Energy Industry Intel & Commentary
This post was updated on June 24, 2019.
FMC Technologies, a leading oil equipment company, consistently outranks its peer-group average in EnergyPoint Research’s customer satisfaction surveys. The company has grown into a dominant player over the years partly on the strength of a vigorous research and development program that began bearing fruit in time for today’s exuberant revival of subsea drilling and development.
Not a pure customer satisfaction winner, though, FMC’s ratings fall more in line with its oil equipment company cohorts in the subsea segment. Like many of its peers, the company draws lower ratings from some customers for both organizational and equipment performance. And in what might come as a surprise to some, the company rates lower in shelf and deepwater wells, which account for about two-thirds of its business, than for onshore applications. Continue reading “FMC Technologies An Oil Equipment Company To Watch”
National Oilwell Varco (NOV) operates just about everywhere oil and gas is extracted, enjoying a hearty share of the market for integrated oilfield equipment. Yet global reach and a wide-ranging portfolio of products do not necessarily translate to a better customer experience—for NOV or its competitors.
EnergyPoint’s most recent survey data suggest NOV’s customer satisfaction ratings, while certainly competitive within its peer group, have slowly trended down as the company logged lower scores in various segments. To be fair, ratings for manufacturers of capital drilling equipment remain below average industry-wide. However, NOV has been sliding from its previous perch. Continue reading “NOV Closes the One-stop Shop”
Over the years, EnergyPoint has collected literally tens of thousands of customer evaluations of oilfield suppliers. We’ve stuck to our mission because we believe it adds a needed degree of transparency to the industry’s supplier-performance picture.
It has also afforded us some unique insights, including understanding ways customers can proactively influence the performance of their suppliers. Here’s some of the ways that stand out: Continue reading “Ways to Encourage Better Supplier Performance”
In Part 1 of this article, we discussed how restaurants’ practice of constantly refilling iced tea glasses without first asking can actually leads to a diminished customer experience for some. We also hinted that we thought customers of oilfield suppliers could relate to this lesson. We want to use the second part of this article to explain how.
When an organization decides it wants to address customer satisfaction, the process it follows can have a big impact on whether its succeeds. When management does not think through and get involved in the process — opting instead for vague directives to “better serve our customers” or “create greater customer intimacy” — the results can prove ineffectual and even counterproductive. Continue reading “Thanks, But It Misses the Point – Part 2”
Bottom-line pricing may matter to some customers, but misconceptions abound in terms of the specific relationship between pricing and customer satisfaction in the oilfield. Most organizations overestimate the impact pricing has on customer satisfaction.
A company’s customer satisfaction relative to peers — what customers and suppliers should both be focused on — is a function of completed acts. That is, how did the supplier and its offerings perform compared to expectations? Continue reading “Ditch the Price-centric Mindset”
Weatherford International recently reported 1st Quarter 2013 earnings after adjustments that were generally in line with consensus estimates. The following day, the company’s stock price rose more than seven percent. Investors seemed relieved that no additional shoes dropped in the earnings release or conference call. The fact that such rise in stock price occurred on a report of no unexpected bad news says a lot about how Weatherford is currently viewed in the investor community.
Below are our thoughts on what we’ve read and heard from Weatherford recently, both positive and negative, as well as some updated data regarding the company’s customer satisfaction ratings and what they suggest for its new strategic tact: Continue reading “The Grapevine – Weatherford Int’l”
North American shale continues to rewrite the books, and its potential seems destined to spread globally. Simultaneously, new horizons are being forged offshore — from the ultra-deepwater of the world’s great oceans, to the lower-tertiary depths of the Gulf of Mexico, to the vast unknown of the Arctic. And operators are always looking to squeeze more from existing assets everywhere. All the while, the industry’s ingenuity and resolve is being both tested and showcased.
Given the clamorous state of the industry, maybe it’s not surprising EnergyPoint’s customer satisfaction ratings of oilfield service suppliers are, as they say, “all over the board”. After all, no one contends the demands of this brave new world are easily met. They are not. Everything from the far-flung and nomadic nature of today’s operations to the “big-crew change” lurking in the background suggests plenty of challenges. Continue reading “It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Oilfield”
With so much at stake in today’s oil and gas industry, customers are looking for both measured authenticity and established competence in their oilfield suppliers. The ability of the current group of top-rated suppliers to perform so consistently well in EnergyPoint’s customer satisfaction surveys is a testament to their commitment to, and talent for, providing a superlative customer experience.
Three of the recently finalized 2012 survey’s four main segment leaders are repeat winners — Helmerich & Payne in onshore drilling, Derrick Equipment in oilfield products, and Ensco in offshore drilling. Newpark Resources captured the top overall ranking in the oilfield services segment for the first time.
In the 1970s, J.D. Power began publishing his ratings and rankings of initial quality as reported by new car buyers. The publishing of these results, which were based on comprehensive independent surveys designed and conducted by his firm, were notable for two reasons.
First, he published the entire set of rankings (i.e., top to bottom, first to last). This was not a common practice in those days, and is still relatively rare today. Second, the rankings consistently showed that U.S. auto manufacturers (General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and American Motors) were putting out products that were markedly inferior in terms of quality and customer satisfaction to those of their foreign counterparts, particularly the Japanese. Continue reading “The Emotive Power of Rankings”
