Half way there...

[Fire Girl]

Hello All!

It's been a while, I know. I have been VERY busy. On Friday I had my Phase I Audit.

NOTE: My registrar comes in and does what they call a Phase I Audit or doc audit. Then they come back in a month and do a Phase II or compliance/certification audit.

So I must say that I am pretty pleased with myself. The audit went quite well. I had the best auditor that I have ever had. Was loving that I made the system simpler as opposed to more complicated. We are a very small company (under 20 employees now). He think ISO is pointless if you are just going to create more work for yourselves. Anyway, it was a very informative day. He liked what I had so far and will be back in a month to check for compliance.

Customer satisfaction. I went to all the trouble of coming up with this freakin' Customer Satisfaction Survey. Dead against the Customer Survey. He said if we get back more than 5% we should throw a party because that is highly unlikely that we would get that many. He gave me lots of ideas of what would be acceptable. When you talk to your customers, if you ask them how things are going they are likely going to tell you. Write it down. If your customers send you evaluations, that is feedback, file it in a book. Anyway he gave me lots of great simple ideas.

So hopefully I will be certified in a month.

Later

Dawn

 

[Claes Gefvenberg]

Way to go Fire,

Good luck with the rest of the race...

/Claes

 

[rmf]

Hi dawn,

Does your registrar say only 5 percent of the customer surveys you send out come back?Did you plan the survey to be sent out by mail, fax or email?

I was planning to send out a survey in an Excel spreadsheet by e-mail. The customers only have to check a box and if the wish they can ad a comment. It should only take a minute. But if your registrar is saying that only 5% comes back I will forget about it. But only 5%, I find this amazingly low!?

Could you give me some more ideas please?

regards,

rmf

 

[energy]

Even less

rmf said:

Hi dawn,

Does your registrar say only 5 percent of the customer surveys you send out come back?Did you plan the survey to be sent out by mail, fax or email?

I was planning to send out a survey in an Excel spreadsheet by e-mail. The customers only have to check a box and if the wish they can ad a comment. It should only take a minute. But if your registrar is saying that only 5% comes back I will forget about it. But only 5%, I find this amazingly low!?

Could you give me some more ideas please?

regards,

rmf

I have seen here in the Cove and been told that even 3% in a mass mailing would considered good. Seems hardly worth the effort. But, it is just one way to solicate feedback/complaints. We are also using a 5 question telephone survey when conversing with a Customer as well as sending a short questionaire with each shipment. Our website will also have a questionaire for Customer use, as we have Internet Sales.

 

[M Greenaway]

I wonder who is most likely to answer these questionnaires ?

Those with an axe to grind ??

Those who are delighted ???

Those who are indifferent ????

Or all of the above ?????

 

[Fire Girl]

Customer satisfaction stuff

Hey!

I was given the impression in here, that Customer surveys were the only way to go. However, my auditor gave me the impression that this is not at all what they want. Surveys are a poor indicator of how happy your customer is, especially if you only get 3-5% back! FG

Anyway, here are some of the ideas that he gave me:

Phone calls- if you are speaking to your customer, a simple question of how things are going will suffice. I have a customer feedback sheet that I made up. I think we are going to have it made into pads of paper so that when anyone is talking to a customer they can take some notes on the conversation.

Visits- if you have a visit with your customer, ask them how things are going and if they have any concerns... write it down and file it.

Engineering meetings- this is a big one for us. Mostly works for repeat customers. You get together with your customer to discuss a new job. Shoot the breeze about any concerns, likes dislikes they may have. Write it down and file it.

Customer ratings or correspondance. If you have receive ratings (common with automotive) from your customers, file them away... that is feedback on how they feel about you. If you get e-mails faxes on concerns or what have you... file them away. Same goes for customer audit reports (if your customer comes in to audit you).

Remember that how satisfied your customers are needs to be passed on to employees. You can post some of that stuff on the bulletin board.

Great ideas, eh? They aren't mine so I can't take credit for them.

Here was his best point of the day. Too many companies are trying to run a business and an ISO system, like they are two separate things. You most likely are doing things that would be comply with the standard. You may have to rework them a bit. The point is, make sure you give yourself credit for things you do anyway and don't create a whole new way of doing things just for the sake of ISO.

FG

 

[M Greenaway]

Absolutely FG.

Another good indicator is retained/repeat business.

Reduced warranty claims.

Reduced complaints.

 

[energy]

All the above

M Greenaway said:

I wonder who is most likely to answer these questionnaires ?

Those with an axe to grind ??

Those who are delighted ???

Those who are indifferent ????

Or all of the above ?????

M.,

We even one crafted for system "start-up" issues. It was decided to provide this one 3 months after start up because there are always real life glitches in this business. Cases where the Customer wanted to treat a certain water condition and we provided the expertise, based on their input, only to find out that it didn't do 100% of what our designers said it would do. We now take actual samples on site before the project begins. But, pumps, switches and other components may fail and to have this survey too early in the hands of the Customer may result in "immediate' NEGATIVE input to our Customer satisfaction database. Who wants that?

 

[Laura M]

Who's the registrar -

Firegirl -

I think alot like your registrar on this item. Who are you using? - if you don't mind. We're not too far away from each other, and possibly some of my clients would work out well with your auditor.


MG - yep - repeat business is also a great one.

Laura M

 

[db]

I hate surveys

There are many factors in generating surveys. Who are you going to send it to? Normally, you might have several customers at your customer. The purchasing manager, the quality department, production, shipping and receiving, etc. , so who do you send the survey to?

The best survey I’ve ever seen was two questions:

1. What is it REALLY like to do business with us?
2. How do we need to respond to you better?

As far as “information relating to customer perception”, all of the things you’ve identified could be used. I would encourage you to use several of the items, because they come from different “customers”.

BTW, Congrats Fire Girl!