What are You doing to assess Customer Satisfaction? Please help!

K

KateE

#1
Hello All,

I wonder if you could help?

We have just had our 2nd surveillance visit and it went well, apart from the fact that the external auditor raised a non confomance regarding Customer Satisfaction. I have included his exact comment below...

'The organisation needs to review the methods used to define its perception of customer satisfaction, and to demonstrate such perception with effective data'.

We are an IT company that provides middleware software for the Health Service.

We are currently, using e-forums, have a support centre that customers contact with any issue, have user groups where customers are invited to come and discuss whatever they want with us, have a database that customers can suggest enhancements to the s/w and where we log bugs, 2 of our quality objectives are customer satisfaction related and we have a customer satisfaction survey due to be distributed to customers in the next 6 weeks.

The auditor still raised the non conformance, but when asked what he suggested we do in addition, he just said 'read the standard'! Which as you can imagine was rather unhelpful.

So I was wondering what everyone else is doing to monitor / measure customer satisfaction in their organisation and whether they would be willing to share any ideas with me?

I hope you can help.

Thanks
Kate.
 
Elsmar Forum Sponsor

apestate

Quite Involved in Discussions
#2
Hello Kate

Sounds like you're in a high quality company with a good handle on its business. Welcome to The Cove. It's nice to see more high-end quality users who might join the community.

I guess the requirements of 8.2.1 can be pretty slippery. It's a little blurb of a requirement, and it was never very clear to me.

The standard requires us to monitor information relating to the customer's perception as to whether the organization has met customer requirements. The methods of obtaining and using this information need to be determined.

So, firstly, it isn't your perception of customer satisfaction.

ISO 9000 is basically about attaining customer satisfaction by managing business processes for continual improvement. While we are sure to measure customer satisfaction, section 8.2.1 requires us to monitor customer perception. Monitoring involves systematic checks on a periodic or continual basis.

For example, complaints are handled in section 7 under customer feedback. Monitoring in 8.2.1 means looking at the number of complaints, upward or downward trend, distribution of complaints by customer, location and nature of complaint. Monitoring compliments, complaints, sales statistics, survey results, market presence, and reported reputation of the company are some ways to monitor customer perception of your company's performance.

Here is a link to a similar thread: http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=16110

You will see in short order that I don't really know what I'm talking about or how to convey what would be known if I did.

One thing that seems relevant is to look for information about your company on the web. Reviews of your product would probably be a good source of information.

Another thing that seems promising is a coding system like that used by nurses and doctors as they keep track of their time. If key people are trained to monitor customer perception of your company's performance, they could have a simple way to report this information when found. The report could classify the details and reference the information source, and then this would feed into management reviews. Management review could look all the information over and rank the company on a scale of quality, as perceived by your customers.

What was the severity of nonconformance issued by the auditor? Was this a new auditor or one the company has seen before? How many auditors were involved in the audit, and what is the size of your company?

Again, welcome to The Cove

--Erik


Referencing David Hoyle's ISO 9000 Handbook (4th ed)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/07...4301-5175355?_encoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155
 

samer

Involved - Posts
#3
KateE said:
Hello All,

we have a customer satisfaction survey due to be distributed to customers in the next 6 weeks.
Kate.
kate,

why to make the explanation too long ?
you didnot distribute the surveys to yr customers and so yu didnot comply with the standard ?correct me if Im wrong?
you should send those surveys and determine a"hit ratio" ,make then the analysis , then it will be ok

hope this help
 
K

KateE

#4
Thanks for your response Erik, I will check out the link.

We are only a small company - 24 employees in total, but we are basically market leaders in what we do here in the UK.

It was Minor Non Conformance, but it is something that has been picked up on before. I have 6 weeks to put the corrective action plan in. Which although sounds alot, I only get 1 day a week to work on ISO - I have 2 main roles within the comapny you see! Project Manager being my main one.

He was a relatively experienced auditor apparently and he was by himself from the auditing point of view, BUT he was accompanied by a genetleman from UKAS (the UK Accreditation Service - kinda like a governing body for ISO here in the UK), who was auditing him, so was being incredibly picky!

Thanks
Kate.
 

RoxaneB

Super Moderator
Super Moderator
#5
Welcome to the Cove, Kate! :bigwave:

Customer perception and satisfaction do not need to be measured by surveys alone. In fact, surveys tend to be "emotional" data...people fill in only when they are extremely pleased or extremely displeased with the product/service.

I suggest you scroll down to the bottom of this thread where you will find links to other discussions on the concept of customer satisfaction and perception.

Options to assess may include (but are not limited to...get creative!):
  • Surveys
  • Phone conversations
  • Customer visits
  • Customer Appreciation Day (they come to your place...or host a golf tournament...)

Your e-forum is a nice start, but it sounds (by my interpretation) to be a collector for negative feedback from the customer. Using other tools to gather information will also tell you what you're doing well and it's amazing how that can impact morale when the guys on the floor hear that they're doing something right! :)
 
D

donaghadee - 2008

#6
Kate,
Get your Customer Satisfaction Survey out as soon as possible. Record whom, when etc. As results come in analysis them so that you you have something to work on. Set a deadline for responses and do a final analysis then. If necessary show that any negative comments have been taken on board through your Continual Improvement Programme. That should keep him happy. A short written procedure for this might also help.
 
K

KateE

#7
Thank you for all your responses.

I explained to the auditor that we planned to get the survey out asap, but that didn't seem to matter and he gave the impression that the survey wasn't enough anyway.

Sorry - I'm probably just having a moan because I was annoyed with the attitude of the auditor! :mad:

I will check out the other threads on this topic, but any ideas or comments anyone might have would be great.

Thanks again.
Kate. :)
 

Wes Bucey

Quite Involved in Discussions
#8
Let's focus on the word "perception"

My understanding of the intent of the Standard is the organization needs to make a decision about the customer's perception of the Quality and value of the products and services supplied by the organization, based on ANY sources of information (polls, surveys, interviews, etc.) and then to make and execute a "plan" to improve or maintain those perceptions.

I have a hunch the issue is that you don't have a process in place to analyze ANY of the customer perception data you receive to incorporate into a plan to improve or maintain that perception. Why not ask the auditor directly if that is what he expects?
 

SteelMaiden

Super Moderator
Super Moderator
#9
KateE said:
Hello All,

I wonder if you could help?

We have just had our 2nd surveillance visit and it went well, apart from the fact that the external auditor raised a non confomance regarding Customer Satisfaction. I have included his exact comment below...

'The organisation needs to review the methods used to define its perception of customer satisfaction, and to demonstrate such perception with effective data'.

We are an IT company that provides middleware software for the Health Service.

We are currently, using e-forums, have a support centre that customers contact with any issue, have user groups where customers are invited to come and discuss whatever they want with us, have a database that customers can suggest enhancements to the s/w and where we log bugs, 2 of our quality objectives are customer satisfaction related and we have a customer satisfaction survey due to be distributed to customers in the next 6 weeks.

The auditor still raised the non conformance, but when asked what he suggested we do in addition, he just said 'read the standard'! Which as you can imagine was rather unhelpful.

So I was wondering what everyone else is doing to monitor / measure customer satisfaction in their organisation and whether they would be willing to share any ideas with me?

I hope you can help.

Thanks
Kate.
It looks like you have some things in place to collect data. Do you have documented evidence that you have looked at the data, and made some decisions on what to do to show continual improvement? This may be as simple as reporting the results in management review, and showing what actions you are going to take based on that review in the minutes (corrective or preventive actions, etc. and that the corrective and/or preventive actions are included in your CA/PA system)

One thing that I've found, sending out a customer survey is not always the most effecient/effective measurement. I think I read someplace that you can only count on about 12% response rate, and in my experience the ones who respond are typically those with a complaint.

I know that I am very bad about completing these surveys in my own life (those sent to me after I purchase something in my own personal life). If I am happy, I might mention it to the salesperson, but I rarely fill out the after market surveys. Case in point, the customer satisfaction survey sent to me after I bought my car last June is still sitting in my letter box on my desk at home. I was incredibly satisfied with the sales man, and I really like my car. Especially since my gas mileage is better than advertised :lmao: . I talked to the salesman who worked with me, and told him how pleased I was, but I never sat down and returned their survey.

I have also worked with auditors that have given me the old "read the standard" response. That does not fly with me anymore. I keep asking what exactly it is that does not meet the standard. Make them tell you something like "you say you will send out questionaires yearly, but you haven't done it." Or, "you have no record of having looked at the results of your data collection and taking corrective or preventive actions based on those results."

Collecting data is good, are you using it? Planning to do something is good, but are you timely in your execution? It appears that you are trying to use a variety of monitoring and measurement techniques, that is good. The only thing I hate worse than getting customer satisfaction surveys is getting supplier quality assurance surveys year after year.:lol:

Good luck, keep us posted.
 

Miner

Forum Moderator
Staff member
Admin
#10
I agree with what Wes, SteelMaiden and RCBeyette have said, but your auditor may also mean the following:

Your measure of customer satisfaction appear to mostly focus on dissatisfaction. You will only hear from those customers that have a complaint and actually make contact with you to report it. This means that you will not hear from satisfied customers or customers that are unhappy (possibly ready to drop your company) but will not directly contact you.

Your auditor may want you to recognize this and make some effort to capture feedback from these groups.
 
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