Customer Satisfaction - Tracking and Measurables

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).]

[Kevin Mader]

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

[Tom Goetzinger]

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

[Rick Goodson]

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.