The RE value, Customer Focus, means ensuring we listen to our customers. The Customer First Resource Centre on the RE World intranet translates Customer Focus into action, sharing best practice learning from inside and outside the company.
We surveyed 30,000 customers across RE in 2008 through the Net Promoter Score programme to determine their willingness to recommend us. Results, reviewed by the CEO and senior managers, and communicated to staff, illuminate where we are doing well and where we must do better. We saw score increases, for example, among health science journal editors, large law clients, and reached more show exhibitors. We noted areas for improvement, for example, with certain small law clients and have instituted a customer journey mapping pilot to understand how we can improve all aspects of our engagement with them. Read a LexisNexis Net Promoter Score case study.
In addition, Elsevier utilises a comprehensive Customer Dashboard approach to customer satisfaction. Ongoing customer input is analysed and reported by Elsevier’s Research and Academic Relations Department to all staff on the Elsevier intranet. The Dashboard has helped embed customer views into workflow processes to ensure Customer Focus and corrective action.
LexisNexis makes it simple for customers to provide feedback and gain support. From www.lexisnexis.com customers can visit the Customer Service Centre to receive online and telephone support; make suggestions for enhancements to products; and also visit ‘Knowledge Base’ to download technical assistance software; obtain product literature; find training opportunities; and access a terms glossary.
Our businesses actively support customers. For example, Reed Business Information UK hosts a three day Recruitment Summit twice per year and quarterly Recruitment Forums for recruitment agencies and consultants. Recruitment advertising, a major revenue stream for the division, has changed dramatically as advertising migrates online. Amid a tough 2008 economic climate, the sessions, which utilise industry experts and economists, provided opportunities for Reed Business Information and its recruitment customers to explore new ways of working together in a rapidly changing environment.
Elsevier’s Library Connect publications and events provide information professionals worldwide with a forum for exchanging views. In 2008, librarians in 20 nations contributed to the Library Connect Newsletter and Library Connect practical assistance pamphlets. And in the year, Library Connect seminars and workshops brought together information professionals from 13 nations to discuss common issues.