ICONICS Latest Customer Survey Shows We’re Walking the Walk

Some Key Takeaways

• Most users are satisfied with ICONICS flagship product GENESIS64.
• Most users feel that ICONICS is at least as good if not better than our competitors in terms of our company and quality.
• Customers are largely satisfied with the expertise of the ICONICS team.
• Most customers praised the expertise and efforts of the ICONICS Quality Professional Services (QPS) team.
• ICONICS provides substantial value to our customers.
• ICONICS products are very competitive.

Ultimately, ICONICS strives for continuous improvement in our work and our products, and is proud to see those efforts recognized in both quantitative and qualitative feedback from our customers.

The Value of Customer Feedback

The other day, my daughter was looking for a nearby tailor to take her pants to be altered. We had never heard any comment or referral about the possible options close by our home, so she looked at the reviews to help her decide. She read these and chose one tailor, which was an excellent choice. They did outstanding work at a fair price.

Customer reviews provide valuable insight into a company, and it makes sense to read about real-world experiences of people who have used a company’s products and/or services. This information gives you a more well-rounded understanding of the company’s offering, shedding light on the quality of the products, customer service, and overall customer satisfaction. You also get a feel for whether you can and want to work with that company. On the flipside, it’s also extremely important for the business to hear about customers’ real-life experiences and perspectives and use this information to improve and excel.

ICONICS recognizes this and has numerous ways to measure customer satisfaction. For example, when users are dissatisfied, they usually call our support team to let them know, so we have these metrics. But this group is not necessarily representative of all users since customers do not usually call up to say, “Hey, nothing’s wrong. Just wanted to let you know that all is great.”

So, to get a more representative understanding of where we stand with respect to overall customer satisfaction, ICONICS sends out a survey. Here's a brief description.

ICONICS’ Customer Survey in a Nutshell

Twice annually, we send a survey to some of our customers, partners, and distributors. The survey contains about twenty questions that include a combination of multiple choice and open-ended questions. Possible answers for the multiple-choice questions range from totally dissatisfied to totally satisfied or more/less competitive than our competition. We also ask some open-ended questions to get a general impression of ICONICS. For instance, areas customers would like to see improvements in the future, and so on.

What Some Responses Revealed about ICONICS Products, Service, and Team

First, we’d like to note that we had a nearly tenfold increase in response over our very first survey ten years ago, one that certainly reflects an increase in our overall customer base.

In addition to our larger customer base, our high response rate can also be attributed to the gift card incentive offered to the first 100 respondents as well as to all the work our marketing team did in sending teaser emails that encouraged customers to take the survey. In any case, this blog covers the responses to the questions that we feel are representative of the current state of our customer satisfaction. Let’s take a look.

#1: How satisfied are our customers with GENESIS64, our flagship product?

For the first question, we looked at how satisfied our customers are with GENESIS64, our flagship product. The bars represent totally satisfied on the left down to totally dissatisfied second from the right to don't know in the last column. The good news is that majority of our users are totally satisfied followed by somewhat satisfied with GENESIS64, which represents how we're doing today with our core product. A positive sign indeed.

#2: How does ICONICS quality compare to our competitors?

Regarding overall satisfaction and keeping in mind that we take our quality very seriously, we asked how ICONICS' quality compared to our competitors. The bar graph shows that a vast majority of our users feel our company and quality compared are at least as good if not better than the competition.

#3: How satisfied are our customers with the expertise of the ICONICS team?

We don't just ask about the products, we also asked about how our users feel when they interface with ICONICS staff. So, we asked how satisfied our customers are with the expertise of ICONICS technical support. Again, our customers are largely satisfied. They know that when they call with an issue, they're going to speak with someone who knows the product well and who is going to help them with any issue they might have. And this is another excellent sign that customers are working with an impressive product and company.

However, you can see that some users expressed some level of dissatisfaction. At ICONICS, we believe there is always room for improvement, and of course, we won't be happy until everyone is satisfied. The results though show a broader context as to where we are overall as an organization.

#4: How satisfied are our customers with the expertise of ICONICS QPS team?

For this question, we had a lot more respondents who replied, “Don’t know”. These results are not surprising since not everyone leverages the services of our QPS team. ICONICS Quality Professional Services team is comprised of highly skilled application experts who can provide a range of services including application startup assistance, advisory services, design recommendations, and a variety of customized support. So while not everyone weighed in on this question, it's clear that respondents who have worked with our QPS team universally praised the team and its efforts. Almost everyone was satisfied with very few people who were dissatisfied. (Way to go QPS team!)

#5: In comparison to our competitors, how do our customers rate ICONICS' overall value?

And then finally, in comparison to our competitors, we asked how our customers would rate ICONICS' overall value. At the end of the day, we're here to provide value to our customers. It's part of our mission statement, and if we're not doing that, then we're doing something wrong. Again, the good news is that we are mostly in the green box, meaning that we do provide value to our customers and that our products are very competitive.

#6: How do customers describe ICONICS products?

One of the questions we asked was how our customers would describe ICONICS products. Here are a few of the actual responses:

"The most flexible SCADA software on the market."
"Best SCADA package on the market, bar none."
"High quality platform backed by a world class service team that integrators can leverage to provide value-added solutions for their customers."
"ICONICS provides an enterprise HMI SCADA that is easy to implement."
"Reliable products with consistent high level of service, technology, and responsive communication."

OK, not every single response was positive, but we wanted to highlight the ones above because beyond the quantitative measurements in the graphs above, these free-form responses show that people are generally happy with ICONICS and our products.

ICONICS Up for the Challenge of Continuous Improvement

So, that's just a quick overview of some of the results. What's next? As with each survey, we closely analyze the results to identify any changes over previous results. If we do identify any decreases, management will investigate the root causes and formulate corrective action plans.

We will also contact some of these customers as appropriate. In the survey, we did ask if customers would be willing to speak with anyone from ICONICS. For those who said yes, we will reach out. This especially includes customers who had product ideas since we want to get their feedback and see where these ideas might fit into our roadmap.

Richard Henderson, ICONICS Director of Planning and Integration who designed and correlated the survey, had this to say, “It's important not just to hear the negative when issues come up but also to hear the positive about our company and our products. We know we can't rest on our laurels. In fact, there's always going to be room for improvement. What matters is that we strive for continuous improvement in our work and our products. And we’re definitely up for the challenge.”

Yes, we are up for the challenge, and we are walking the walk. After all, the quality of our team, work, and products is recognized by our customers.

Thank you to all our customers who participated in the survey. We sincerely welcome and appreciate your feedback.