The Finding
No formal analysis of customer satisfaction data or reviewing trends to date, what will be done to improve etc.
Some Context to the Finding
The finding was raised during a Stage 1 audit for a multi-sited company providing building support services to the construction sector.
After the Stage 1 assessment, it transpired that a Director in London did carry out customer satisfaction surveys for his business division, but that the information had not been shared with other business divisions or other locations.
Action taken to address the finding
The company made more effective use of the newly introduced nonconformity reporting system and ensured that trends were formally reviewed as part of the Management Review Meeting process and therefore allowed meaningful improvement objetives to be identified and set.
The was a recognition of the need for greater visibility and sharing of data across the business as a whole.
When we subsequently visited our own client again, we enquired about what had changed as a result of implementing the management system. "Oh, not much. But I suppose we get fewer complaints now!" We're pretty sure that was a direct result of understanding the trends and taking action to address the root cause of the issue.
Lessons to take from this finding
The Standard explictly requires that organisations "shall monitor customers’ perceptions of the degree to which their needs and expectations have been fulfilled." With that in mind, organisations should define how they will monitor customer satisfaction and ensure that it is implemented.
There are different ways of identifying customer feedback, and the effectiveness will vary depending on the customer and the timing. Some options for capturing customer feedback include:
Customer satisfaction surveys - allows for a degree of consistency when comparing and contrasting, but the return rate can be low (unless you are asking trainees to complete a feedback form at the end of a course, for example).
Customer / site meetings - especially useful in construction related projects. There will be regular opportunties to document feedback through the life of the project.
Telephone conversations - not everybody likes to fill in forms, but most will offer an opinion during a conversation. If staff understand the value of capturing this and sharing it with the team, the more information conversations can reveal some real gems!
Written communication - once upon a time, this would have taken the form of a letter. Now email offers the advantage of instant communication (but beware, as the 'tone of voice' may get lost in translation!)
It's not enough to obtain customer feedback. It must be reviewed.
Compliments are nice. Complaints can be powerful.
Addressing customer issues will help to drive business improvement and reduce the potential complaints for the future.
Using purpose built compliance software, like Mango, can provide the perfect way of managing customer feedback.
Mango's improvement module allows reactive feedback (e.g complaints) to be captured, and reports to be generated. Details will be seamlessly linked to the customer module.
For proactive evaluation it's possible to create assessments (questionnaires), which can be emailed out to customers, or filled in when chatting to them at the end of the project. Again, records will be linked to the customer module.
Mango even makes it easy to set up the improvement steps that will be taken to address any underlying trends. Either using the improvement module (for simple changes) or the Management of Change module for projects with multiple tasks.
Find out more about how Mango provides a structured way of managing customer satisfaction information by calling us on 029 2070 3328 or book a free demonstration.