Registrar Expectations from Customer in Audit Scheduling

[Neil V.]

Curious what the norms are as far as the level of service your registrar and/or auditor provides in terms of audit scheduling.

By that I mean who is generally expected to calculate the number of audit days? or to know the date of the closing meeting from the re-certification audit 2.5 years ago so that the next re-cert is scheduled on time?

 

[Randy]

The CB or Registrar. You, the client, will of course be involved in the process.

You're talking about an industry process that is fairly regulated and everything they do will be governed with a series of checks and balances, for the most part answering to the exact same set of rules.

 

[Neil V.]

As a customer I'm fine with involved. I can supply number of employees, shifts, customers, how many audits we want per year, schedule availability, and things like that.

I think a line gets crossed though when the customer is asked things like the date of the closing meeting that occured 2.5 years ago, or whether a car from the last audit ever got closed. Then it turns into having the schedule dates changed multiple times, or finding out a week prior to an audit that it needs to be two days and not one. All kind of the same issue, level of service.

Maybe this stuff is norm, I don't know.

 

[JQuality]

I have found that registrars vary wildly in providing reports and audit plans. The current registrar I use is horrible about those sort of things. I have to beg for the audit plan and the audit report. Sometimes it's only a few days before the audit that I recieve my audit plan, and it has been months in some cases before i recieve the final audit reports.

In contrast, all of the other registrars that i have dealt with (3) have been excellent.

I am currently reviewing switching registrars for all of the facilities I am managing.

If they don't provide service that you are happy with, switch registrars. I firmly believe in voting with my wallet.

 

[AndyN]

I have found that registrars vary wildly in providing reports and audit plans. The current registrar I use is horrible about those sort of things. I have to beg for the audit plan and the audit report. Sometimes it's only a few days before the audit that I recieve my audit plan, and it has been months in some cases before i recieve the final audit reports.

In contrast, all of the other registrars that i have dealt with (3) have been excellent.

I am currently reviewing switching registrars for all of the facilities I am managing.

If they don't provide service that you are happy with, switch registrars. I firmly believe in voting with my wallet.

Thanks! We often read here at the Cove of clients who are less than happy with the service they get from their chosen CB, but never do anything about it! Rather than 'vote with their wallets', they perpetuate a myth about 'sucking it in', or 'avoiding a major finding' etc.

As a representative of a major CB, I'm delighted to read that some clients won't tolerate poor service, just as they don't tolerate poor purchased products!

 

[Randy]

I think a line gets crossed though when the customer is asked things like the date of the closing meeting that occured 2.5 years ago, or whether a car from the last audit ever got closed. Then it turns into having the schedule dates changed multiple times, or finding out a week prior to an audit that it needs to be two days and not one. All kind of the same issue, level of service.

Maybe this stuff is norm, I don't know.

It's not supposed to be and I sure hope it's not us. As for the date of a closing meeting 2.5 years ago, if they held the meeting then they had better have that information themselves. I can give the dates for every closing (and opening) meeting I have held since 2004 (that's when I started full time). I can even provide the time they started and who was present. Why? Because that's the way to conduct business.

I have found that registrars vary wildly in providing reports and audit plans. The current registrar I use is horrible about those sort of things. I have to beg for the audit plan and the audit report. Sometimes it's only a few days before the audit that I recieve my audit plan, and it has been months in some cases before i recieve the final audit reports.

Pretty sad.

Before I go into a closing meeting I must present the organization with a completed audit report that the MR and I have reviewed together prior to printing. This is a complete report, not a summary, but the actual, final, and finished product.

Within the body of the report is "The" audit plan for the next visit, not a tentative plan, but "THE" plan with dates times and everything. The plan of course can be changed if circumstances warrent it. Not only is the next plan in the report, but the entire 3 year reassessment program is in the report up to and including the re-assessment audit. The program can also be amended based upon results of previous assessments and the performance of the management system just like the individual auidt plan can. Nobody has to beg or even ask for anything.

When I leave a site, I leave a 100% finished product because that is what I am contracturally bound to do and because it is our business practice to do so.