California-based tech consulting firm NFO Prognostics recently released the results of a survey that found 93 percent of high-tech companies believe the compensation of some or all employees should be tied to customer service measurements.
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Of the 145 companies surveyed nationwide, 54 already had some customer satisfaction/compensation link, while 85 percent of those without such programs said they would like to implement a partial or complete wage/satisfaction program.
Tech companies are looking at tying employee pay to customer satisfaction and productivity, experts say. But implementing such plans may have to wait until the economy picks up, with many firms concerned about keeping tech salaries down in the meantime.
“It’s one thing to have posters and screen savers saying, `We are a customer-focused organization,'” said Alice Chan, senior research and organizational consultant at NFO Prognostics.
“It’s another thing to have something that actually influences the behavior of employees, and what’s more motivating than, `If you keep your customers happy, you get paid more’?”
Chan said that while many tech companies reported a desire to directly link wages to customer satisfaction, it’s hard for human resource departments to gather accurate data on customer service from programmers and other tech staff.
“They’re not trained researchers, and sometimes the results may be biased if you know you’re being compensated based on those results,” she said.