Where can i find more information on customer satisfaction surveys. We are a wiring harness manufacturer with about 6 main customers. How do i go about measuring satisfaction ??

[This message has been edited by Ian Houghton (edited 03 February 2000).]

Ian,

You can find many books on the topic at the ASQ website, and of course, any of the internet book stores. Many of the books give examples of surveys, from which you may draw some ideas about how you want to construct your survey or how to conduct one.

Regards,

Kevin

With only six major customers, I would consider using personal visits as opposed to a survey. The purpose of the visit would not be to sell, but to ask questions like what are doing right, where could we improve, how do we compare with your other suppliers, what's the biggest thing we could do to make life better for the customer. I think that you would gain more helpful information than you would from any survey.
Just an opinion, but a technique I think would be highly effective for a company with a limited customer base. I think I first heard about it from someone who contributes regularly to this website.

In addition to above, you could also use the following.

You can get (dis)satisfaction out of each meeting with your customer. Select some items out of your survey that you want to understand your customers' opinion.
This can be done by anyone meeting with the customer.

The benefit of this method is that you will get info more frequently than with a single survey.

Also, when you are using a surveylist be aware of the following:
- Who is your representative that interviewed the customer. The result will be totally different if it is done by a sales engineer or a quality engineer
- Who is representing the customer
- At what moment are you doing the interview. (The same day that your customer found a serious problem with your product, in the month of price negotiation etc.)

Regards,

Dirk

Thank You - That deserves clarification. We received less than 10% back.

That is a thought and we currently review those to items in Management Review anyway.

Gladys,
Have you thought about having your customer service dept/reps do a telephone survey?
We found most customers were willing to answer a few questions over the phone and this seemed to work for us, as long as you keep the survey short.

Bryan

A response of 10% for a mail survey is not abnormal. Most mail survey response rates vary between 2% and 12%. Professional survey organizations experience 35% to 65% response rates on a mail survey

We initially established our QS9000 system with a customer satisfaction survey. We received very poor results and have discontinued the survey.

Does anyone have a good system for determining customer satisfaction? Please give us ideas.

"poor results" ?? as in customers won't return the survey ... or as in - the information they supplied was unfavorable?

Possibly - analyize your customer complaint/product return records ... set a base goal from the history and view "satisfaction" from that viewpoint?

Regards
Jim

We went the survey route with the same results. We have now developed a form called a Customer Follow-Up Sheet. Whenever we visit a customer or they visit us we complete the form. The form has a scoring section (1-5) and a section for required actions resulting from the completion of the form.

The scores from the form are calulated monthly and reported to management as a key measurable.

This method was well received by our auditors abd has been in place for more that 2 years. Give me a yell if you want a sample.

ASD... ullysses3@excite.com

We had similar results when we first started using surveys but have had better results since changing to this format for our surveys. In the cover letter for the survey I let the customer know that our sales rep will be in to see them and pick up the survey in about a week to ten days. The sales reps do make the personal calls and pick up my surveys at the same time. It does take some coordination with the sales people (knowing who they will be seeing and when) but it seems to work fairly well. We have had only three of the sixteen surveys not returned since switching to this system. Not perfect but better than the ten percent or less were getting before.

Jim Evans

Try offering a simple prize ie tickets for the theatre or so if people reply.

Regards

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Andy B

Thank You very much for the idea of coordinating that with visits. We frequently visit and are visited by our customers and that may be a good approach. Now to sell the Sales group on it.

[This message has been edited by Gladys (edited 13 October 2000).]

Originally posted by Al Dyer:
We went the survey route with the same results. We have now developed a form called a Customer Follow-Up Sheet. Whenever we visit a customer or they visit us we complete the form. The form has a scoring section (1-5) and a section for required actions resulting from the completion of the form.


The scores from the form are calulated monthly and reported to management as a key measurable.

This method was well received by our auditors abd has been in place for more that 2 years. Give me a yell if you want a sample.

ASD... ullysses3@excite.com


I would appreciate it if you would send me a sample. Thank you.

AG,

I'd be glad to, what's your e-mail address?

ASD...

I was watching CNBC earlier. U of Michigan puts out a Customer Satisfaction Index for the US (they call it the ASCI Index - Tracking Satisfaction). It's at about 73, down just a bit from last year.

NEED HELP ON SETTING A SYSTEM TO CONTROL CUSTOMER SATIFACTION, OUR PROCESS DOES NOT ALLOW US TO SHIP COMPLETED ORDERS, WE ARE ALLWAYS SHIPPING PARTIAL SHIPMENT DUE TO THE LARGE QUANTITIES THAT OUR CUSTOMER REQUIRES, WE RECEIVE A PURCHASE ORDER THAT COVERS A FULL YEAR, SO WE DO NOT HAVE DUE DATES FOR THIS ORDERS.

ANY HELP WILL BE APPRECIATED

Does your blanket P.O. state the amount of product required and when?

Do you have a contract review process?

Sounds like the bigger problem is with management not having an effective system for quoting, contract review, product launch etc.....

The horse is already out of the barn, sit down with the customer and hash it out.

ASD...

THANKS AL FOR YOUR PROMPMT RESPONSE, WE HAD TRY TO HAVE OUR CUSTOMER CHANGE THEIR ORDERING SYSTEM, BUT IT WILL BE MUCH EASIER FOR ME TO TRY TO FIND A WAY TO CONTROL CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND I BELIEVE I WILL BE ABLE TO MODIFY A CHART TO MEET THE REQUIREMENTS IF SOMEONE IS KIND ENOUGH TO PROVIDE ME ONE TO LOOK AT IT. THANKS AGAIN AL

Templar,

What are the current measurements that the customer uses to evaluate your company and is delivery one of them?

There are many other measurements that are available and it can be as easy as using some type of scored customer follow-up sheet.

I'll send you a copy of the one we use. It can be modified as you see fit.

ASD...

Templar,

I keep stumbling on the word “Control” before Customer Satisfaction. Maybe it is just Tuesday.

The customer is always right: a common enough cliché. Your job is to provide the Customer what he wants, when he wants it. You apparently know what he wants, but not how much or when he wants it. It appears that you have tried to determine release information from the customer in the form of release dates against a blanket PO, but have failed for some reason. This is confusing to me. It sounds like the Customer does not know when or how much he might need at a given point but expects you to know this. Perhaps you could establish a sort of Kanban approach between you both.

See if it is possible that they trigger replacement product by sending you back a notice (either physical or by other media) that allows you to issue product on a fixed quantity. Determine how long it will take your organization to produce a given amount, add a soft cushion, and use that as the issue quantity. For instance, if it will take you 3 days to produce and deliver a 1000 units, then have the kanban get back to you when they are down to 1500 units. You could produce against the PO and deliver product just as they need it.

Well, these are my thoughts on a possible method for providing a higher level of satisfaction. You will still need to determine how you will measure it (should it be necessary).

Regards,

Kevin

My company was recently given a minor non-conformance for not procedurally addressing how we assure objectivity and validity when determining customer satisfaction (4.6.1).

We currently use a 4 phase survey that is filled out by our primary customer contact or their deignee. The 4 phases correspond to different phases of the project.

My thinking is that we cover both objectivity and validity since the information is being given to us by our customer (not internally generated).

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to cover this requirement.

brkennedy,

Customers surveys are not very good at determining satisfaction. There are too many variables and you never really know what mood the respondant might be in. They might have just come from a meeting where they were chewed out by management and find a pile of customer requests for responses to surveys.

Maybe in the procedure say something like:

Objectivity and validity are assured by questioning multiple personnel at the customer facility. (Don't send a customer survey to the same person as their opinion might be biased)

To add to the issue of validity, don't count on customer supplied satisfaction reports to define customer satisfaction at your facility. (i.e. GM Quad 4) These reports are notoriously flawed and therefore not valid.

Possibly think of a program of visiting the customer and fill out some type of scored report based on the outcome of your visit. (? Customer Follow-Up Sheet?)

ASD...

The issue I've always had a problem with is who at the customer is my customer? Is it the buyer, Receiving, the receiving inspector, or the person on the line who installs the component we make? It will be interesting as ISO 2000 rolls out and we are discouraged from measuring Customer Dissatisfaction as most of us do and have to actually measure satisfaction!

IMHO, through QCDS
is it supposed to be like this
Q : QA staff or STA(Ford) or SQE (GM)
C/S : Sales or Purchasing
D : Sales or purchasing or wharehousing, depending on the channel to be contacted with the customers...

You can also use the rating from your customers for the customer satisfaction. Also you could use internal indicators for measuring customer satisfaction (e.g. % of in-time-deliveries) Also possible is a questionnaire above customer satisfaction, which your employees (e.g. sales) filling out.

Sounds like a scheduling problem; my company would address this via the Project Manager (or other primary customer contact person). Have a delivery schedule set up and agreed to during contract review. Don't forget that contract review can also occur after the contract is accepted - it is called amendments or Contract Changes (CC's)Keep in mind that it is very common for shipments to be split up over time. Keep being inventive. Trakman.

Have to agree with both Kevin and Trakman. Sometimes you have to be inventive.

One big question comes to mind. Is the customer aware of your lead times, and has he based his delivery requirements on this?

This situation usually drives planners up the wall!
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[This message has been edited by Ross Simpson (edited 17 July 2001).]

-> OUR PROCESS DOES NOT ALLOW US TO SHIP COMPLETED ORDERS,
-> WE ARE ALLWAYS SHIPPING PARTIAL SHIPMENT DUE TO THE LARGE
-> QUANTITIES THAT OUR CUSTOMER REQUIRES

You are experiencing a very common problem but to solve it we have to know what you have done to investigate the cause. Typically the inability to fill an order is caused by one of a couple of things. For example:

1. Prior to accepting the contract, the review (if there was one) failed to consider your process potential or other related factors. For example, if you anticipate a 1 year contract for 1M parts: Can you REALLY make that many parts with consideration to other customers and knowing problems DO occur from time to time (that is, you cannot 'assume' a 100% utilization rate and a 100% uptime)? (See Al's first response)

2. Is the customer requesting delivery of more parts during a specific time slot than they originally indicated?

3. Unexpected breakdown of critical equipment.

-> IT WILL BE MUCH EASIER FOR ME TO TRY TO FIND A WAY TO
-> CONTROL CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Until you do an analysis of the cause of your inability to completely fill orders, you cannot begin to address the customer satisfaction issue. And saying it will be 'easier' to 'control' customer satisfaction rather than address the root cause of the problem is simply silly.

I also have to agree with Kevin - we may have a language interpretation issue - but putting the word CONTROL in front of customer satisfaction is - well, you 'control' satisfaction by giving them what they want. If you cannot deliver agreed to (promised) quantities on an agreed to schedule there is nothing you can do to keep them happy with respect to this aspect of your relationship.

I see no way to 'control' customer satisfaction unless you can solve the problem. They have a schedule, just as your company does, and if you continue to not meet delivery requirements you will continue to have schedule problems because of your late deliveries - sooner or later they will find another supplier.

I have seen this as an issue many, many times. It is most often the result of 'rosy' predictions during contract review or where a design or process problem reveals its self. I have watched as air freight shipments were common because of just such a situation.

QS 9000 specifically looked at issues like this, though you might consider this somewhat an oblique way to look at the issue, when it required tracking of premium freight. Even if you are getting your customer the agreed to number of parts on time, if your premium freight is high (particularly if it is rising, even if it is low right now) it is a prediction of an impending delivery problem. This in turn says there are significant problems within the company somewhere.

Turn away from customer satisfaction for a moment. I suggest your company is losing significant money every time they have to address late or incomplete shipments. I would think the company would want to solve the problem. I have seen companies which were bleeding red ink because of 'late' problems.

Taken with Kevin's, Trakman's and Al's responses, this may give you 'food for thought'. My opinion is you cannot address this aspect of customer satisfaction until you fully understand why it is happening.

-> There are many other measurements that are available and
-> it can be as easy as using some type of scored customer
-> follow-up sheet.
->
-> I'll send you a copy of the one we use. It can be
-> modified as you see fit.

You can use the new upload feature here in the forums to share documents. That way you don't end up with 50 people leaving messages asking for you to e-mail them the form (or other document).


[This message has been edited by Marc Smith (edited 18 July 2001).]

In general, the current methods we have to track customer satisfaction will cover what is required by the 3rd edition of the QS-9000 standard. We mainly keep record of how well we do in not dissatisfying the customer using indicators like returns and late shipment.

But is this enough? Not if you agree with the 6 sigma thinking.

So lately I am trying to convince upper management to take that directions. Create other indicators that track customer "Satisfiers" or variable requirements (price of goods supplied is a typical one) and "Delighters" or latent requirements (beyond what the customer expects).

Does anybody had any results in tracking the latter ones. It seems more difficult than the regular "late shipments" and "customer returns". An yexamples...

Steven

Does the information you currently have tell you that a change in method is needed?

mb,

I think that customer satisfaction/disatisfaction are probably the easiest to complete.

Scrap rates
PRR's
Complaints
Phone logs
Increased sales
ROI
Repeat business
Sales
Customer reports
Cost reductions
Submitted process improvements that are accepted
Audit the customer
Customer audit results
Customer sales improvements
Internal personnel turn over rates

ETC........

The main thing is to decide which ones you need to use for your particular business structure as reported through Management Review.

Plan ahead and decide what fits, communicate with the customer and hopefull come to an agreement, and don't count on Big 3 satisfaction reports.

Boy, sounds like process and key measurables (QOS) from Ford.

Marc, should this be in the new Ford forum?

Just to add a drup.

Al. What does PRR mean? if it doesn't mean something like Parts Per Million. You can add that one to your list. PPM = Defect parts sent to customer / Parts sent total. * 1,000,000. Also Cost of Quality and setting up something to track your performance to reach the desired price reductions demanded by your customer could indicate customer satisfaction. I am interrested in this subject because I would like to measure Customer performance as one indicator. like a forecast ratio.

I sent out a survey and come up with a 80% customer satisfaction. First month after I get one complaint what would my customer satisfaction be when I sent out the survey now. Next month I make five special deliveries because my customer made an inventory issue but one of them is late, what would my survey show me now. Maybe 85% or 70%.

I know every customer has a different perception of things and it also depends on what kind of Complaint or Delivery or whatever.

But maybe someone out there has attempted this earlier??? if not nothing lost.


Martijn

Here I was thinking Prr's were product return requests

Guess that's because in our world Qrr is Quality Rejection Report

PR/R from the GM world is Problem Reporting & Resolution.

Delphi (GM) uses the achronym PR&R for their corrective action system. The letters stand for "Problem Report and Resolution". It is an 8D style system. Recently they have gone to calling them simply "Problems".

Dave

Allright so PPM would be something you could add to your list for measuring Customer Satisfaction. I really is a handy indicator. The only issue with this is, is that if you ship a whole skid to a customer with a wrong label than all those parts would be a hid on your PPM so I ussually take them out and really concentrate on the parts that are not according to specification. Offcourse the goal is to maintain a 0 PPM but for instance xerox rates suppliers with 200 PPM still in the completely satisfied range. I also use this indicator for internal PPM to keep track of internal performance.

And PRR's as 8D makes a whole lot more sence to me. But wouldn't your PRR be the same as your Complaints then? Or are we the only company here that has customers that make a complaint for every corrective action put on us?

And I though PRR was "Production Readiness Reviews" :frust:

Also see: http://16949.com/Forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3962