Milling & Baking News - April 28, 2015 - AIB12

Client services and business
services are on the upswing
A
look back at the past year within AIB International's
client services and business processes had Philip
Kastle, senior director of the group, all smiles.
"I was so happy that we did the things that we said we
were going to do," he said. "We talked about a new phone
system - it was install ed last summer. We talked about
implementing a CRM (customer relationship management)
system - that's there. We talked about business metrics -
we've made a lot of progress on that front."
One of the areas AIB International has made the most
progress is in customer satisfaction surveys. Mr. Kastle said
all of the customer surveys for audits and inspections were
signifi cantly redesigned.
"Before it was very focused on the actual event of the
inspection and how our inspectors presented themselves
and behaved," he explained. "So we expanded the scope
of the surveys to more of an end-to-end process. We backed
up and started asking, 'How was your experience with the
scheduling of your inspection? How was your experience
with the actual inspection itself? How was your experience
in getting the fi nal report? What was your experience with
any technical questions?'"
He said AIB International also added a net promoter
score, which is similar to surveys that ask "How likely are
you to recommend us to a friend?" This style of survey
was fi rst added as part of the organization's GMP survey,
which is its core product, and then expanded from North
America to other international regions. Spanish and Portuguese
GMP surveys were then launched. Earlier this
year AIB International began the process of taking the
same approach to its GFSI audits, and by the fi rst of May
expects to offer a GFSI audit survey in Chinese.
The organization also put an emphasis on responding
to the surveys in a timely fashion. If a client has assigned
a rating of "poor" or consistently "fair" or less, immediate
action is taken, Mr. Kastle said.
"Anything that is in those bottom two boxes we assess
what the feedback was and get it to the correct people to
respond to it and remedy those things," he said. "And
that's done at a very fast pace. It's within the same week.
Within one or two days we've actioned it, which is quite
unusual. Likewise, we do a lot of recognition internally
of people who compliment us."
Mr. Kastle said the feedback AIB International is receiving
is priceless, particularly as the group moves forward
on its strategic plan.
"This is a really good way to get the feedback on how
we're doing with them and also to trend over time," he
said. "We're actually making targets off of our performance."
So
far, so good. Mr. Kastle said 10 months of data show
AIB International is generally scoring above 90% in all
areas and mostly over 95%. Scheduling has been identifi
ed as the biggest area of concern, and steps to improve
that part of the process are being taken, he said.
Just as important as getting a good response is getting
any response at all, and Mr. Kastle said the response rate
to the surveys has been solid at right around 20%, regardless
of geography. Sending out a reminder has generated
an additional 10% bump, he said.
"Thirty per cent is a really strong response rate," he said.
AIB International also has managed to improve its ability
to forecast, which is critical for an actively growing business.
"We've
developed the ability to do weekly updates
KASTLE
12 / AIB International 2015
where before we'd walk into our month-end meetings and
fi nd out how we did," he said. "Now we're fi nding it out
every week and managing for it going forward."
Mr. Kastle said AIB International is really looking at how
it tracks new business, as well as how to manage and interact
with clients.
"We are still working through how we track this new
business," he said. "This will be a big focus for us this
year." MBN
Milling & Baking News - April 28, 2015

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