Every quarter, around 100 IMEC clients have the chance to tell IMEC and our national partners terrific stories about the improvements made through their collaboration with IMEC in projects and events. Through a third-party administered survey, we ask clients to self-report accumulated impacts of cost savings, new investments, new or retained sales and new or retained employment from activities or projects completed with IMEC in the last year.
IMEC knows that these improvements leave a lasting impact on local communities and trickles out to the broader state economy as well. As you can see from the 2020 Client Reported Impacts, manufacturers play an integral part in developing our state’s economy. In Illinois, clients have reported an average $19:$1 return on investment and a national study completed by W.E. Upjohn in 2019 indicated that the National Manufacturing Extension Partnership Network (of which IMEC is one of 51 state partners) has returned $14.4 to $1 for federal investment made to support small to mid-size manufacturers.
The 15-question client survey asks clients about the challenges they face, their rating of recommendation of IMEC to their peers (net promoter score), and the financial impacts they have achieved. About 80% of the companies surveyed respond and provide financial results as a part of their story. In addition, we are thrilled to read the feedback from manufacturers every quarter; celebrating with a team huddle to review these responses and get excited again for our mission when team members are specifically called out by our clients for their work of delivering growth through enterprise excellence.
Client success, as shown through the survey responses, are at the heart of the what makes IMEC different. It is in our DNA to focus on the results clients achieve through our work together because we know we will be assessed by these results in this survey process. When we showcase the remarkable performance of these companies, we attract more manufacturers to our state who can create and retain more jobs, improve the livelihood of their communities, and continue to contribute to our flourishing manufacturing ecosystem.
Here are a few things to be aware of regarding the survey process:
Don't miss the next survey period – make sure you are counted and included in the yearly Client Reported Impacts so we can show off the dynamic manufacturing hub that is Illinois! If you’d like to see some of the stories shared by other IMEC clients review, please visit the Client Successes page on our website.
Ready to complete the next round of surveys and be counted in the annual impact numbers?