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Customer Satisfaction Program Q&A
Certification Response Allowance (CRA)Customer Satisfaction
Customer Satisfaction Excellence
Customer Satisfaction Target Scores and Calculation Methods
Internal User Reports
Loyalty Analyzer Functionality in PAL
Operational MetricsPAL Access
PAL Reporting
Survey Responses
Survey Submission
A: The Certification Response Allowance is to assist Partners that are not meeting current Theatre objectives. CRA allows partners to "discount" low customer satisfaction response scores at the time of recertification if Partner is not meeting current Theatre Objectives. Gold and Silver partners who meet the CRA criteria will have a defined number of low scores automatically removed and their overall satisfaction scores will be recalculated. This is only for Gold and Silver recertification purposes, and only when calculating the results at the time of CSAT measurement. This will not affect the customer satisfaction data integrity as overall scores are only being recalculated and no surveys are deleted. tCRA only applies to Partners that do not meet the Theatre Score.
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A: Customer satisfaction through Cisco Channel Partners is a quantitative measure of both pre- and postsales support that an end customer experiences while purchasing Cisco products or services from a partner. Cisco uses an independent company, Walker Information, to survey the end customer and obtain an objective customer satisfaction score. Cisco management uses this score as an evaluation tool.
Return to Top A: Cisco believes that customer satisfaction is a key corporate objective, and has determined that customer loyalty is directly related to a satisfactory purchase and support experience. This is a "best practices" activity at Cisco, and the company attributes a significant portion of its success to achieving a high customer satisfaction score. Now more than ever, customer satisfaction stands as a key competitive differentiator for our partners, as it expands partners' eligibility for financial incentives.
Return to Top A: Cisco regards partners as a direct extension of the company and wants to share its own success factors to help them become more successful. In addition, the end customer experience should be the same whether purchasing directly from Cisco or through Cisco partners. Customer satisfaction is the cornerstone by which Cisco and its partners are aligned to achieve customer loyalty and retention.
Return to Top A: The first day to send surveys for Cisco Systems' FY2012 Customer Satisfaction Survey was August 1st, 2011.
Return to Top A: The last day which survey responses are able to be received and recognized for FY2012 will be July 13th, 2012 at 5PM (PDT). The survey year closes two weeks prior to the Cisco fiscal year end which allows for reprogramming of the FY2013 survey to open on July 30th, 2012. (Note: this closing date applies to Global Shared Support, Certification and VIP program requirements).
Return to Top Q: What survey questions must be answered to be considered a "valid survey" for the VIP and Certification programs?
A: Demographics questions (first questions asked in the survey)
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Cisco Pre-Sales Channel Partners Pre-Sales Overall Question
Post-Sales Overall Question
Cisco Post-Sales Channel Partners Q: What is the strategic intent of the customer satisfaction requirement for worldwide Cisco Channel partners?
A: The intent of the Cisco Channel Partner Program is to help partners provide breakthrough customer value and gain long-term business and customer loyalty. To do this, Cisco requires minimum customer satisfaction levels for all Gold, Silver, and Premier Certified Partners.
Return to Top The program's customer satisfaction requirement enhances a partner's ability to anticipate and deliver on their customers' pre- and post-sales needs by providing partners with objective customer feedback and Cisco customer satisfaction best practices and tools for success. A: The data is extracted from the Cisco Survey database, currently referred to as Walker Information Internet Reporting.
Return to Top A: Effective FY2013, Cisco simplified the customer satisfaction process to:
Q: Will all survey sources be used for the Value Incentive Program, certification and CSAT excellence programs?
A: No, Certification, CSAT excellence targets and VIP Partners will be based on Partner sourced and Cisco sourced surveys only (effective FY2013).
Return to Top Return to Top A: Please refer to the Value Incentive Program homepage for additional information: http://www.cisco.com/go/vip
Return to Top A: A partner's CSAT is measured twice a year (January Q2 and July Q4) using results received in the 12 months previous to each measurement date. The CSAT measurement is no longer required on a partner's certification anniversary date.
A: Cisco requires all Cisco certified partners to meet customer satisfaction objectives in order to renew certification. Cisco has initially involved Cisco Gold, Silver, and Premier Certified Partners in an assessment against specific customer satisfaction objectives, and will incorporate additional partners for targeted satisfaction achievement as needed in the future.
Return to Top Q: When are new Cisco Gold or Silver Certified Partners or partners who are re-certifying measured against customer satisfaction objectives?
A: For new certification the following requirements apply:
For re-certifying partners, the following requirements apply:
Q: What if a partner "misses" the customer satisfaction objective at the time of certification renewal?
A: The key objective of customer satisfaction is to share Cisco best practices. If partners miss either the target, or the minimum number of required unique responses, Cisco will provide resources to help them understand why the score was below target. Partners will be put on a get-well plan for six months (if eligible)on the assumption that additional resources will help improve their customer relationship process and meet the target score at the end of this period. If at the end of the get-well period the agreed goals have not been met, the partner will be decertified.
Return to Top Q: What if a partner exceeds the customer satisfaction target objective at the time of certification renewal?
A: If partners exceed their customer satisfaction target, they may be eligible for the CSAT Excellence Star.
Return to Top A: To qualify for CSAT Excellence recognition, certified partners must meet or exceed the CSAT Excellence target for their geographic region, based upon a minimum number of survey responses. CSAT is measured twice a year (end of January Q2 and end of July Q4). Gold and Silver Certified Partners must achieve a minimum of 30 responses; Premier Certified Partners must receive a minimum of 20 responses. The CSAT Excellence targets for the current fiscal year are based on the actual partner CSAT performance of the previous fiscal year. CSAT scores will continue to be calculated as the weighted average of partner pre- and post-sales support.
Return to Top A: Partners with the highest customer satisfaction distinction within each geographic region are recognized on the Cisco Partner Locator. These partners are recognized for achieving Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) Excellence, which enables customers, partners, and the Cisco sales teams to identify the top performing partners in terms of customer satisfaction per the Cisco worldwide assessment process.
Return to Top A: Partners that have achieved CSAT Excellence will be identified with a Star in the Partner Locator search results. Partner Locator users can also search for all partners that have achieved CSAT Excellence using the Advanced Search function.
Return to Top A: CSAT Excellence is awarded twice a year (end of January Q2 and end of July Q4). Qualification will be determined on the first day of each Cisco fiscal quarter based on partner CSAT performance during the prior 12 months. The Partner Locator will be updated accordingly.
Return to Top Q: How often will the qualification criteria for Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) Excellence be reviewed?
A: The criteria will be reviewed and updated annually for the November award, when full Customer Satisfaction data from the previous fiscal year is available.
Return to Top A: Partner targets are based on a combination of pre-sales and post-sales overall satisfaction as determined by responses to two questions in the Cisco Corporate Survey - Channel Partner section:
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The actual calculation: A: The customers satisfaction targets are based on the averages achieved by partners in the Cisco theaters. They are theater specific to accommodate the cultural customer rating differences. Customer satisfaction targets are set by theater, and all partners within the theater have the same target. Cisco applies the same methodology it uses internally to set partner customer satisfaction targets. Customer satisfaction data collected from the previous year's survey is used as the actual baseline in developing customer satisfaction objectives for future years.
Return to Top A: Typically, messaging to all worldwide partner PAL users is sent in the August timeframe, informing partners of the customer satisfaction targets. The information is also available on the Cisco Partner Central Website
Return to Top A: Partner targets are based on a combination of pre- and post-sales overall satisfaction as determined within the Walker Information Survey, "Channel Partner" section. Namely, question 15: "Overall, how would you rate your satisfaction with the pre-sales support provided by (your) Cisco channel partner?" and question 18: "Overall, how would you rate your satisfaction with the post-sales support (repair, maintenance, and technical support) provided by (your) Cisco channel partner?"
Return to Top A: The Customer Satisfaction module has four reports for Cisco internal use:
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A: Access Performance Metrics Central
Return to Top A: Loyalty Analyzer is a function within the Partner Access onLine (PAL) tool which focuses on Partner Customer Loyalty. Loyalty Analyzer shows customer loyalty to the partner and associated revenue dollars from that customer.
Return to Top A: Loyalty Analyzer in PAL enables our partners to mitigate the risk of losing existing customers and focus on top line business growth. This component affords our partners a more transparent and actionable blueprint for engagement based on identification of customers earmarked as "trapped" or "high risk" of leaving the partner, with associated partner bookings dollars aggregated to these customers. Moving from today's specific customer satisfaction score to linking financial impact around customer loyalty with a longer-term, strategic approach reinforces a partner's focus on customer satisfaction with visible financial metrics supporting top-line growth.
Return to Top A: Partners benefit from a customized view of loyalty data that segments their customers by loyal, accessible, trapped, or at-risk segmentation. Financials tied to customer loyalty metrics enable partners to understand the financial impact of losing a customer based on historical bookings data, with additional capability to conduct "what if" analysis to customize their financial results based on partners' known bookings and profit margins. Moreover, access to year-over-year trending based on customer loyalty segmentation allows partners to pinpoint whether actions taken one year had any impact on top-line growth in subsequent years.
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A: Responses from multiple loyalty-based questions on the Cisco corporate survey drive the calculation and the resulting segmentation.
Return to Top A: This calculation is a proprietary and patented formula created by our survey provider, WalkerInformation.
Return to Top A: In some cases we are unable to provide your bookings amount. In anticipation of this we have developed a screen where you as the partner can enter bookings from your financials. Once entered, the system recalculates the potential risk based on dollars entered and loyalty segmentations from your survey responses.
Return to Top A: The Cisco-provided bookings include any bookings from the previous four closed Cisco quarters. It does not take into account returns (RMAs) or any other bookings adjustments that may have happened after the quarter close. The numbers are based on Cisco's fiscal calendar, which may or may not map to your company fiscal calendar. Anticipating this to be the case in some situations, we developed a screen where you as the partner can enter bookings from your financials. Once entered, the system recalculates the potential risk based on dollars entered and loyalty segmentations.
Return to Top A: PAL (Partner Access onLine) is supported by the Partner Relationship Team.You'll most likely find the answer to your question however if an answer is not available, you may open a support case.(http://www.cisco.com/go/prt)
Return to Top A: The Operational Metrics section provides data that allows you to compare your Cisco customer satisfaction scores at the question level to the corresponding scores of other participating partners.
Return to Top Comparative data is provided for both pre-sales and post-sales processes. Select either Pre-Sales or Post-Sales operational metrics from the Choose Metrics drop-down menu. Click one of the attribute questions to view the comparative metrics. Your company results will display, along with the results and operational profile of partners who have the highest customer satisfaction scores for that specific question. Note: The metric data reflects static quarterly data points for current best-in-class partners, to be used for comparative purposes only and to assist in shaping an appropriate level of investment per attribute. It does not imply a direct correlation; many intangibles that determine an end customer's final rating are not shown here (overall relationship management, for example). A: Partners have real-time access to their scores (based on specific customers) via Partner Access onLine (PAL) at http://www.cisco.com/go/pal, a Web-based partner tool. Partners can log in and view their specific customer feedback and satisfaction data. As a result, both Cisco and the partner may collectively review the same data.
Return to Top Q: Can Cisco Certified partners use their own satisfaction survey tool(s) as a substitute for information supplied within the Cisco Walker Information Reporting data?
A: No. Partners can use their own tools for internal purposes, but only Walker Information results are used for the Cisco Certification process to ensure consistency of scores between partners and with Cisco. Cisco must adhere to one measurement as defined by the responses the company collects, but Cisco will incorporate suggestions for improvement as appropriate and reasonable.
Return to Top Q: Is PAL customer satisfaction data available to all partners, not just Cisco Gold, Silver and Premier Certified Partners?
A: All Cisco Authorized Resellers and Cisco Registered Partners have access to the same data and are afforded the same customer satisfaction tools as Cisco certified partners.
Return to Top A: All partners and Cisco employees can access PAL
Return to Top A: Original access to PAL must be granted to a partner by a partner administrator or a Cisco PAM/SE. A partner can request that an individual be set up as a partner administrator for the PAL tool. Once this is done, the partner-designated administrator can add or delete users within PAL as required, and at the partner's discretion.
Return to Top A: The following criteria must be met in order to access the PAL application:
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If you are having problems accessing PAL, click the "Ask a Question" link to submit your support case to the PAL support team. For any customer satisfaction related issues, please open a case with the Partner Relationship Team. A: If you receive the following error message when trying to grant a user access to the PAL tool:
Return to Top "User" is not associated with any company in the partner's database. This user will need to associate themselves with a company site in our partner database to get access to PAL, as well as other partner tools. A user can update their association. A: PAL access is now managed through Partner Self-Service (PSS). All Cisco employees and PAL partner administrators will be able to use PSS to grant access to the PAL tool. To grant access:
Return to Top Click on the "User Access" link located in the Customer Satisfaction module. If you are a PAL partner administrator, clicking on the "Manage Access" link in PAL will take you to the Manage Company Contacts access page, where you can grant access or change the access of your company employees who have a valid Cisco.com login. If you are a Cisco employee, you will be taken to the Partner Search page, where you can search for a specific partner. Once your partner company has been selected, you can search for all partner contacts or a specific one to grant or edit access. Return to Top A: The Reports section provides detailed information on survey responses and scores. You can compare your customer satisfaction scores with other Cisco theaters or your own company sites within a specific Cisco theater. You can also view these scores as they relate to your CSAT measurement period. Available reports are listed in the Choose Reports selection list.
Return to Top A: The pre-sales and post-sales detail reports provide a detailed view of the replies to and ratings for each survey question. These reports are also viewable by either theater or company comparison.
Return to Top These reports also allow you to download the detailed view of this information into an Excel spreadsheet. To do this, click the "Download Excel" link. A: The Previous Years Quick View and Summary report displays an overall view of survey result metrics from previous periods and a summary view of pre-sales and post-sales responses and ratings.
Return to Top Data is available from FY2011 (August 2010 to July 2011) and FY2012 (August 2011 to July 2012) . Use the "View by" drop-down menu to select the appropriate fiscal year data from either the Quick View section or the Summary View section. Use the "Jump to a Section" drop-down list to navigate from the Quick View section to the Summary section. A: The Pre-Sales and Post-Sales Summary report displays the number of replies to the pre-sales and post-sales overall satisfaction question and the overall score.
Return to Top The default report type is Theater Comparison, which compares your rating to the average score and the total number of responses received for all worldwide Cisco partners in each of the Cisco theaters. Company Comparison compares your rating to the average score and the total number of responses received for your company in each of the Cisco theaters. This option allows global partners to view its customer satisfaction ratings worldwide as a Cisco channel partner. A: During the survey process, respondents have the ability to select the partner they wish to survey. A customer may have been sent a survey from another Cisco partner, but chose to rate your company during the survey process.
Return to Top Q: I sent a survey invitation to my end customer and saw that a reply had been received on the PAL status page. However, when I look at my reports, I do not see a response from this customer. Why?
A: This will occur if the respondent received the survey, but did not identify your company as his or her Cisco channel partner when taking the survey. The respondent either rated another partner or did not identify a partner at all.
Return to Top A: PAL provides the following regional reporting:
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A: Partner customer satisfaction scores and response information for previous years can be viewed from the Reports section:
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A: Partners have access only to their own data, but the tool provides the aggregate results so that partners can measure themselves against aggregate data.
Return to Top A: When a PAL partner user logs in this page is their default page as it pertains specifically to how the partner is tracking towards their Certification renewal with Cisco. This site displays survey activity (# sent, # received, # valid, score, etc.) for the CSAT measurement period (end of January Q2 and end of July Q4).
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The above metrics represent the survey activity for the CSAT measurement periods (end of January Q2 and end of July Q4). A: The above metrics represent the survey activity for the Cisco survey year. Survey year represents August 1st through the end of the Cisco fiscal year.
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Q: I have entered contact names and sent surveys to 10 customers. How could I have received 20 responses?
A: The Customer Satisfaction survey has multiple sources (partners and Cisco direct sales). If a survey was sent by Cisco directly and the customer respondent selected you as the partner to rate, you will be credited for the response and the scores.
Return to Top A: Trying to maintain a high level of integrity with the survey, the business rules state "no response can be deleted for any reason".
Return to Top A: Customer Satisfaction surveys are sent to customers via multiple sources (partner, and Cisco direct sales, and secondary sources). If a survey was sent by Cisco directly and the customer respondent selected you as the partner to rate, you will be credited for the response and the scores.
Return to Top A: At times, contacts will request that their names be removed from the Survey Names database. If this happens to a survey that was sent by your company, you will see the contact's e-mail address in your Send Surveys filter under the filter name "Contacts Refused Survey".
Return to Top A: This will occur if the respondent received and opened the survey, but did not answer "Cisco Partner or Both" to either of the following questions.
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These questions are included in the survey to allow respondents to customize their personal survey experiences. If they only buy products and services from a Cisco partner, this will streamline the survey questions presented to them. Q: When I download the pre-sales or post-sales detail report, I see the company name, but not the names or e-mail addresses of the respondents. Why is this information not available?
A: In our efforts to assist our partners in responding to customer satisfaction areas for improvement, we ask customers while taking the survey if we can share their contact information with our partners. Where the customer has said "Yes", you will be able to view this information in total on the pre-sales or post-sales detail report download. Where the customer has said "No", only the respondent's company name will display on the report.
Return to Top Q: What if an end customer identifies a different partner for pre-sales support and post-sales support, even though the requesting partner assumed that he provided both pre- and post-sales support?
A: To ensure partner confidentiality, Cisco accepts only end-customer-confirmed data identifying a partner as having delivered pre- or post-sales support. Consequently, if customer A names ABC as its pre-sales partner and DEF as its post-sales partner, then ABC sees data for customer A only as it pertains to pre-sales support.
Return to Top Q: Most of the Cisco survey is about Cisco products and services; very little is about perceived benefit to the partner compared to the reasonably small amount of partner-specific questions. What is the value-add for partners to encourage their end customer to fill out the survey?
A: The survey generally is voluntary; more than 98 percent of the questions are optional to the end user. Cisco encourages end users to complete as much as they want to complete. The more data, the better for both the partner and Cisco to take the appropriate corrective action(s). Answers to the questions regarding Cisco product, services, price, return on investment (ROI), and the like stand to benefit both Cisco and the partner because each partner represents products and services both parties mutually want to succeed. Simply, if Cisco wins, the partner wins, and conversely. It is important to remember that most Cisco end customers are served only through a Cisco partner. The only way for Cisco to get an accurate picture of the customer satisfaction is to gauge this satisfaction through its partners.
Return to Top Q: Can I reserve the names I entered into PAL for the previous year's survey to be sent at a future date?
A: Yes. To reserve your contact names for the new survey year:
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The system will provide a confirmation message detailing contacts that were not successfully scheduled. All other contacts are now reserved, and the survey(s) will be sent on the date scheduled. The scheduled survey date can be updated as needed through the Edit feature. A: In the Send Surveys section, you can schedule and send surveys to your contacts from the previous fiscal year, add new contacts, view the status of scheduled or sent surveys, and edit end customer information. To do this:
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A: A customer satisfaction survey can be sent up to five times to an end customer via the survey e-mail invitation process.
A: Partners may reserve names at anytime, and the reserved name will be protected up through the following June of the Cisco fiscal year. This means that partners can "schedule to receive" an individual end-customer name during the first half of the fiscal year, even though they plan to send the survey during the second half of the fiscal year.
Return to Top Important Note: It is critical to schedule survey send dates for all end customer contacts in PAL. If you are not sure what date you want to send the survey, enter a date sometime before June 30, 2012. You will always be able to change the date to an earlier send date when you are ready to survey the contact. Contact names not reserved with a Send Survey date may be taken by the Cisco Systems, Inc. Corporate Survey mass mailing process, and you will not be credited with the send or the response. Q: I sent a survey invitation to my end customer, and saw that a reply had been received on the PAL status page. However, when I look at my reports, I do not see a response from this end customer. Why?
A: This will occur if the respondent received and opened the survey, but did not answer any questions yet, or answered "YES" to one of the following questions:
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These questions are included in the survey to allow respondents to customize their personal survey experiences. If they only buy products and services from a Cisco partner, this will streamline the survey questions presented to them. This may also happen when a respondent receives and opens the survey invitation, however, does not answer any questions and closes the web page most likely thinking they will come back to it. The survey has in fact been received, and opened, but no responses or scores have been provided yet. A: In PAL, go to the Send Surveys tab. Scroll down to the Survey Status list, and the Send Surveys filter. Select the contact(s) you would like to resend the survey to, and follow the system prompts to send the survey(s).
Return to Top A: The individual that originally entered the contact name in PAL will be notified via e-mail when an address is undeliverable. To correct the e-mail address and resend the survey invitation:
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Using the selection button on the far left column of the list, select the end customer contacts whose e-mail addresses you would like to revise.
A: Some end customer companies are running anti-spam filtering software on their e-mail systems. In some cases, these filters delete the e-mailed survey invitation prior to it reaching the end customer contact's e-mail queue. The contact does not see the survey invitation and may ask the partner to send another survey, which will again be caught in the anti-spam software program. Surveys come from the following email address: cisco-feedback@walkerinfo.com
Return to Top Q: When trying to enter a contact in PAL, I received the following message: "The e-mail address you entered has already been sent the same survey type. Please add or select another contact to send the survey to." What causes this?
A: The Customer Satisfaction survey can be sent by multiple survey sources (partners, Cisco field, secondary sources and other random survey sends throughout the year). This error message is provided if the e-mail address of the end customer you entered in PAL has already been sent a survey by one of the survey sources. It could also have been sourced by you as the partner, but contained an incorrect e-mail address, or the potential respondent asked to be taken off the survey list.
Return to Top When you receive this error, you should review the contact names in your Survey Filters list. If there is an incorrect address, you can then correct and resend. If the contact name is not appearing in any of your survey filters, you can assume the e-mail address has already been sent a survey for the current survey year by another source. A: Yes. You can send surveys to multiple contacts at the same end customer contact company.
Return to Top A: No, surveys may only be sent to external end customers, not internal employees within a partner’s organization.
Return to Top Q: How long does it take for a survey to be sent once I enter the information in PAL and hit "Submit"?
A: The survey send process is close to real time. Depending on the day and traffic on the survey engine, it may take up to 60 minutes, but this is unusual.
Return to Top A: The normal update time is 24 hours if the access or completion of the survey happened during the typical business hours. If a response was completed after 6 PM (PDT), the response may or may not be reflected within 24 hours and would appear in PAL the day after.
Return to Top Q: How can I delete a contact name from my survey list? I don't want them to receive any more surveys.
A: If a contact has NOT received a survey invitation within the current survey year that contact can be deleted within PAL.
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The system will ask you to confirm that you would like to delete these contacts. Once confirmed, the names will be removed from PAL. |
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*FY2012 Cisco Fiscal Year Dates:
End of Q2 - Measurement Date: Jan 28, 2012
End of Q4 - Measurement Date: Jul 28, 2012