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Core Question Deck
Captains of Industry 2015

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Captains of Industry 2015
 Topline data shown here are based on a total of 102 interviews conducted
with Captains of Industry;
 Fieldwork was conducted between 7th September and 9th December 2015;
 Unless otherwise stated, each question is based on all Captains of Industry
answering;
 Where data does not total 100%, this is due to rounding or multi-coded
responses.
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Customer Interaction

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C85. Who in your organisation has the ultimate responsibility for customer experience?
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Responsibility for customer experience
61%
11%
9%
6%
3% 2% 2% 2%
Chief Executive
Officer
Managing
Director(s) Everyone
Marketing /
Sales Director
Commercial
Director Other Director
The Board of
Directors Chairman
Base: British Captains of Industry (102) Interviewed Sept – Dec 2015

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Quality of customer service
C79. How would you rate your organisation on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is extremely poor and 10 is extremely
good, on each of the following statements
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Base: British Captains of Industry (102) Interviewed Sept – Dec 2015Responses
less than 3% are not shown
4%
3%
5%
4%
13%
14%
11%
22%
20%
32%
37%
36%
35%
14%
15%
11%
6%
5%
3%
3%
3%
Acting on feedback from your customers
Understanding your customers' needs
Consistently delivering high quality customer service
0 - Extremely Poor 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 - Extremely Good Don’t know Mean score
7.5
7.5
7.3
6% 11% 29% 32% 13% 6%2014 7.4
6% 31% 36% 19% 4%2014 7.7
4% 10% 31% 30% 18% 6%2014 7.6

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C80A. What could your organisation do better in terms of acting on customer feedback?
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Acting on customer feedback
18%
16% 16%
15% 15%
10%
27%
Respond to
feedback faster
Increased
customer
engagement
Utilising
feedback
Meeting specific
needs
Listen to
customers more
Be more
proactive Other
Base: British Captains of Industry scoring 0 to 8 for ‘Acting on feedback from your customers’ (79) Interviewed Sept – Dec 2015

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C80A. What could your organisation do better in terms of acting on customer feedback?
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Acting on customer feedback
Increased
customer
engagement
Listen to
customers more
Utilising
feedback
Be more
proactive
Base: British Captains of Industry scoring 0 to 8 for ‘Acting on feedback from your customers’ (79) Interviewed Sept – Dec 2015
“Engaging more with customers, understanding their concerns and their stress when they are buying new products.”
“You can get feedback but you have to be engaged with the customer to get the full value out of it, you need to do proper surveys, proper engagement. A happy letter
gives a warm glow but it doesn't do much, you need full engagement.”
“Quite often the customer only really gets engaged right at the end of a project, so it is engaging with them all the way through it.”
“The organisation could listen more in order to hear the feedback accurately in the first instance. It is really about making sure that we do talk to our clients and their
customers, we hear what they say but we don't always fully understand what they say, so we take action that doesn't completely address the issue sometimes.”
“We need to listen and be much more open to looking at things in a different way rather than looking at things in a polarised way, around our policies. We need to
look at the world not just through our eyes but through the eyes of our customers.”
“Listening more. We operate in a complex environment so feedback is not black or white, because of the nature of what we do, but we need to listen not try and
engineer a reason, be open-minded.”
“Feeding back change as a result of that feedback … We can test the action plans, review in terms of feedback, and then re-test in terms of have we made it better, the
whole cycle. We have to keep doing that.”
“It's capturing that feedback and using that feedback to change our services and products.”
“We need to get organised to look at how the customers are so we can understand them and act better on feedback. If you have feedback and you don't understand
them it is very difficult to act on their feedback. So we are now trying to understand the feedback better.”
“Anticipate, work out what customers want and how they are going to feedback.”
“Our issue is actively seeking it and encouraging it. Where we get it we do act, but it is more reactive than proactive.”
“Perhaps engage with clients a bit earlier, maybe understand a client's problems rather than just addressing the question.”
“Probably searching for it earlier, basically heading off a lot of issues that might arise.”

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13%
21%
20%
16%
13%
16%
3%
At least once a week
One to three times a month
Six to ten times a year
One to five times a year
Less than once a year
Not revelant
Don't know
Personal interaction with customers
C81A. How often on average do you personally meet or speak to any of your company’s key customers
or key accounts? C81B. And how often on average do you personally meet or speak to any of your company’s
other customers?
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24%
24%
17%
18%
7%
9%
3%
Key
customers
Other
customers
Base: British Captains of Industry (102) Interviewed Sept – Dec 2015

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C82. What are the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for customer experience and customer feedback in your
organisation?
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KPIs for customer experience and customer feedback
Other
11%
Complaints
17%
18%
7%
2%
21%
Customer Satisfaction
17% Enquiries 1%
NPS
27%
Satisfaction /
Other surveys
Complaints /
Enquiries
Delivery
performance
Bespoke for
clients Share Price Other
Base: British Captains of Industry (102) Interviewed Sept – Dec 2015
55%
18%

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Actioning customer experience and feedback KPIs
C83. Are the results of these customer experience and feedback KPIs reviewed at board level?
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49% 15% 24% 6% 4% 2%
Yes - always Yes – regularly Yes – periodically (e.g. once or twice a year) No – only occasionally No – never Other
C84. Are any key executives in your organisation incentivised in any way according to the results of these
customer experience and feedback KPIs?
48% 20% 6% 26%
Yes – most are Yes – some are Yes – a few are No
Base: British Captains of Industry who gave a verbatim answer at C82 (96), those who rated themselves 9-10 at C79 (36)
Interviewed Sept – Dec 2015
19% 53% 28%
Those who
rate
themselves 9-
10 at C79

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Methodology and
Sample

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Methodology
 This report presents findings of the 2015 study of Captains of Industry, widely
acknowledged as the authoritative source of opinion on Britain's business elite
 Respondents are executive board-level directors and chairmen
 Companies are from:
 top 500 industrials by turnover; and
 top 100 financial companies by capital employed
 A total of 102 respondents took part, details of which are provided below
 Fieldwork: September – December 2015
 97 interviews were conducted face-to-face and 5 by telephone
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Composition of the sample
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Sector 2015
Services/ Retailing 21%
Financial/ Banking 18%
Technology/ Media/
Telecoms
14%
Construction 13%
Utilities 8%
Manufacturing 8%
Transport/ Distribution 7%
Mining/ Minerals/ Natural
Resources
4%
Other 11%
FTSE Index 2015
FTSE 100 19%
FTSE 250 34%
Other listed and Private 47%
Job Title 2015
Chief Executive 37%
Chairman 26%
Chief Financial Officer 12%
Finance Director 9%
Chief Operating Officer 2%
Other 11%
Employees 2015
1-999 28%
1000-4,999 44%
5000+ 27%
Head Office Location 2015
London 52%
Outside London 48%
Classification 2015
Primarily B2B 49%
Primarily B2C 28%
Mix of B2B and B2C 22%
Other 1%