I am looking for some help on how to best show the difference between the measurment of Customer Satisfaction and Dis-satisfaction. We currently track a number of performance measurables that are important to us such as internal and external PPM rates, but we were hit during our audit for only tracking Dis-Satisfaction, We tried to make the connection that if we are meeting our goals and improving our performance we would by default be satisfying the "Customer". And we were shot down.
So any help on how it's being done elsewhere would be very much apprecieated.


Thanks

How about the old standards? Address customer Satisfaction through customer surveys and feedback to your sales organization.

Customer surveys are Ok but for a small company to send a questionaire to one of the Big 3 is a problem, even though they should reply this is not guaranteed.
It is possible to say that if they do not reply then they are satisfied.
Personal contact could be the answer , or requalar visits to the customer or telephone calls that are logged. A lot of our customers like me to phone once a month just to ask if every thing is OK.

communication is the key, whether survey or phone or visit..You need to determine what the customer's needs are besides the obvious "good stuff cheap"..and of course on time....and measure your success accordingly. You cannot determine inside a black box what the answers are.

Those are good measures of customer dissatisfaction, but not good indicators of satisfaction.

Customer satisfaction can be determined through periodic surveys, documented visits to the customer, or customer satisfaction reports. As part of "subcontractor development" QS registered companies will send you customer satidfaction, on time delivery, or PPM reports.

I would like to understand more about these reports. Are we going to have to do reports to our suppliers or is this just a first tier thing?

We have an online contact report program. Your suggesting that that might work? How would you go about using that data? It seems like it would be heck looking for trends and such?!?

FYI-We are pursuing QS9000 because of the fit with our quality system. Very few of our customers are QS9000 certified. We do get audited regularly though. I guess that would still be more indicative of dissatisfaction.

We use a Management review process based of of FORD's Quality Operating System (QOS) requirements. We also survey our customers for their expectations.

I did not find a description of the Quality Operating System in the Quality System Requirements manual. Can you tell me the essentials?

Posted for Dan:

-----snippo-----

Subject: Measuring Customer Satisfaction
Date: Fri, 06 Nov 1998 13:38:55 -0500
From: "Dan Indish" <dindish@us.bnsmc.com>
To: sulkinsf@tsmd.com
CC: bbs@qs9000.com

Steven -

Start measuring Customer Satisfaction from the financial end. Check out such metrics as DSO (Days Sales Outstanding - i.e. the typical time to collect from Customers) and Accounts Receivables Numbers. These financials cost the company money and are what management listens to. When managers realize how much money is going down the drain, then they will authorize surveys, and personal phone calls, etc.

We use mail-in surveys, phone calls, management visits and web site complaints also.

Dan Indish

Wanted to see what you guys have come up with to measure Customer Satisfaction.

We currently look at returned goods and customer complaints. Do most of you use surveys or are we pretty much on the mark?

Steve:

The QOS methodology is mentioned in the Ford specific section of the QSR. It is Ford's way of mandating a standardized management review process. It calls for the use of the 8D problem solving tool and also the use of standardized reproting tools such as trend charts, Paynter charts etc.
You can get copies of the QOS primer directly from Ford.

Ford Motor Quality Publications
c/o edcor Data Services
P.O Box 9079
Farmington Hills, MI 48333-9079
Phone : 810-626-3077

I believe the phone number for FORD's Edcor data services is now 248 836-1397

Some rejuvenation to the topic:

Subject: Re: Q: Measuring Customer Satisfaction /Perry/Naish
Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 10:15:19 -0600
From: ISO Standards Discussion <JENNEJOHNN@UWSTOUT.EDU>

From: PNaish@aol.com
Subject: Re: Q: Measuring Customer Satisfaction /Perry/Naish

Customer satisfaction and customer feed back has and still is hard to be successful if you truly want the opinions of those that you service.

Of late, and not because of any ISO requirement, I have seen more and more businesses and business segments trying to capture that information.

If you travel you will see more hotels and motels trying to find out how your stay was. They leave a card in your room or on your bed. Only a couple of years ago even finding one in the drawer was a surprise. One of the best hotels we have been in recently was a Ramada Inn outside Washington D.C. in Carollton. They had a card that they gave you in your hand when you checked in. They asked us to please take the time during our stay and let them know how they were doing. In addition they asked when we checked out if there was any problem or anything they could do better. The card was a somewhat standard card with a scoring from 0 - 10 in most categories and room to write in something extra.

Cards are beginning to come in almost every major purchase we make these days. The problem with them is getting a representative response. Most people don't take the time to fill them out unless they are frustrated or they had an outstanding stay. (Or they are quality people like us and know the value they hold for the service or goods provider).

Not to get on my soap box here, but think about those cards and forms the next time someone gives you one. If you want to get them then you also need to fill them out for others. Also think about the ones you do fill out and why you were more likely to do one form or another.

And what about calling the customer? Have you seen the ad on TV about the reporter asking the man who sold an ice cream to his child if he ever went back and asked if the child was satisfied. The same ad shows them asking the store owner of a woman's fine dress shop. They ask the question "When was the last time someone really asked you if you were satisfied?"

There is not one simple answer that ensures the best results. If you are doing custom software, the way you would get my honest opinion and significant information is to call or to ask.

If the software is off the shelf, call after the person has had a chance to use it. We have a couple of software products that have been significantly improved by us calling the customer direct and asking for information on what they didn't like. Even when an evaluation unit is returned we make a quick call and ask what they didn't like or why they chose a different package. We track all of the information in a package we developed for ourselves for turning client and customer feedback into continuous improvement projects.

If the software is custom listen to the comments being made as you train the people on the software. Their input and off hand comments can be the source of great pieces of information. We use that information for our traiing classes and implementation services.

By the way, this should be of interest to Charlie: there are only three people in our company and we have a fully documented ISO compliant quality system. But it isn't enough for us to stay the same. We want to continuously improve. We also gave some of our procedure catchy names to help us remember what they are for. Our non conforming procedure is our OOPS! procedure which stands for out of process specifications, our preventive action is POWER: Prevent out of Whack Error Results! and ACT: Act Continuously Toward improvement. While acronyms are not always looked upon with the best of favor it is easy for us to say that needs an ACT or OOPS when a client or customer has a complaint or makes a suggestion or we have an idea that may need some brain storming.

Sorry for the slight side track but we use a combination of feedback forms for both services and products. In addition we have records we keep of the verbal information we get by phone and at client sites. We also have a person who will make calls for us about once a year to our existing clients and obtains a third party opinion of our services for us.

Utilize every avenue you can get to help your business and that will more than take care of what you need for ISO.

Phyllis at Pnaish@aol.com

I base my customer satisfaction on visits, As quality Manager I try to visit all my customers at least once a year and keep in touch with them. These meetings usually enable me to find out problems that are small and nigardly but cause some sort of dissatisfaction. The fact that I am the quality manager means that I can meet people without entering into negotiations etc. This provides a more overall picture and also gives the customer an adress of last accord.
I always manage to find some aspect that needs to be improved and most customers appreciate the visit as an "extra in the quality service"

We measure customer satisfaction primarily through the use of surveys (both paper and personal visits) and the use of what we call "bounceback cards," described in a previous post.

The return that we are currently receiving on the "bounceback cards" (quick bullet-point questions with ratings numbers) is at approximately 11%-15% which is actually unusually high.

The important thing to remember is not simply to collect such data, but to act on it.

ALM

HI ALL.
I AM IN THE PROCESS OF REVIEWING OUR CUSTER SATISFACTION QUESTIONNAIRE TO TRY AND MAKE THE RESULTS EASYIER TO UNDERSTAND AND TO RELATE TO IMPROVEMENTS IN OUR CUSTOMER SERVICE.
DO ANYONE OUT THERE HAVE AN EXAMPLE OF A QUESTIONNAIRE THAT THEY CAN FORWARD TO ME AT MATTHEW.EVANS@JWF.CO.UK

WE ARE A MANUFACTURING COMPANY WHO MANUFACTURE,INSTALL AND SERVICE LEAK TEST MACHINERY.

MANY THANKS

We have tried to measure the customer satisfaction, but it's very hard to do. The customers are not interested in it. Well, that's what we think noticing "all" the replies. Nearly no customer is interested in it. The customers which really are, like Volvo, are sending by their own every month a report about our performance.
We have tried everything to measure the customer satisfaction but nothing helps. We shortened our list with questions to only four questions but even that seems to be too much. You can get our questions if you want but they don't seem to be very interesting to answer.

Well I guess asking whether you tried explaining that it's for their own good is a waste of time.

I actually got back a lot of survey's what I did was asking our Sales manager and Logistics supervisor to go through the survey together with the customer so just ask them the questions personnally.

Sales managers normally won't like to do it though because it's all about impression. But when top-management is involved it might just give you the wanted info.

How about some more comments on Customer Satisfaction, not that the requirement has 'matured' somewhat?

You know those supplier rating results that your customers are always sending to you? Probably once a quarter if you are automotive. There you go, that is a great benchmark, add your own surveys that you send out, comments that your sales, shipping, and QA functions hear during phone conversations, and whatever feedback your traveling sales force brings back. (our co. has the outside sales force send in weekly reports in which they summarize each visit they made). You might be surprised how much feedbakc you actually get once you start digging.

We are in the position where our customer is also our supplier. (consigned product)

We use a scored customer follow up sheet for each type of contact we have with the customer. This document is also used to drive continuous improvements, preventive action, and corrective actions.

On top of that, we ask our customer do define for us what their expectations are and use their "supplier development" data as our "customer satisfaction/dis-satisfaction" measurements.

How we perform supplier development on our customer is another topic for another forum, it's not pretty.

ASD...

[This message has been edited by Al Dyer (edited 06 February 2001).]

->I base my customer satisfaction on visits, As quality
->Manager I try to visit all my customers at least once a
->year and keep in touch with them.

I've had several clients whose business was based on this type of close 'monitoring' of customers. The closer touch they kept, as one would expect, the lower the number of customer complaints. That 'personal' touch can go a long way! The only problem is it can be expensive and is only feasible for companies with small customer bases. A local phone company, for example, could not afford to send people out to each customer's house for a '...how are we doing..." visit.

In the past we have used a "Customer Satisfaction Form" but have found the return rate pretty low and from the forms which are returned, the info is not particularly useful. We have been considering using a third party phone survey. Our thoughts are if it's a third party, the answers would be more honest, hence useful. Any thoughts on this approach?

Hi everyone.

I see a lot of new names, telling me that apparently QS9000 is still amongst the living. I have a question and I think that someone here might be able to help me out with this. I am plant controller at an injection molding company and I am working on implementing a Balanced Scorecard. One of the indicators I want to include is Customer Satisfaction. We allready use a Survey ofcourse but I'm not so much interrested in a yearly survey but I want to measure monthly.

Let say the survey show that my customers are 80% satisfied with us starting January. In january we miss 1 delivery, have 0 customer complaints and are able to offer a 5% cost reduction. How satisfied would my customer be starting February?

So I need a formula or a weighing factor or something similar to determine this. Does any one have something like this. or know where I can find good information on this subject. I'd appriciate it.

Kind Regards,


Martijn Teunissen van Manen

Maybe I don't understand the question but customer satisfaction has to be the direct result of customer contact. Setting internal indicators won't determine how satisfied your customers are. Each one has a different perception of your company based on different criteria for them. One might be very dissatisfied because of price or delivery. Another sees a quality issue. Still another hasn't seen your sales rep in over a year.

The accomplishments you list are good goals but how satisfied is the customer whose delivery was late? How about the one who needed a 6% cut on a price in order to keep his customer? Worst yet is the 4 customers who didn't bother complaining because "nobody listens to us anyway".

We do annual surveys. In addition, we "audit" random shipments by calling the customer to verify everything went alright on the order. Another thing we do is randomly put response cards in the shipments every month. Sometimes, we even get them back.

Bottom line is IMHO there is no canned formula for "anticipating" satisfaction. Direct feedback from the customer is my primary indicator.

Having said that, there are other indicators when direct contact is not present but they are "satisfaction by inference". Things like increase/decrease in sales, number of complaints, returns, quote requests, receptiveness to rep contacts, etc.

Let us know if I missed your point/question.

Dave

Thanks for your reply and I understand what you are saying. But the reason I want to measure customer satisfaction on our internal performance is because I want to be able to predict the outcome of next years survey. Most of our customers won't be happy with filling out any kind of paper more than once a year. About calling our customers after a shipment is a good idea but most of our customers are of such a scale that they will not know whether a shipment was satisfactory, except if it wasn't.

What I would like to be able to do is setting up a formula that measures the total of our external performance. So I can (on the long run) determine what has the biggest effect on the customers perspective of our company. And when deciding on improvement investments can give an indication of the improvement in customer satisfaction. (I hope this still makes sence.)

I do appriciate your answer and I am thinking about proposing some of the things you suggested. When we decide to utilize any of them I will be sure to let you know.

I really hope that there is someone out there that has an idea of how to measure/forecast customer satisfaction though.

Regards,

J.C.Martijn Teunissen van Manen

I think you will find a lot more information about customer satisfaction in the ISO 9001:2000 forum, where many companies are facing it for the first time. Customer satisfaction has been around since QS-9000 was introduced 7 years ago, and unfortunately the QS-9000 meaning of customer satisfaction has been skewed to what OEMs want, chiefly your understanding and reaction to delivery and quality measures given to you by the customer. GM has even told their procurement personnel not to answer surveys (for legal reasons). I believe if you show that you are monitoring your customers' feedback on quality and delivery and respond to all communications satisfactorily, as Dave inferred, most QS auditors should accept this as evidence of customer satisfaction. Some make also look at recognition (Preferred supplier, pentastar and other wall decorations) as proof. If you want to do surveys, one of the better survey systems I've seen tried to blanket several positions at each customer, e.g. receiving inspector, line personnel, purchasing mgr., quality mgr., plant mgr. A weighted score was determined from the responses. In the managment review, progress was tracked on raising scores. As with this method, I believe the only good surveys are the ones that enable you to take actions. Most I've seen only give warm and fuzzy feelings. I think the problem you've run into is trying to measure those fuzzies. 5% cost reduction usually is not a measure of customer satisfaction...it's usually a mandate. 80% satisfaction is not something you can work with unless you find a reference point. It sounds like you are trying to benchmark your prior month's performance. The problem here is that either you will be tracking something that has probably has variation around a mean or you will soon hit a customer satisfaction performance "ceiling" where you can't do any better and any incident will make you look like you have worsening customer satisfaction. :frust:

I don't think you would want to show that trend line to the auditor. Just my $0.02 worth.

> unfortunately the QS-9000 meaning of customer satisfaction
> has been skewed to what OEMs want, chiefly your
> understanding and reaction to delivery and quality
> measures given to you by the customer.

Yes, yes, YES!!! True, true, TRUE!!!

One Size Does NOT fit all!

Also see: http://Elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=3658

There are many ways a typical company can determine customer satisfaction, only one of which is OEM requirements.

We are a qualified QS9000 company and we get our customer survey reply quarterly. Sometimes we may find that our customer does not really address to the agreed indexes and would direct to the political issue. e.g. they may rate us with very low mark in order to force us to do somethings. I would think the customer satisfaction and expectation sometimes are the tools instead of a real good factor to get improvement in a company.

Thanks

Thanks for your replies but the reason I want to measure this is not so much related to our quality system, I want to measure it for our senior management. I know that indeed we would hit the ceiling but who says that our customer satisfaction can not be beyond 100% or otherwise we can always say everything over a 100% is 100 but I also understand that if you say that you imply you are having completely satisfied customers which is an illusion.

That is the reason I ask for some help on determining some formula to make this a lot easier.

kind regards