Integrated Consulting Solutions

1. Integrated Consulting Solutions Module 9: Customer Feedback and Satisfaction

2. What You Need to Know About Customer Satisfaction? Customer requirements for product or service, should be documented and agreed upon including regulatory/ legislative requirements. Once the requirements have been determined, they need to be reviewed. Ascertain the customer’s level of satisfaction with what you have been delivering.

3. What You Need to Know About Customer Satisfaction? Various ways: A survey Website survey Telephone calls You also need to have a defined process for handling any customer complaints.

4. Why is Customer Satisfaction Important? Primarily, a business exists to satisfy customers. Customers provide an outside-in view of your organisation and their feedback is valuable. The establishment and satisfaction of customer requirements is absolutely fundamental to the business. If customer requirements change, this needs to be captured and acknowledged.

5. What This Module Covers In this module we will be: Identifying the means to gather customer feedback. Dealing with customer complaints. Ensuring customer requirements are understood and delivered. Ensuring changes to customer requirements are verified and delivered.

6. In Your Pack: In your pack you will find: A sample Customer Feedback form- for telephone follow up. A link to “survey Monkey”- online surveys which can be linked to your website.

7. Identifying a Means to Gather Customer Feedback Exercise One Opportunities to consider: When salespeople meet with customers a website where customers can leave feedback surveys that you can go through with customers have forms that you deliver with your product have a customer service team that regularly rings customers

8. Identifying a Means to Gather Customer Feedback Exercise One Making surveys a success: Emailing/ faxing surveys is unlikely to get the best result Try an informal chat instead Offer incentives for returning/ completing surveys Analyse and use the data to improve your business. Feed conclusions into your management review/ continuous improvement processes.

9. Identifying a Means to Gather Customer Feedback Exercise One Getting to “yes” with surveys! Ask for permission and if this is a good time? Offer to ring back if not. Frame the purpose as wanting get feedback (both positive and negative) in order to improve. Getting positive feedback for testimonial at points of achievement or customer satisfaction.

10. Identifying a Means to Gather Customer Feedback Exercise One Instruction Take time now to look at the sample provided. Go ahead and list all those options for establishing customer feedback. Make some notes in your workbook and identify what would work best for your organization.

11. Identifying a Means to Gather Customer Feedback Exercise One Online surveys One popular service is “survey monkey” which has both free and paid versions. Check it out here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/ or find your own.

12. Identifying a Means to Gather Customer Feedback Exercise One Consider What form needs to be created? Do staff need to be trained? Does getting customer feedback need to be included in the job descriptions for sales rep's? Do the surveys need to be scheduled so that it is not forgotten?

13. Dealing with Customer Complaints Exercise Two Workbook Nobody likes customer complaints! Or do they?

14. Dealing with Customer Complaints Exercise Two The Advantages legitimate customer complaints can be a great opportunity to improve . they can also serve as early warning signs. we recommend that all customer complaints be welcomed most problems are caused by the failure of a system not the failure of a person encourage a culture of using complaints for continuous improvement rather than blame or denial.

15. Dealing with Customer Complaints Exercise Two What to consider in your complaints process: Where will complaints come from? Who will be the one person through which all customer complaints are addressed? How and where are you going to log the complaint? The process needs to define how the customer will be informed and how you will seek feedback as to whether that complaint has been resolved adequately. Where will you discuss your customer complaints?

16. Dealing with Customer Complaints Exercise Two Instruction Take a moment and imagine a typical customer complaint. Imagine you are the customer. Answer the following questions and make some notes: How would you want your complaint handled? What feedback would you expect to show that your complaint has been: logged? allocated? resolved and resolved well?

17. Ensuring Customer Requirements and Changes to Customer Requirements are Verified and Delivered Exercise Two Recording the complaint Would a non-conformance form would be a useful way of documenting formal customer complaints and communicating with the customer about how their complaint was resolved? If not, how will you record customer complaints? Will you have a customer complaints book? Will you note them down in the agenda for the upcoming management review?

18. Ensuring Customer Requirements and Changes to Customer Requirements are Verified and Delivered Exercise Two Instruction Write some examples of potential customer complaints and what a basic procedure could look like. Decide how you will record customer complaints and what method you will use to communicate to the customer how their complaint has been resolved. Train relevant staff. Include the complaints process in your manual and/ or in your document register.

19. Ensuring Customer Requirements and Changes to Customer Requirements are Verified and Delivered Exercise Three Instruction Ask yourself the following questions: Is there any risk that customer requirements can be misunderstood? If the answer is no-all good.If the answer is yes, think about whether you need to put something in place to ensure that customer requirements are clear, unambiguous and agreed to. E.g. tender/ little variation/ more variation

20. Ensuring Customer Requirements and Changes to Customer Requirements are Verified and Delivered Exercise Three Some ideas for capturing customer requirements It could be a series of prompts that you ask when taking the order. It could be a template questionnaire or form that you fill out/ ask them to fill out when they are providing information to you.

21. Ensuring Customer Requirements and Changes to Customer Requirements are Verified and Delivered Exercise Three Prompts for dealing with variations Recommend getting it in writing. Do a sample? Inspection? Customer audit or inspection? Need to protect yourself.

22. Ensuring Customer Requirements and Changes to Customer Requirements are Verified and Delivered Exercise Three An example Client requirement questionnaire. Checking in with the customer at an early stage. Changes recorded as contract variations. Keep records of additions to scope and get customer agreement via email.

23. Ensuring Customer Requirements and Changes to Customer Requirements are Verified and Delivered Exercise Three Now it’s your turn!- Consider the following questions What is your equivalent of this process? How do you capture customer requirements in an unambiguous way? Are you gathering all the information you need? Does your current process include getting something in writing? If not, it should!

24. Ensuring Customer Requirements and Changes to Customer Requirements are Verified and Delivered Exercise Three Now it’s your turn!-(cont’d) Consider the following questions When the customer asks for a variation, how do you ensure that this is understood and accepted by both parties and, if necessary, requoted for? Are any of your customer complaints/ non-conformances, caused by gaps in your information gathering from the customer?

25. Ensuring Customer Requirements and Changes to Customer Requirements are Verified and Delivered Exercise Three Now it’s your turn! (cont’d) Map your current process and consider in the light of the above questions (this may be best done as a group in a management meeting). Making changes, customising and training Make changes to the process based on your findings. Ensure relevant staff are trained and the process is written up and the information gathering mechanism(for example a form) updated accordingly.

26. Congratulations! That is the end of module nine. You are ready to contact your consultant to check your work.