Customer Feedback, Satisfaction, Complaint Procedure and Measurement

[chris_gray1980]

Hi All

(Me again)

I am looking to write a Customer Satisfaction Procedure/process/system, in our system at the moment there is a procedure for Customer Complaints handling, but there is nothing about obtaining / measuring other customer feedback, we do have customer questionnaires in the system but they are hardly used unless i shout and even then there is probably only one of my businesses that does as i ask.

I want to put a process in to place so people will obtain feedback to allow me to monitor how we are doing and to input in the Management Review but because there is no process its not getting done or done correctly. The problem i have is most of our work is large bespoke manufactured items, we only have several customers a year (some of whom are other businesses within the group) so a simple questionnaire just doesn't work, they do work (if used) for one business as well as spares because there are many transactions with new or recurring customers. The other problem i have is getting the questionnaires back if they are sent out, people just do not fill them out.

Dealing with complaints and the procedure i have is OK (not brilliant), i just want to expand that procedure to include ALL other feedback, i know we sometimes get emails from customers saying we did a good job etc but everything is so fragmented so when it comes to the management review i struggle covering customer feedback, i don't want anything complicated the businesses are only small but can anyone think of anything i can put in place in the system that will help acquire and formalise customer feedback.

It has to be simple, not only is the system very old but the work force is much much older and they HATE change no matter what it is, so it needs to be subtle so i can slip it in without effecting them too much
Thank you in advance

Chris

 

[bluepagen]

I am in the same boat. We have a procedure and meetings scheduled to discuss customer feedback. Members come from each department and I have learned that each brings something good to the table. We finally did get an excel spreadsheet - simple one- where sales personnel document positive and negative remarkes from customers, so we have some data to review. We break that down into catagories. It was not easy to get everyone on board but it is getting better.

Am anxious to hear what others have in place.

 

[quality1]

We also had struggled with customer feedback sending out questionnaires, using online surveys like "surveymonkey", so for the past year we went back to our top 10 customers and ask them if they're willing to give us a monthly scorecard (quality, delivery & service), 60% of our customer was more then happy to do so since they were already monitoring us as part of their QMS.

 

[Mr.Happy]

Chris,

First ask your customers for a periodic PPM survey.
Second make your Sales manager responsible for the customers satisfaction reply.
Third don't send out questionnaires , use a internal questionnaire that you sales manager has to fill in after each customer visit (he has to slip in the questions during his visit)
I have a Excel example but have to translate it first, will not be able to do this on short time.

Cheers
Mr.happy

 

[Rob Kellock]

I like Mr Happy's response, especially in terms of completing an internal questionnaire, but rather than impose something you might want to find out what the Sales guys currently do with the information they obtain during customer visits / discussions. This is the feedback you are after. The only real question is whether they can provide it in a format that meets your requirements. If they can't currently, give them a structure (checklist, form, spreadsheet, etc) for receiving and recording feedback.

The other thing you can do to ensure this information is documented is give sales the responsibility for producing a report for the management and include it in the MR. This always helps to focus minds.

 

[Mikishots]

Hi All

(Me again)

I am looking to write a Customer Satisfaction Procedure/process/system, in our system at the moment there is a procedure for Customer Complaints handling, but there is nothing about obtaining / measuring other customer feedback, we do have customer questionnaires in the system but they are hardly used unless i shout and even then there is probably only one of my businesses that does as i ask. <snip>

I'm glad to you differentiating between customer feedback and customer complaints. So many organizations seem to have this idea that if the customer isn't complaining, they must be happy. Not so...for me as an example, if I am not happy with a supplier, I simply stop buying from them. I only complain if I simply have no other choice.

Clause 8.2.1 asks you to find out what your customers think about your performance. As I've already mentioned, don't assume that monitoring cutomer complaints is enough...having customer complaints go down may only mean that they've lowered their expectations of you or they've gone to one of your competitors.

What the Standard is looking for is proactive techniques: surveys (not always the best response, right ?), sales calls/visits, customer meetings, customer events, comment cards, 1-800 numbers, website feedback forms.

However, there are some types of reactive techniqies that can also be useful: Warranty activity, testimonial letters, referrals, repeat business etc. But keep in mind that you have no direct control over these - you'll only get it if you get it. Get it?

Even though surveys are the most common way, it can be one of the worst ways if it's poorly thought-out. Anytime there is contact between the customer and someone in your company, there is an opportunity to collect customer satisfaction data.

 

[lynfern]

we are in same boat. but at worst, we did not have this kind of the system/procedure to conduct customer survey for continue improvement.

 

[Mr.Happy]

I translated my Excel File and will put it here as an attachment.
Please use it or change it at you convenience or give me any suggestions to improve it.

Mr. Happy

 

[Big_Wheelz]

Hi All

(Me again)

I am looking to write a Customer Satisfaction Procedure/process/system, in our system at the moment there is a procedure for Customer Complaints handling, but there is nothing about obtaining / measuring other customer feedback, we do have customer questionnaires in the system but they are hardly used unless i shout and even then there is probably only one of my businesses that does as i ask.

I want to put a process in to place so people will obtain feedback to allow me to monitor how we are doing and to input in the Management Review but because there is no process its not getting done or done correctly. The problem i have is most of our work is large bespoke manufactured items, we only have several customers a year (some of whom are other businesses within the group) so a simple questionnaire just doesn't work, they do work (if used) for one business as well as spares because there are many transactions with new or recurring customers. The other problem i have is getting the questionnaires back if they are sent out, people just do not fill them out.

Dealing with complaints and the procedure i have is OK (not brilliant), i just want to expand that procedure to include ALL other feedback, i know we sometimes get emails from customers saying we did a good job etc but everything is so fragmented so when it comes to the management review i struggle covering customer feedback, i don't want anything complicated the businesses are only small but can anyone think of anything i can put in place in the system that will help acquire and formalise customer feedback.

It has to be simple, not only is the system very old but the work force is much much older and they HATE change no matter what it is, so it needs to be subtle so i can slip it in without effecting them too much
Thank you in advance

Chris

We have gone away from surveys - there is no time or resource to do this these days. We have implemented Salesforce. There is a mandate, with strong follow through, to complete call reports in the system and there is a performance metric ties to its use. I have devised a report that searches the Summary section of the call report for the term Quality or Complaint. This report is scheduled to run weekly and email the report to the quality managers. We noticed immediately that that word Complaint was turning up in the call report Summary section and that these complaints were not being entered in the complaint system (mostly in Asia). Not good! There is also positive feedback in the call reports that can be used as a measure of customer satisfaction.