Researching customer priorities at IAG Cargo

IAG Cargo emerged out of the merger between British Airways World Cargo and Iberia Cargo. Its mission is to be the world’s leading air cargo provider. Specialist b2b research agency Circle Research (www.circle-research.com) worked with the organisation before its merger to identify what really mattered to its customers.
As with many b2b organisations, success is measured by operational metrics; for example, in this industry, numbers of waybills written, proportions of shipments flownas-booked and success in notification of delivery. These metrics are business-and employee-performance indicators but are not directly related to customer satisfaction or loyalty. They may measure success but cannot shed light on what matters to customers.
A series of in-depth customer interviews were scheduled in the organisation’s principal trading locations: USA, Germany, UK, India and China. The discussions were informal and enjoyable and ensured participants opened up and spoke freely. Circle also used a variety of exploratory and projective techniques to identify the most important ‘moments of truth’ when customers come into contact with the airline. Importantly, the ways in which those moments of truth sometimes fail to live up to expectations and a definition of excellence was elicited.
Armed with this information, Circle used a series of internal focus groups to establish how employees viewed their customers. What did they feel to be the most important customer priorities and, of course, what was preventing them from offering the best possible levels of service at each of those key moments?
Circle then quantified performance across the key customer touch points. With over 2,000 respondents, this was the largest survey of its kind and it enabled competitors to be evaluated against the priority touch points. This research then improved not only traditional performance indicators but enabled the customer priorities to be embedded in its culture.

Research leads to better-tasting frozen pizza

Schwan, a leading US frozen food specialist, faced a key strategic problem. It learnt that its main competitor – Kraft – was working on a new type of frozen pizza that had a rising crust. Schwan knew that if Kraft could succeed in creating a better-tasting frozen pizza, then it had the potential to command a market that was dominated by lower-quality products. As one article put it ‘. . . . it was often hard to taste the difference between a frozen pizza and the cardboard box it came in.’⁴¹ What Schwan didn’t know was how fast Kraft was planning on rolling out this new product and, therefore, how quickly it needed to respond.
To find this information out it contracted a corporate intelligence firm (a SCIP member), who in turn hired a former undercover law enforcement specialist who had built his skills by spending years infiltrating criminal gangs. Through adopting a series of ‘fake’ phone disguises, including a journalist, environmental campaigner and potential supplier, the specialist made phone calls to various individuals involved with the construction and operation of a new plant, together with public employees involved with approving construction and running. Through this he was able to piece together an accurate picture of a very high projected volume of sales. Based on this advice, Schwan invested considerable resources into launching its own ‘Freschetta’ brand, which was able to secure a large part of this important new market.