Media Coverage – Business Page – Irish Examiner – 31st March 2017

Measuring customer satisfaction is one of the biggest lessons SMEs can learn from larger firms, says Brendan Lenihan, managing director of Navigo Consulting Ltd.

(L-R) Gina London; Brendan Lenihan; John Finn; Paul O’Donovan speaking at PODA SME Conference 30th March 2017.

Mr Lenihan told Munster business leaders at the Brexit seminar in Cork’s Clayton Hotel, that larger firms devote huge energy to capturing, measuring and acting upon their ‘net promoter score’ — the ratio of 9-10 scores vs 1-6 scores from customers.

“The score is based on the oldest market research question that you can ask, namely ‘How likely are you to recommend us to a friend?’ It’s a simple and cost-effective question to ask,” Mr Lenihan said. “All the larger firms ask their customers this question. When I work with SMEs, in most cases they’ve no real evidence of what their customers think of them.”

This was one aspect of a talk in which Mr Lenihan offered SMEs advice on succession planning, new technologies and the need to bring in non-executive directors with new ideas.

“SMEs often only have a vague understanding their customers,” he said. “They need to think like the larger firms, or they will continue to be over-run by them.”

Mr Lenihan also used the image of the day. In urging SME owners to take on outside experts and non-exec directors, he compared them to player-managers John Giles, Graham Souness and Kenny Dalglish. He said they all enjoyed past successes, just not in the modern Premier League.

Online article – http://www.irishexaminer.com/business/exporters-to-uk-have-18-months-to-prepare-for-life-with-trade-tariffs-post-brexit-446650.html

Navigo MD Brendan Lenihan was addressing the Paul O’Donovan & Associates SME Conference 2017.