VARs Irked By New Microsoft Customer Satisfaction Policy

January is traditionally a time when Microsoft Gold partners re-enroll in the software giant's partner program. But what is normally an uneventful process is taking on new significance this year as Microsoft is now requiring VARs to take part in customer satisfaction surveys in order to stay in the program.

The new requirement, which took effect in November, means that Gold partners must have taken part in Microsoft's Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) Index within the previous 12 months as a condition of re-enrollment. It's the first major Microsoft partner program change in four years, and represents Microsoft's desire to help partners develop new skills and better differentiate themselves in the marketplace.

The problem is that many solution providers view customer satisfaction as something for which they should be solely responsible. VARs also aren't very gung-ho about sharing their customer contact data, even when a third party is handling the survey. Although VARs understand why Microsoft is doing this, they're not happy about it.

"Microsoft's heart is in the right place, but they shouldn't make it a requirement," said Dave Sobel, CEO of Evolve Technologies, a Fairfax, Va.-based Gold partner. "They want to identify top quality partners that are doing a great job, but imposing a customer satisfaction requirement isn't necessarily going to help them accomplish this goal."

Daniel Duffy, CEO of Valley Network Solutions, a Microsoft Gold partner in Fresno, Calif., says Microsoft has the right idea in seeking better customer satisfaction feedback but should also take into account the fact that many VARs already keep close track of this critically important metric on their own.

"By mandating it, and not truly getting to know their partners, Microsoft is creating unnecessary work and inefficiency for their partners, and themselves," Duffy said.

Microsoft's view is that the customer satisfaction survey requirement will help partners by letting them address specific areas of weakness that arise in the surveys. In an interview, Julie Bennani, general manager of the Microsoft Partner Network, said customer centricity is the key idea behind the survey requirement.

Microsoft will use the data to benchmark partners against their peers in the same solution areas and business model: For example, services partners will get ranked against other services partners, and this allows them to "have very customer-centric conversations with customers," according to Bennani.

Microsoft has also changed how it approaches reporting: VARs simply define where they are going to get measured, give Microsoft a list of customers, and a third party handles the study, Bennani said, adding that partners can submit their own benchmarking questions if they wish. To prevent gaming of the system, Microsoft will keep scores private -- only the individual VAR will see how they fared in the surveys.

"We do monitor on back end with the third party from customer perspective to make sure no oversampling is taking place that could skew the results," said Bennani.

It remains to be seen whether the streamlining Microsoft says it has applied to the customer satisfaction will change solution providers' views. But Microsoft certainly isn't the only vendor to come under fire over this issue -- one solution provider described Cisco's surveys to Channelweb.com as "technically much worse" than Microsoft's and indicative of a "'do it or else' mentality."

The irony, of course, is that by mandating these sorts of time-consuming tasks in the name of customer service, vendors are actually taking solution providers away from what they do best. In Duffy's view, a better way to handle this would be to give partners the option of doing customer satisfaction surveys via the Web, e-mail or phone, at the customer's discretion.

"I'd rather be using my limited time and resources to take care of my customers and grow my sales -- not screwing around sending out redundant surveys from multiple manufacturers that all generally ask the same questions," Duffy said.