Terrific client response — thank you!
Firstly, we want to say a huge thank you to both our colleagues and clients for supporting the process and getting such a great response rate and insightful feedback.
Our high return rate, with 117 responses, equated to 64% of clients completing the survey (compared to industry average returns of between 35-50%), demonstrating the strength of relationship we have with our clients.
See the results in detail.
Despite a challenging year for all, we’re on the right track
Over the last few years, during a period of steady growth, we have been working hard on initiatives to ensure we continue to unify and find agility in our customer service vision and approach across all of our global service lines, and none more so than during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our aim is to maintain a consistent K2 cultural and operational framework based on quality and value. We were therefore incredibly proud of the 98% overall satisfaction rating we received from our responding clients, based on their views of our service delivery. This is particularly rewarding as I know how hard our teams at K2 work to ensure our service delivery experience and outcomes live up to our high expectations of excellence.
A great service partner
This is also consolidated by the fact that 100% of client respondents said they felt supported by K2 and 84% stated that we worked with them in partnership, as an extension of their team, which is a core part of our service excellence expectation.
We know that our ethos is to be exceptionally client and people focused — dealing effectively with ad hoc requests, keeping in regular touch, providing value and insights, going over and above wherever we can, managing difficult situations to a positive outcome, and so much more — we are glad that these survey results provide a strong indication that we are getting the balance on this right.
Building on success for the long-term
On top of this, compared to our 2016 survey, the same clients either returned the same high score of overall satisfaction or scored our services higher in the 2021 survey, meaning we are not only delivering effectively for our clients, but we are also doing so consistently, for the longer term, and in many places we are even improving on this.
This was also reinforced by the fact that the overall majority of our long-term clients gave us satisfaction scores of 9 and 10 out of 10.
High scores even when benchmarked against other industries
We also achieved a Net Promoter Score (NPS) score of 62%. This is an internationally recognised customer experience metric. It is used by millions of businesses to measure and track how they’re perceived by their customers by asking them how likely they are to recommend their services to others on a scale of 0–10. We scored highly, set against other industry comparative scores: 62% in consulting, 52% in construction and 3% in logistics and transportation (Retently 2021 NPS benchmarking for B2B).
What many of our clients have said…
Overall our clients told us:
- We are responsive, professional and partner well.
- We generate a high level of trust, managing escalations and issues proactively.
- We act as an extension of their in-house team.
- We focus on providing solutions over problems.
- They would strongly recommend us to industry colleagues.
So why have we achieved these results, especially after a year of challenge for everyone?
The fact is that every single person in our K2 family has contributed to these results. Our terrific frontline operational teams and account owners have played significant roles — showing initiative, agility and resilience in such times — but there is also so much more to being able to provide great service. Engaging and motivating people in every department is critical to ensure we:
- have a well-managed network of aligned and responsive partners.
- win and implement new engagements successfully and consistently.
- pay our partners and bill our clients correctly.
- focus on value and cost efficiency on behalf of the client.
- support our services with good technology and reporting.
- communicate well both internally and externally.
- and have a supportive HR group .
All of this, and so much more, impact how we feel and behave as K2 citizens and how we genuinely demonstrate teamwork and resilience day in day out. All of this ultimately helps us deliver on our service excellence ambitions so seamlessly.
Continuous improvement in a responsive way
As a client and people-centric organisation, we find all feedback valuable, and listen and respond to constructive comments as well as the praise. It keeps us true to our service excellence ambitions. Due to the overwhelming client satisfaction, that list is pleasingly small, but all feedback is valuable, and we will be using it to continue to be the very best we can.
Of priority mentioned by clients, was a desire that we continue to build on our continuous improvement initiatives, in particular:
- Continue to strengthen global service consistency using end-to-end operational process reviews and dedicated client specific training programmes.
- Continue targeted investment on innovation and technology.
- Enhance communication and dedicated reporting for global mobility directors and assignees.
- Expand targeted industry insight and technical communications to all corporate contacts.
- Continue to fight for efficiencies and customer service experience enhancements on our client’s behalf.
We and are taking action on all these fronts.
And lastly, but very importantly…
I am delighted to say that as a direct result of your high survey response rate, we donated an extra £11,700 (£100 for each of the 117 client responses) to our six nominated charities around the world: Rainbow Trust (UK), St Jude’s Children Research Hospital (USA), Club Rainbow (Singapore), Breadline Africa (South Africa & Dubai), Barncancer Fonden (Sweden) and The Smith Family (Australia). These contributions will further help them undertake their valuable work, all on top of our other considerable CSR and fundraising efforts this year which is fantastic.
Thank you again to our clients for your ongoing partnership and our colleagues for their dedication and expertise.
Here’s to a continued successful 2021 and celebrating more positive outcomes in partnership in 2022.
Nick Plummer
Global CEO, K2
