Customer Satisfaction Process - Audit "Suggestion for Improvement"

[C123456]

Hello All,

I would appreciate any information you may have on a query below. I am a QMS manager for an industrial refrigeration company and we recently had an ISO9001:2008 external audit, the suggestion for improvement below was identified.

classification 4 Suggestion for Improvement.: Customer Satisfaction process described in the Quality Manual QM-001 Revision 05 would benefit from a more descriptive process detailed in an appropriate standard operating procedure.

At present I send out a customer survey at the end of each large installation job and find it very difficult to get them completed by the customer. Does anyone have any other suggestions as to how to gather customer feed back in a more successful way. I have changed the name of the survey to contract review in the hopes that this may make an improvement, its has in a small way, but I need to up my game with this and write an SOP to reflect this. Id appreciated any ideas or advice.

thanks
Cora.

 

[JoShmo]

This is purely opinion on the part of the auditor. I'd ignore it. WIthout a reason to improve, it's just busy work. Why does having a "more detailed procedure" improve anything?

 

[RoxaneB]

Hello All,

I would appreciate any information you may have on a query below. I am a QMS manager for an industrial refrigeration company and we recently had an ISO9001:2008 external audit, the suggestion for improvement below was identified.

classification 4 Suggestion for Improvement.: Customer Satisfaction process described in the Quality Manual QM-001 Revision 05 would benefit from a more descriptive process detailed in an appropriate standard operating procedure.

At present I send out a customer survey at the end of each large installation job and find it very difficult to get them completed by the customer. Does anyone have any other suggestions as to how to gather customer feed back in a more successful way. I have changed the name of the survey to contract review in the hopes that this may make an improvement, its has in a small way, but I need to up my game with this and write an SOP to reflect this. Id appreciated any ideas or advice.

thanks
Cora.

Cora, I read the suggestion and your question as two separate issues. Unless I'm missing something, the suggestion does not appear to indicate that your survey approach is lacking, but rather is asking your organization to describe the customer survey process in more detail. This probably means what questions are asked, how frequently, who receives them, what's done with the results, etc.

As for surveys, please do a search here in the Cove. While there was a recent period of inactivity here, we have had plenty of discussions on the pros and cons of surveys, as well as other possible ways to explore determining and improving the customer experience.

 

[Peter Fraser]

There are many ways in which to assess customer satisfaction, and a survey is often not the best, since it will depend on who you ask, when you ask, what questions you ask etc. Repeat orders, references and introductions, and ongoing communication during the job probably give a more accurate indication of what your customers think.

By the way, it would be interesting to ask your assessor how they suggest that you measure the satisfaction of "a person or organization that could ... receive a product or a service that is intended for or required by this person or organization", since the definition would seem to include every person or organisation with access to your market, even if they will never buy from you. But that may be a different discussion...

 

[JoShmo]

Call your customers and ask them 5 simple questions. Email them beforehand to set up a time and just take a few minutes.

I wouldn't "call" it "contract review" it isn't. Call it wahat it is - Customer feedback. Make sure your management team is prepared to deal with the results.

 

[Jen Kirley]

Although it seems like a reach on the auditor's part, we might as well look toward the future and recognize that the 2015 version of ISO 9001 asks for more definition in the communication process, which could include communication with customers to receive their feedback, even though there is no clear requirement for that process to be formally proceduralized in a controlled document.

 

[Sidney Vianna]

Id appreciated any ideas or advice.

I am not sure how large your installation projects are, but, assuming that you have a crew on site for a few days, weeks or months, chances are you have someone that act as the site project manager. It is likely that such individual has a number of "touch points" or contacts with a representative from the customer. If that is the case, why not make such "events" as a customer feedback opportunity? Sometimes, the best time to capture customer feedback is when they don't realize they (the customer) are doing so.

 

[C123456]

Thanks so much all for taking the time to reply, I really appreciate it.

Roxane B I think you may a very good point, and that may satisfy the issue.

Peter, I really like your approach, its very practical to let the facts speak for themselves.

Jo, phone surveys dont really work in our business, as we would need to record the calls as evidence and that is not something my company, we are a small outfilt 35 employees, but thank you

Jen an excellent and very valid point, which I hadnt really thought to much about, but you are exactly right

Sidney, an excellent suggestion which I could easily do myself as I attend sites for larger instillation while carrying out document reviews, so this is something I will do.

thanks again all, this has been really helpful.

All the best
Cora

 

[Adaym]

I;ve a similar query on this regard. Our org seek feedback on customer satisfaction (5 questions) and a net promoter score is calculated on the results. Any score below 8(out of 10) is fed back to assigned sales manager (automatically route via email) to react and take further actions as appropriate. Stop.

Now the question here I;m figuring it out what is lacking here in terms of not meeting requirements of ISO 9001:2015 or 2008 version (Performance evaluation). I;m new to ISO 9001.

 

[Adaym]

Please suggest if anything missing from ISO requirements perspective