NPD solicits client feedback –
and puts it to work

As a company that has for decades assisted clients and retailers in understanding the dynamics of customer satisfaction, NPD knows how valuable customer feedback can be to any business – including ours.

This year’s NPD Client Satisfaction Survey was conducted in May and June. We are happy to report that 89% of clients responding said they were satisfied with NPD overall – up four percentage points from last year.

The survey told us our people are very important to overall satisfaction, as well as the data and reports’ accuracy and timeliness. Clients told us our research methodology and report accuracy have improved, but of course, we continue to invest in these key areas, in part by adding more talent and formal processes to our Research Science and Operations teams.

We learned from the survey that more than 70% of our clients use our information over once a month, with about a third relying on it every week or even more frequently. Our information and insights are most often used for tracking business trends and market share, although clients said strategic planning and fact-based selling were among other important uses of our data.

Across NPD, we continue our efforts to constantly enhance the products and services we offer our clients in order to drive satisfaction levels higher. Data quality and timing are the top two areas of focus for 2006. Additionally, our recently upgraded NPD PowerView/PowerViewer delivery tools remain part of our plan to improve clients’ overall experience with NPD. As always, we welcome feedback from our clients and Retailer Partners. Please contact your NPD business unit leadership or account representative if you have any additional ideas or suggestions to share.