The Survey Score

Together, Product, Price, Promotion and Place drive most of the Survey score. For example, if the product had a great price and design worth 80, but awareness of 60% and accessibility of 80%, customers might say, "The design is great and we like the price, but only 60% of us ever heard of it, and of those, only 80% could easily take delivery." The net score would be:

80 * (1 – (100% - 60%)/2) * (1 – (100% - 80%)/2) = 80 * (1 – 20%) * (1 – 10%) = 80 * 80% * 90% = 58.

However, several remaining factors could cause the score to fall further.

• The Rough Cut factors (pricing outside the range, positioning outside the inner black segment circle, or MTBF below the expected range) can cause the score to fall to zero.
• The Accounts Receivable Policy could cause the score to fall. At zero days (that is, you expect customers to pay cash on delivery) the score falls to 60% of its former value. At 30 days it falls to 95%. At 90 days it keeps 100%.

Two factors could cause the score to increase.

• "Salesmanship" or sales time. Your Sales Budget drives two factors, accessibility and Salesmanship. Accessibility examines infrastructure, is subject to diminishing returns, and is remembered from round to round. Salesmanship applies only to this year. The more you spend, the more sales time you allocate to the product. Salesmanship could increase your product's score by up to 15%.

Note that Customer Satisfaction is often at odds with other goals. High scores imply high costs, and that could imply low margins. From a competitive standpoint, your demand is driven by the spread between your score and your competitors' scores. If everyone scores the same, whether at 10 or 50, they sell the same number of units.