<p>India is a country where apart from government organizations, private, public, non-profit, etc. occupy massive space in the market. In a developing country like ours, the question stumbled upon is why and how to review the performance of say a company, to compare operations of an organisation with its competitors and why is it important to measure, analyze & benchmark customer satisfaction levels. How are they interconnected and why are they relevant for an organisation.<br><br>Benchmarking is the practice of a business comparing key metrics of their operations to other similar companies. In the business world, companies use benchmarking as a point of reference as well. They use benchmark reports & analytics, as a way to compare themselves to others in the industry. It is a way by which you can quickly determine the real health of the business. A benchmark report can examine things like revenue, expenses, production amounts, employee productivity, etc. Benchmarking as a process helps us to assess the organization's strategy, products, and processes, and compare them with those of the world's best-in-class organisations. The analytics also brings out specific opportunity areas to improve to thrive and even survive - which in today's volatile world - is the question most management are seeking answers on.<br><br>For a company to differentiate itself from its competitors, also requires benchmarking as a strategic management imperative. Benchmarking occurs across all types of companies and industries, services, technology, education, and manufacturing to name a few. Benchmarking and related analytics hold great importance for most evolved companies - who use such measures and diagnostics as a strategic driver of improvement, growth and profitability.<br><br>Companies use benchmarking as a way to help become more competitive. By looking at how other companies are doing, they can identify areas where they are underperforming. Companies are also able to identify ways that can improve their own operations without having to recreate the wheel. They are able to accelerate the process of change because they have models from other companies in their industry to help guide their changes.<br><br>For this measurement, there is the need for an index that can help us measure the performance. For the measurement of the performance of the organization and customer satisfaction levels and to know where exactly the company lies in the market, we need to benchmark, we need a reference. For the measurement and analysis of the performance, the organization needs to know at what level it is standing when compared to the competitors.<br><br>Hence, benchmarking is essential so as to have a comparative analysis on various factors, as to where do the organization stands at the national and international level. This comparison helps the companies to know where the company is lacking behind and to know the weak points which can be improved upon. We need to have an index that will help us to benchmark all aspects of customer experience with industry peers, do cross sector benchmarking as well as cross national benchmarking.<br><br>While on one hand, the developed countries are already aware of the need for measurement of the company's performance on customer satisfaction and have been using this measurement & diagnostics measures, in developing countries like ours, the need has not yet been recognized. . Addressing this issue and bringing it to the forefront is important. In a country where the companies and organizations are rapidly increasing & growing and survival is becoming tough. Also to maintain the status of the market leader becomes all the more difficult. In such a scenario, one needs to highlight that measuring the performance of the organization along with customer satisfaction analysis is required.<br><br>Benchmarking provides several benefits to the organization like cultural change, improved performance and better trained employees. Measuring customer satisfaction will help us to improve the performance of the organization and also to drive our efforts to achieve the target in the best possible manner.<br>At the end, the goal of any company or organization is to be the market leader and obtain prominence & relevance for all stakeholders & society. To achieve this goal, performance review and measurement is essential. Benchmarking and measuring customer satisfaction will not only help us to improve product features, design & quality, service delivery & overall end customer experience but will also help improve the performance of Indian organizations', maturity of our economy and society, at the national level.<br><br><em>The author, Bawa Grover, is manager partner at Hexagon Consulting</em><br><br>bawa.g@hexagonconsulting.co, @Groverbawa</p>
