The Backstory
As a digital credential service that has helped millions of people and thousands of schools and universities exchange more than 20 million transcripts and other credentials globally, Parchment is acutely aware of the impact its technology has on customers.
The company’s customer-centric vision for the future led Parchment to adopt the Net Promoter® System as one of several methods used to measure the customer experience. Very much viewed as an operational discipline, Parchment looks to Net Promoter not only as a key performance indicator of customer loyalty, but a driver of continuous improvement that clearly demonstrates the company’s commitment to customer collaboration and co-creation.
While many companies today claim to put their customers first, Parchment stands out as an organization that firmly believes a differentiated customer experience can serve as an important competitive advantage, leading customers to stay longer and show greater receptiveness to expanding their engagements.
“In partnership with Satrix Solutions, we’ve been able to change the culture at Schindler. ConsequeThe Satrix team has expertly guided Parchment, delivering key insights, and in a manner that truly demonstrates customer-centricity. The partnership has been invaluable.”
– Heather Clevenger, Director of Marketing Programs, Parchment
The Winning Strategy
The way in which companies approach the customer experience has changed. With good reason – research shows that Promoters (customers that are highly likely to recommend the company) are more than five times as likely to repurchase from companies and almost nine times as likely to try new offerings.
For Parchment, capitalizing on strong customer loyalty meant crafting a roadmap built on customer-centered innovation. The initiative was led by CEO, Matthew Pittinsky, who set out to create an organization focused on cultivating an army of advocates who would become instrumental in helping develop the company’s future offerings.
To keep the customer experience high on the list of strategic priorities, the company empowered its Director of Marketing Programs, Heather Clevenger, with deeply embedding Net Promoter into the company culture. She selected Satrix Solutions to develop a voice of customer program with Net Promoter as a central component.
Together, Satrix Solutions and the Parchment Marketing team constructed a survey questionnaire that would encourage a strong response rate and return honest feedback from its customers. That’s because reliable customer data and insights would guide important decisions for all members of the leadership team.
Satrix Solutions focused the initial survey on specific satisfaction attributes that would elicit feedback used to guide Parchment’s service delivery model and roadmap discussions. This included identifying whether Parchment was a viewed as “must-have” solution by its various customer groups.
After establishing a solid baseline, and then analyzing trends over time, Satrix Solutions serves as an objective partner to provide Parchment leadership with detailed insights regarding what matters to customers and the actions likely to have the greatest impact on customer satisfaction and retention.
Through a combined partnership between leadership and Marketing, Parchment ensures the customer feedback and metrics are prominently shared with employees on a regular basis. This had led to more employees participating in the closed-loop process.
They are also sure to recognize employees and departments for their contribution to the company’s customer-centric values. These activities serve to reinforce the importance of the primary mission – to maximize the percentage of customers that are Promoters, thereby creating a strong community of loyal advocates that are more likely to stay, grow, and refer.
Parchment’s Net Promoter Program is only one of the company’s voice of customer initiatives. Parchment also has a robust Customer Advisory Board and an annual user conference, both of which elicit valuable input on how the company is performing and opportunities for continuous improvement.
Parchment also gives voice to another very important constituent – its employees. Leveraging an Employee Net Promoter Score Program, also managed by Satrix Solutions, Parchment measures employee engagement and looks for opportunities to increase employee satisfaction.
Across the board, customers and employees believe Parchment is dedicated to making their experience with the company better. This has only solidified their reputation as a customer service leader.
“Over 9,000 organizations rely on the Parchment platform to facilitate the exchange of their learner’s hard earned credentials. Our mission of helping turn credentials into opportunities is one that we don’t take lightly. We aim to not only meet, but exceed, the needs of both organization and learner. Forging a partnership with Satrix Solutions has enabled us to measure how well we’re doing and create a customer-centric culture focused on both innovation and improvement. With a structure and common language revolving around Net Promoter, our internal teams have been able to make significant improvements directly addressing our customers needs,” said Heather Clevenger, Director of Marketing Programs.
