Employee Retention Linked To Better Customer Service.

• Author: Marshall, Jeffrey
• Position: Unifi Network LLP./Roper Starch Worldwide Inc. survey - Brief Article - Polling Data

If you think there's a link between employee retention and service quality, a new survey suggests you're right. Unifi Network (www.unifi.com), a division of PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Roper Starch Worldwide conducted a joint study that examined the impact of employee turnover on customer satisfaction within six different industries. In each case, the results show a strong link between employee retention and quality of service as rated by the customer.

A total of 3,005 interviews were conducted online and facilitated by an existing partnership between Roper Starch Worldwide and America Online. Consumer respondents were qualified by having had recent service encounters in at least one of the six industries: personal computing, banking, retail, telecommunications, investment management or property and casualty insurance.

Overall, more than 60 percent of the respondents were less than satisfied with the service they received from companies in one or more of the target industries. Additionally, more than 80 percent of the respondents perceive employee retention as a problem within the six industries. Twice as many respondents said that personnel issues are a challenge facing their service providers than said that product or price issues are a problem -- a...