Customer Survey Results In

Hot off the press, we are delighted to be able to share with you the headline findings from this year’s Customer Satisfaction Survey which has once again included a number of Sungard Availability Services Ireland customers. First of all we’d like to extend our thanks to all of the 200 customers who took the time out of their busy schedules to give us their feedback on how we’re performing, what we’re doing well and where we have room for improvement.

There was a roughly equal split of Recovery Services (169) and Managed Services (173) subscribers with the sample also including 17 new customers. Respondents also included 24 cloud subscribers, 22 Consulting and 12 software subscribers. As in previous years, the format was a telephone interview covering all aspects of interaction with Sungard Availability Services from initial contact through the complete lifecycle of engagement and operational delivery and, in addition to scoring our overall performance, valuable feedback was provided in the form of customer comments.

Although there has been some movement to certain individual results, 95% of customers questioned said they would continue to subscribe, a virtually identical figure to last year, and 94% would recommend us to others. This led to a ‘Net Promoter’ score (calculated as the number of promoters less detractors) of 79.4%, which is slightly down on 2014’s figure of 82% but still a very high result when compared with the industry benchmark.

The results show that there are several areas in which we need to improve our performance but we are pleased that, overall, those customers questioned were satisfied with the most important aspects of the Sungard AS service.

However, we were disappointed to learn that the area of ‘Contracts, invoicing and administration’ remains an area that still requires improvement with a satisfaction score of 88.9% and we will be addressing this. You also felt the initial on boarding process has room for improvement and we will be looking closely at your comments regarding this area.

You rate our initial sales contact highly, giving us a satisfaction rating of 93.8%, and sales contact overall a score of 90% – a small improvement year-on-year. Our ‘input to the technical solution’ also scored highly at 90.8%.

We were thrilled to see excellent satisfaction levels (93.1%) with our Managed Services and Cloud Services (92.3%) although many respondents were less impressed with our customer portal.

Project management is another area clearly indicated for investigation and improvement planning with a slippage recorded in satisfaction levels compared with 2014’s figure of 73%.

Service Management scored highly with a 93.3% satisfaction rating and many positive comments including “they have the ability to understand, respond and be flexible” and good at “owning and resolving issues”.

Recovery Services continued to enjoy excellent satisfaction levels (95.9%) with consistently high average scores recorded. This was reflected in the feedback on our handling of alerts and invocations. Altogether, 41 of the customers surveyed had placed Sungard AS on alert while six had invoked. All reported that they were satisfied, with 41 saying they were very satisfied.

As in 2014, excellent satisfaction levels were recorded (98.4%) with our site facilities. This year a new question was introduced regarding access and security at our sites and this received a 96.8% rating.

Those surveyed gave Sungard AS marketing and communications a thumbs up (89.3%) with encouraging comments on AVAIL’s new online format including “better, more accessible and easier to navigate”, “articles are interesting and well researched” and “informative, a good update as to where Sungard is going.”

We were particularly pleased to see that of the 43 customers who had contacted us in the last 12 months you feel our handling of issues and problems has improved significantly (90.5%).

Most importantly of all, almost 9/10 of those customers questioned said that in the event of a disaster they are confident that Sungard AS would fulfil their recovery needs.

As in previous years, we asked survey participants for their views on for key statements and are pleased with the responses:

  • Sungard AS is a name I can always trust (168 agreed)
  • Sungard AS always deliver on what they promise (162 agreed)
  • if a problem arises, I can always count on Sungard AS to reach a fair and satisfactory solution (172 agreed)
  • Sungard AS always treats me with respect (194 agreed)

We will now dig deeper into the survey results to see what lessons can be learned and how we can improve those areas highlighted as concerns. Thank you once again to all the customers who took time to give us their feedback and we will share news of developments in future editions of AVAIL.

If you would like to share your opinions on any aspect of our service or have any questions, please email David Parr, Head of Customer Services, at david.parr@sungardas.com