ISO 9001 Customer Feedback Methods - What has worked for your company?

[BeaBea]

Hello there!

I am brain storming ideas to implement new customer feedback methods for my company.

Currently our Sales team will periodically make follow up calls to ensure the products were delivered, but none of those conversations are documented or analyzed.

While creating this new QMS for the company and taking several ISO courses and creating the ISO program for the company I've been focusing on this huge hole we need to fill in this area.

I'm interested to hear what are some methods you have used that have worked, and what are some that have not worked..?

I'm thinking of implementing a 'survey method' to send customers.. but what are some other ideas? and how did you document and analyze the results?

side question: When and if we continue to use phone calls as a means of "customer feedback" how can we properly document those conversations? Create a form with the customers response?

Thank you in advance for the feedback!

 

[qualprod]

Hello there!

I am brain storming ideas to implement new customer feedback methods for my company.

Currently our Sales team will periodically make follow up calls to ensure the products were delivered, but none of those conversations are documented or analyzed.

While creating this new QMS for the company and taking several ISO courses and creating the ISO program for the company I've been focusing on this huge hole we need to fill in this area.

I'm interested to hear what are some methods you have used that have worked, and what are some that have not worked..?

I'm thinking of implementing a 'survey method' to send customers.. but what are some other ideas? and how did you document and analyze the results?

side question: When and if we continue to use phone calls as a means of "customer feedback" how can we properly document those conversations? Create a form with the customers response?

Thank you in advance for the feedback!

Methods to get customer perception has changed over the time.
While some companies still use a spreadsheet mentioning what yo need to know, on time delivery, cost of product, quality,etc. sending these forms by email and waiting for customers to fill out forms and returning them, then such information is evaluated and get the results.
Other manner (more used) is to use new technologies, like a web applications (surveymonkey)where a link is sent to the customer, the customer enters in the app the data you want to know and is sent, and that´s all, into this application is possible to gather and analyze the information received, giving what you need.
The phone calls is also used, but in this case what I do (for evidences) is to have a call, to ask about items, get the answers, then, this is
written down in an email and sent to customer waiting just an Ok, of what is into the email and that is sufficient.
This works well, because it takes less time to customers compared to fill out a form.
Hope it helps.

 

[BeaBea]

Methods to get customer perception has changed over the time.
While some companies still use a spreadsheet mentioning what yo need to know, on time delivery, cost of product, quality,etc. sending these forms by email and waiting for customers to fill out forms and returning them, then such information is evaluated and get the results.
Other manner (more used) is to use new technologies, like a web applications (surveymonkey)where a link is sent to the customer, the customer enters in the app the data you want to know and is sent, and that´s all, into this application is possible to gather and analyze the information received, giving what you need.
The phone calls is also used, but in this case what I do (for evidences) is to have a call, to ask about items, get the answers, then, this is
written down in an email and sent to customer waiting just an Ok, of what is into the email and that is sufficient.
This works well, because it takes less time to customers compared to fill out a form.
Hope it helps.

Ah! The email confirmation sounds like a good idea!
Thank you!

 

[Ron Rompen]

In my experience both as a supplier and a customer, an app like SurveyMonkey works better than an email.

They are easy to use, and easy to setup or modify.

 

[Tagin]

I'd start first with: what do I want to know from my customers? Only then, determine what methods are viable to accomplish that goal. Otherwise, you may possibly expend money and effort capturing information that's not relevant or useful to either the customer or you.

Do your customers typically have a single point of contact that will provide a truly representative view of their overall satisfaction? Or, are your customers typically siloed, so that one department likes you but another might be very frustrated with you?

Are your calls and/or surveys going to become tiresome to the customer? Are the customers companies whose spam filtering is going to block 99% of survey emails?

 

[BeaBea]

I'd start first with: what do I want to know from my customers? Only then, determine what methods are viable to accomplish that goal. Otherwise, you may possibly expend money and effort capturing information that's not relevant or useful to either the customer or you.

Do your customers typically have a single point of contact that will provide a truly representative view of their overall satisfaction? Or, are your customers typically siloed, so that one department likes you but another might be very frustrated with you?

Are your calls and/or surveys going to become tiresome to the customer? Are the customers companies whose spam filtering is going to block 99% of survey emails?

Those are all very great questions to consider. I will definitely bring those up in the next management meeting, I appreciate that, thank you.

Our main customers are the government. and for the most part the products get delivered to a main warehouse which then are distributed to the main end users (But that distribution process is not our company's responsibility)
We have specific Points of contacts/ Sales Reps that we communicate the 'shipping process' with and I believe currently, those would be our POC to verify products were delivered.
In the past we'd send out emails, but its very rare we'd get a response back from the customer as to whether they are satisfied.

It sounds like the only way to really track our "customer satisfaction" is the amount of complaints or returns we receive?
(Just thinking out loud I guess)

Thank you for your input!

 

[Tagin]

So you don't get any supplier scorecards from the government? If not, and unless you could arrange, say, quarterly meetings (remote or onsite) to review their satisfaction, then tracking complaints and phone call feedback is likely the most feasible approach.

 

[BeaBea]

correct, no score cards.. and on site visits/ meetings are not ideal.

sounds like tracking complaints and phone calls are our best bet.
I may have my marketing team look into this surveymonkey option and see if we can try it out and capture how many responses we actually get back.

I appreciate the conversation. thank you!

 

[Randy]

Unless you word a survey correctly and it goes to the correct person for answering the questions knowledgeably it'll be wasted effort. Auto manufacturers learned that lesson 50 years ago.

 

[RoxaneB]

Hello, BeaBea.

Currently our Sales team will periodically make follow up calls to ensure the products were delivered, but none of those conversations are documented or analyzed.

Is a phone call the only way your organization can confirm that products were delivered?

Has your organization looked into a call recording software that will record calls and allow them to be evaluated to defined and standardized criteria?

I'm thinking of implementing a 'survey method' to send customers.. but what are some other ideas? and how did you document and analyze the results?

I am not a fan of surveys...they are long, time-consuming, and require me to remember the past. Right now, especially, I'm barely keeping up with the present and let's not even think about planning for the future...this is how my workdays currently go. Surveys are also very emotional - people remember the extreme situations and usually only the bad stuff, so results are skewed. Add in the fact that many folks do not know how to write a proper, meaningful survey, so results are often middle of the road if people cannot recall a extreme experience. Either way this makes the results rather meaningless.

side question: When and if we continue to use phone calls as a means of "customer feedback" how can we properly document those conversations? Create a form with the customers response?

Investing in a call recording package that allows for developing an evaluation scorecard so that everything is linked, offers up overall scores, scores by agent, scores by behaviour, etc.

Methods to get customer perception has changed over the time.
While some companies still use a spreadsheet mentioning what yo need to know, on time delivery, cost of product, quality,etc. sending these forms by email and waiting for customers to fill out forms and returning them, then such information is evaluated and get the results.
Other manner (more used) is to use new technologies, like a web applications (surveymonkey)where a link is sent to the customer, the customer enters in the app the data you want to know and is sent, and that´s all, into this application is possible to gather and analyze the information received, giving what you need.

Again, not a fan of post-deliver surveys...besides, if the supplying organization cannot say what the customer ordered and at how much, I'd question their ability to take action on any of my feedback. I realize that this may be the most viable option for your organization at this time, however, I'd strongly encourage your organization to use this approach wisely.

Your clients may receive a lot of surveys. Filling in another may be low on their priorities. If you're going to go the survey route, I'd suggest you make it engaging and meaningful, and be ready to show how you took action to their feedback.

I'd start first with: what do I want to know from my customers? Only then, determine what methods are viable to accomplish that goal. Otherwise, you may possibly expend money and effort capturing information that's not relevant or useful to either the customer or you.

The very first thing I'd offer we want to know is what do our customers care about. I'd also recognize that time is money and we don't want to waste theirs.

So, asking questions about on-time-delivery (e.g., Did we deliver your item on-time) could be useless, unless you wish to identify those extreme situations.

Example:
Did your product arrive.... (a) Too early. (b) Just when you wanted/needed it. (c) Too late. (d) It never arrived at all.

Now you have a potential follow-up conversation. If (a) or (c) or (d), you can frame your conversation properly with the customer.

Compare that question with: Did your product arrive on-time? (a) Yes (b) No.

Now a follow-up phone call means you have to ask for more details, whereas the first question allows you to do some investigation ahead of time.

Are your calls and/or surveys going to become tiresome to the customer? Are the customers companies whose spam filtering is going to block 99% of survey emails?

Completely agree. Sending this out with every delivery may be irksome. Sending this out after a year's worth of deliveries will be too late and irrelevant to you. Finding a way to personalize and randomly sending out a survey, if this is the way your organization will go, is likely your best option. Similar to Amazon, make it personalized..."You recently ordered a XYZ from us. We hope you are happy with our product. Perhaps you'd be willing to answer a few questions about your order. Your feedback may be able to help us improve our relationship and your experience with us."

sounds like tracking complaints and phone calls are our best bet.

Tracking complaints is reactive. How about tracking feedback - compliments and complaints?

Be proactive on call monitoring. If you do invest in a call monitoring package, evaluating sales calls from the beginning is proactive...evaluating those calls when people call you!

We evaluate those calls, currently to 11 criteria:

• Greeting
• Compliance to procedure (we're a healthcare company so need to protect client information)
• Name repetition
• Active listening
• Empathy
• Probing
• Hold courtesy
• Transfer confirmation
• Tone and manner
• Industry knowledge
• Closing

Our next step will be to implement an IVR protocol, so that call people calling us can, at the beginning of the call, opt in to answer a couple of questions (i.e., automated survey) before they hang up.

Considering I work for a not-for-profit healthcare company (who is paid primarily by a government-funded organization), if we're able to afford and see the ROI in such an approach, this may also be work looking at.

You might be even be able to track success rates of cold calls...what if potential business is called in. An amazing call with you with great phone behaviours may increase your organization's chances of successfully securing the business or gaining repeat business.

At the end of the day, I'd suggest you focus on the concept of the Client Experience. Not feedback. Not satisfaction. Those are components of the overall experience, but neither is fulsome on its own.