer service," says Dr. Isabel Martin.

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