Let’s take a deeper look at the implications of your overall mean score results from the World Class Leadership Assessment. 

 

Keep in mind once again that when we refer to you as the 'supplier' or 'leader' we are talking about your relationship with constituents, actual customers, those who supervise you and those who experience the product/service/work you provide. You are the supplier of 'Leadership' as it is observed and felt by others.

 

1.00-3.00

Alert! Assessment scores in this range should signal an emergency for you.  These lows signals indicate a fundamental need to examine your entire product/service delivery system and approach as a leader.  No supplier can hope to maintain a relationship with customers unless they are the sole provider of an in-demand product or service (like a monopoly - only game in town).  Failure of the supplier is imminent.

Although in most cases, studying areas where you scored lowest might be helpful for improvement, in this case scores for all of the values are so low that the ongoing existence of any potential relationship with customers or constituents is in question. 

Your customers and those in your circle of influence and those you may be supervising are experiencing more than inconvenience, in fact they are in a painful, losing scenario and may be hostile.  Negative return and recommend rates will reflect a rapidly deteriorating reputation, and widespread motivation by some to take punitive action against you.  Individuals with scores this low fall into the unenviable description of ‘being known as the WORST’.  1000% or more Negative Return and Recommend Rate.

 

3.00 - 4.00

You should smell plenty of smoke.  Although customer satisfaction is also very low here, customers are not quite as hostile as in the previous example.  Customers express dissatisfaction by not returning because of a loss of confidence and irritation.  If you have a business you will be experiencing declining market share.  Closer examination of the asessment will reveal several weak areas that need to be repaired to at least move scores out of the zone of dissatisfaction and into the zone of indifference.  These are low scores that are affecting the you negatively.  Customers will not return or recommend you to others.  It will take a serious campaign to turn these numbers around.  This supplier could be referred to as BAD.  20% to 100% of customers are referring negatively to this supplier.

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4.10 - 6.00

Not working to potential.  These scores are often seen in long term suppliers who have not re-tooled to stay current with best practices in their industry.  Little innovation, coupled with no recent improvement in product or service creates a stale and vulnerable supplier that does little to make themselves memorable.  MEDIOCRE is the most accurate description for a leader with scores in this range.  It is not unusual for morale in the supplier's organization to be low as well with feelings of futility for overcoming organizational inertia, or a resignation by personnel that "things don’t change around here".

By no means does this supplier have a secure hold on market share, relationships, or their position as an employee. While a crisis may or not be just around the corner, this leader needs to get to work on improvement before they slip back to the BAD category. 0% Positive Return & Recommend Rate.

 

6.10 - 7.80

CONFIDENT COMPLACENCY.  Leaders who score in this range on the World Class Leadership Assessment have not completely embraced excellence but are not in any immediate danger of failing because of negative customer feelings.  The challenge is that unless there is a crisis on the horizon, or a big opportunity, it is hard to get motivated for additional effort to increase excellence. While several things may be going OK there is a need for more initiative to push scores into positive R&R% territory.

 

Additionally, those with an overall score around 6.0 or higher might have the mis-perception that they are in positive territory.  This false sense of confidence means little more than that the supplier seems to be holding their ground. 

There are several values scoring well and customers may be patronizing this supplier because of convenient location, special sale prices, or other particular benefit.  To enjoy higher levels of satisfaction with accompanying positive word of mouth and return business however, the supplier needs to push their excellence scores higher. 

 

It should be noted that improving satisfaction scores to more excellent levels is not necessarily easy, or everyone would be doing it.  A concerted effort will require more focused energy as a leader to get results.  There may be low hanging fruit where things can be easily improved in this case, which this assessment may reveal.  When scores are this high, there may be one or two things that can be done to push you solidly into the zone of positive return and recommend rate, preference and loyalty.  While there are some customers supporting you they are not necessarily loyal or recommending you to others.

 

7.90 - 9.10

This leader is DOING WELL.  Be confident that customers are being satisfied and that you must be performing well in most areas and very well in some others.  This supplier can expect anywhere from one in five customers (on the low end) to return to buy again to as many as 100% who will be referring positively to you and many who will be telling others about you.  Your customers will be sharing positive unsolicited testimonials with other customers at a good rate - who may be patronizing you based on that recommendation.  This situation is ideal for you.  When you have gotten this far in creating positive customer impressions it means that you are not unfamiliar with good management practices and the hard work it takes to focus on excellence.  Now you can make the decision to push satisfaction levels even higher - to extend the lead over competitors, sneak up on industry benchmarks and to become one of the best with a higher level of excellence in your particular market and industry.

 

9.10 -10.00

Wow! This supplier is KNOWN AS THE BEST.  This is where excellence lives.  You are doing it right and have consistently made customer satisfaction an imperative throughout all dimensions of product/service/work delivery.  Your name is likely to be widely renowned as an industry leader, you can command premium pricing or other advantages, and enjoys high levels of free word of mouth advertising.  Competitors are probably far behind, or not even in the same league.

Leaders in the 9.10 to 10.00 range can be leveraging the strength of their position to drive further research and development into evolving their product or service line to continue to evolve and dominate the leading edge. 

‘World Class’, according to universal measurement of customers is 9.24 or higher.  Suppliers who achieve this rating can confidently use the term 'World Class' or the term ‘Excellent’ in their marketing and may find that it is often others who use this term when referring to them as their name will be synonymous with very high quality, excellence and the highest levels of satisfaction. 

There are very few leaders who enjoy the rarefied air of overall excellence ratings as high as 9.5 or more.  It requires incredible energy and systemic and comprehensive commitment to achieve and maintain satisfaction levels this high-- but it is definitely worth it to be the best.  Look for return and recommend rates as high as 1600%.