Customer Satisfaction Survey - Poor Response

Ok...here's the thing. Out of 15 customers that we e-mail the survey...only about 3 to 5 answered. So, I wonder either we can indicate something like..."if we did not receive any respond from you within the designated deadline, we will consider all criteria below as satisfactory" in the form. In our form, we have 12 criteria & satisfactory is 7 marks.
But then again...wouldn't that be like we are "cheating" ourselves?

Re: Customer Satisfation Survey - Small Response

monday said:

Ok...here's the thing. Out of 15 customers that we e-mail the survey...only about 3 to 5 answered. So, I wonder either we can indicate something like..."if we did not receive any respond from you within the designated deadline, we will consider all criteria below as satisfactory" in the form. In our form, we have 12 criteria & satisfactory is 7 marks.
But then again...wouldn't that be like we are "cheating" ourselves?

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Customer satisfactory survey is only one of the methods. Consider that for this you should take into account the redemption of the forms ( usually about 10-15 % of the sent survey).
DO you have CAR or return from them? This could be a direct index of the quality provided by your organization.

Re: Customer Satisfation Survey - Small Response

Do you only have 15 customers? If really that small a number, I'd suggest trying to phone the other customers and see if they will talk and/or answer some oral questions.

Re: Customer Satisfation Survey - Small Response

monday said:

\I wonder either we can indicate something like..."if we did not receive any respond from you within the designated deadline, we will consider all criteria below as satisfactory" in the form. \

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Non-response is not agreement. Often in meetings, someone will ask if everyone agrees. No one speaks - but, as you know, sometimes there is not agreement. You can't say anything about the customers who did not respond. You will need to figure out a way to get that information (phone call, visit, etc) if you want to include them in the sample.

Re: Customer Satisfation Survey - Small Response

monday said:

........................ Out of 15 customers that we e-mail the survey...only about 3 to 5 answered. .........................

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Welcome to the Cove.

1. Poor response to a survey of this nature is a universal problem.

2. One has to understand that different customers account for different volume of your business transaction but 'Pareto's Principle' is always right ie: 20% of your customers generally accounts for 80% of your sales. This being the case, your worry should be how much of sales does these 3-5 who responded represents?

3. Knowing the business transaction volume of your customers, you should also know which are your important customers to follow up. If they don't respond (which they often don't because they are your King) follow up with them or have your sales or customer service reps get in touch with the right people or visit them.

4. 20% of 15 customers is 3, which means in reality, 3-5 of your customers account for something like 80% of you business volume. So, don't worry too much about the number but focus on the right customer.

At my company we do not use customer surveys that much. We do use several other items including complaints. Below is how we use customer surveys.

1. When delivering our product we have our drivers give the customer a survey to rate that particular shipment. This includes damaged product, original perception, and on-time delivery. Original perception is important. Think of it like a restaurant meal. It can look very bad and taste great but you have already made up your mind about the quality of the meal before you place the fork in your mouth.

2. The customer is also supplied with a self addressed stamped post card that they are asked to record the number of failing products, any comments and return it to us.

In the past we have given away gifts with company logos to respondents of lifetime quality data.

Currently for US and Canada we are at 98% for number 1, and 80% for number 2. International rates of return vary widely.

Hope this helps.

You got any response? We didn't with the few we sent out. Stopped using them after that. We are not a big company and a lot of our companies are the same size or a lot larger. The larger ones account for almost all our volumes of sales. I would actually say that 3 - 5 customers out of about 50 (others appear infrequently this figure is the customers who order on a regular pattern) account for 80-90% of our volumes.

We obviously don't send them questionnaires but our sales guys talk to them. Indeed a whole tranche of our personnel talk to different parts of these companies. It is part and parcel of doing business. If you keep close to your customers there is a good chance they will keep close to you. A heads up on a problem here or a tip on upcoming workloads there. It all helps. This also gives you feedback that a simple questionnaire doesn't.

Also, what is in your questionnaire? Is it the usual "are you ISO 9001/TS..... compliant?", "do you have a quality manual?", "Do you have a sustainability policy?"????? Zzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!!!! Look at your questions. Would you want to answer them if you had a busy workload? I'm trying to be polite but my answer would be the round filing cabinet under my desk....

...Unless you are one of my 3 big customers of course.

There has to be better ways to get information from customers than questionnaires. Not knowing what it is you are trying to find out (what your questions / question topics are) we can't really suggest the best alternative other than simply talking to them.

Most Teir 1 and OEM's today cannot respond to surveys of any kind because they are directed to not respond by their top executives and/or legal departments.

Tom

TShepherd said:

Most Teir 1 and OEM's today cannot respond to surveys of any kind because they are directed to not respond by their top executives and/or legal departments.

Tom

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We have similar situation some of our customers will not give a grade higher than "C". That way if the product fails it is not their fault. (My company deals with a live product that needs to be feed, water, and have proper environmental controls.)

Thank you guys...really appreciate it!!!