Examples of completed projects: Business Services

Connaught Compliance, Exeter

Connaught Compliance offers a range of compliance services, which include inspection, certification, maintenance and repair for a range of services including gas, electrical, fire alarm/extinguisher and lifts. Annual safety checks are mandatory for all the above. I was asked to speak to 35 customers and non-customers to determine trends in their use of contractors to achieve compliance. In particular, I was asked to find out how their requirements would change in the light of increasingly stringent legislation. For customers only, I ascertained how well Connaught was performing and how it could improve its service. For non-customers, I asked about their awareness of, and views on, Connaught.

This was followed with a customer satisfaction survey amongst smaller customers and lost customers.

Both pieces of work were presented to a senior management team and the recommendations accepted and implemented.

Iron Mountain, London

I have been employed by Iron Mountain to research customers’ requirements from document management and magnetic media storage companies. This was achieved through interviewing both customers and potential customers. I carried out a research project to assist with the launch of a new electronic product.

The company has now employed me for 3 customer satisfaction surveys, each with a heavy emphasis on quantifying the company’s performance. I have also completed a number of mystery calls to determine how well the company handles incoming calls and have been employed to find sales leads.

When the company decided to carry out a large number of brief customer telephone interviews in-house, I helped to design the questionnaire and trained the staff involved. Most recently, over 2 days, I trained a new member of staff to complete lost customer interviews and completed over 20 interviews myself.

Salt Union, Winsford

Salt Union has several million cubic meters of void underground at its Winsford salt mine. This void offers consistent humidity and temperature all the year round. As a result of my completing 4 separate market research projects to determine possible uses for this void, a new company, DeepStore, was established to offer document storage on the site. As part of my research, I identified potential customers and interviewed them face-to-face. Several of these leads including the Cheshire County Archives and 3 hospitals were eventually converted into business.

I now complete a regular annual customer satisfaction survey, which has enabled a history of trends in the quality of service to be established. When DeepStore acquired Interactive Records Management at the start of 2007, I carried out a customer survey immediately to determine how Interactive was performing and how it could best be integrated with DeepStore’