HERNDON, Va.—Vovici, the leading provider of enterprise feedback management solutions, today announced that International Coach Federation (ICF), the leading organization dedicated to advancing the coaching profession worldwide, has leveraged the Vovici solution to boost its global profile and more effectively serve the needs of its 20,000 members around the world.
Following a recent branding study, ICF zeroed in on understanding and managing the way the organization was perceived in the marketplace. Step one was to launch a Member Relationship Survey, a full-scale feedback effort that evaluated seven brand touchpoints to determine satisfaction and advocacy levels within its organization. “The intelligence gleaned from that survey defined the blueprint for the future for the various committees within ICF,” says Mark Ruth, Director of Research and Education. “In addition, our Board of Directors decided that our satisfaction metric was a powerful measure of whether ICF was accomplishing its goals and later used it to create a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) benchmark for our organization. The Board now uses these KPIs to hold our staff accountable for the customer experiences they create during member interactions.”
One key insight that emerged from the Member Relationship Survey was the realization that ICF global had limited influence on their brand experience received at the local level. “We learned that the organization is perceived through the lens of local chapters and the chapters tend to take on the personalities of their leaders, resulting in a wide range of characteristics,” says Ruth. “To create a more consistent, high quality environment, we instituted training opportunities during the face-to-face meetings with our chapter leaders.”
In addition to directing strategy, the actionable intelligence gained through Vovici also enables ICF to confidently and effectively target its resources. “We’ve essentially doubled membership from 10,000 to 20,000 over the past five years, but the staff has not grown by the same rate. We’ve just learned how to apply staff time more intelligently,” says Ruth. For instance, a Product Awareness Survey revealed ICF had some misconceptions about what members wanted and valued. “Based on survey results, we created a Task Force that reviewed every product and service that we offered and later we were able to develop individual business cases for them. This forced us to ask whether we needed to devote more resources or staff time to each one. The Product Awareness Survey alone has spawned a year-long conversation.”
Leveraging Vovici’s capabilities beyond intelligence gathering, ICF recently transitioned its review process for coach training program assessment to an automated platform utilizing Vovici. “It used to be an enormous administrative burden. We were faxing and scanning forms to people, then making sure they got an audio portion of the review and afterwards we had to aggregate all of the data,” says Sandy Stansfield, Research Manager at ICF. “Now, reviewers can click on a link, provide feedback at their leisure and deliver their findings immediately.” Stansfield feels that the automation of the review process has significantly reduced the turnaround time for reviews and simplified the process for all parties involved.
In the future, ICF plans to create segmented panels to allow it to do more targeted surveys to specific populations. “The panel is the next wave in managing our research base,” says Ruth. “As an opportunity for select members to help craft the future of ICF, panels create a real sense of community and responsibility.”
“Just as coaches partner with their clients to achieve performance excellence, Vovici and ICF have partnered to achieve excellence in member feedback,” says Dave Capuano, vice president of marketing for Vovici. “Using Vovici-driven data as its roadmap, ICF has transformed itself from the inside out to become the clear leader among coaching organizations worldwide.”
About ICF
ICF defines coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. Coaching is a distinct service and differs greatly from therapy, consulting, mentoring, or training. Individuals who engage in a coaching relationship can expect to experience fresh perspectives on personal challenges and opportunities, enhanced thinking and decision-making skills, enhanced interpersonal effectiveness, and increased confidence in carrying out their chosen work and life roles.
The International Coach Federation is the leading global organization for coaches, with over 20,000 members in more than 100 countries, dedicated to advancing the coaching profession by setting high ethical standards, providing independent certification, and building a worldwide network of credentialed coaches. The ICF is the only organization that awards a global credential which is currently held by more than 7,200 coaches worldwide. For more information, please visit our website at www.coachfederation.org.
About Vovici
Vovici is the leading provider of intelligent online survey management and feedback solutions. Powerful, scalable and easy to use, Vovici’s solutions help companies engage customers, employees and partners to increase loyalty, facilitate innovation, and influence critical business decisions. More than a thousand organizations worldwide, including more than half of the Fortune 500, rely on Vovici to turn information into action. Visit www.vovici.com for more information.