Customer Satisfaction vs. Dissatisfaction

The paragragh on CS is creating quite a bit of discussion in my org. due to the fact that our sales and marketing group is an independent organization who does not provide us with CUST. SATIFACTION data. They will not be a part of the scope of our registration. We do collect data on dissatifaction from field returns and customer complaints. We have a system and objective evidence. However some indiviauls are concerned about the fact that we do not have satifaction data per se. I would think that

1. we have a system and evidence, so although it may not be world class it meeting the requirement.

2. We should discuss this as part of the registrar selection process.

3. If push comes to shove we could either send survey cards out with the product, or have an annual customer focus group with key customers

any thoughts or suggestions greatly appriciated.

8.2.1 Customer satisfaction

The organization shall monitor information on customer satisfaction and/or dissatisfaction as one of the measurements of performance of the quality management system. The methodologies for obtaining and using this information shall be determined.

[Marc]

Your reasoning appears sound to me. The satisfaction cards you mention in 3 might be a good idea.

I enthusiastically agree with line items 1 and 2.

"...some indiviauls are concerned about the fact that we do not have satifaction data per se..." This is going to be a hot potato for many companies as there is no clear definition of what evidence of customer satisfaction is. Is it an 80% approval rate from a mailing where youy get a response of 5%? I would think that field returns and customer complaints would provide sufficient evidence to act on. Benchmark yourself. Then trend - which, from what you wrote, you are already doing. It sounds to me like you have a good system for quantifying customer satisfaction. I can not see why you can not infer customer satisfaction from customer dissatisfaction information. In fact, if you sent out surveys you could say you are attempting to determine customer dissatisfaction, not just satisfaction.

As part of the system I implement, all Customer Complaints are tracked specifically and also take priority when received. Although anyone can receive a complaint, Quality usually investigates the root cause and applies corrective/preventive actions. This information is relayed to the customer to satisfy their concerns that the problem is identified and will not occur in the future. However, after this step, a copy of the Customer Complaint form is routed BACK to Sales or Customer Support and they perform a FOLLOW-UP. The complaint form has three specific questions that are asked and answered and recorded:
1. Was our resolution to your complaint satisfactory?
2. Do you have any further concerns?
3. Is there any further action you feel is required?

These Customer Complaints are summarized and specifically included/discussed in management review meetings. This system has satisfied all assessors I have been involved with. Of course there is a lot more detail to it than described here. But this is the basics.

[Al the Elf]

Mark B

We have a very similar situation where the sales and marketing parts of the organisation are outside the scope of registration.

Thus - who do you supply ? Do you formally supply the sales and marketing part of the organisation as a customer or do you supply the final customers directly ?

Our sales and marketing team often are servicing 100's of customers, using the same batch of homogeneous product. As such it becomes the responsibility of our sales and marketing team to define a coordinated view of the customer requirements, and our (manufacturing) responsibility to satisfy that requirement. i.e. our measurement of satisfaction is currently internal (with the sales and marketing team), as that is who we define as our customers for our manufacturing registration.

One danger of gaining direct feedback from customers, must be that you take actions that improve things for specific customers but run contrary to the business planning of your sales and marketing team. Surely the sales and marketing team should be monitoring satisfaction, and then defining to you any changed requirements.

I might add that we are struggling hard to persuade the Commercial part of our organisation to take on board ISO9000 !

Cheers, Al.

Mark,

It sounds like you are on the right track. You might want to think about visiting each of your customers and devising some sort of grading system based on those visits.

Past experience (in the auto industry) has shown that satisfaction surveys have a return rate of appx. 15%. Not a very good sample. As with any type of survey we have to be aware that personnel answering the surveys may not be the best person to ask.

Did they have a fight with the spouse last night?

Did they just get a butt chewing from the boss?

I like to be face to face with the person who is answering the questions.

Good Luck, ASD...