5 replies to this topic

[yorkshire]

Hello All,

The requirements of 2.6.1 of BRC Version 4 state "There shall be performance indicators established relating to customer satisfaction and communicated to all staff".

In a recent BRC audit we got a non conformance against this clause stating "There was no evidence that perfomance indicators have been established relating to customer satisfation, or that these have been communicated to appropriate staff".

At the audit I presented details of customer complaint feedback, communication and targets and of delivery targets / data (on time/in full etc..). The auditor didn't accept these and wanted to see something from our Sales department.

Has anyone got any ideas on how this can be closed out?

[Gaskit]

Dear Yorky,

Just a thought: How about sending out a questionnaire annually/bi-annually to the purchasers of say your top 20 customers perhaps 10 questions with very good / good / unsatifactory answers ie:

Orders acknowleged VERY GOOD / GOOD / UNSATISFACTORY
Orders Complete " / " / "
Delivery on time " / " / "

etc, etc

Then relay these results to staff on notice board / graphs with a target for the next response??

However, seeing that you only have a little time to close this out, I would design the questionnaire, get on the phone to the top 20 purchasers and explain what you are attempting to achieve, I am sure they would oblige in spending 30 seconds with you, and then relay the results to staff.

Good luck.

Kind regards,

Steve

[Simon]

Hi Yorky,

Customer complaint data is feedback but negative, on time in full delivery measures are an important measure of customer satisfaction, but there are a whole raft of other things you could be finding out about e.g.

About the product

Quality of the product
Length of life of the product
Design of the product
Consistency of quality
Range of products
Processability of the product
Packaging

About Delivery

Delivery on time in full
Speed of delivery

About staff and service

Courtesy from sales staff
Representative's availability
Representative's knowledge
Reliability of returning calls
Friendliness of the sales staff
Complaint resolution
Responsiveness to enquiries
After sales service
Technical service

About the company

Reputation of the company
Ease of doing business
Invoice clarity
Invoices on time

About price

Market price
Total cost of use
Value for money

It's not an exhaustive list, but covers some of the attributes that may impact on customer satisfaction. There are also a variety of methods for gathering this data both formally through surveys etc. and informally during sales / customer meetings and conversations etc. How ever information is collected it should be recorded and fed back to relevant personnel so that action can be taken.

I've previously used the Leadership Factors method for carrying out customer satisfaction surveys. In brief it goes something like this:

- Brainstorm a list (like the one above) and send it to a small sample of your customers asking them to rank in order of most important.
- Choose the top 10 - 12 most important and use this for your main survey questionnaire.
- Send to all customers.
- Ask customer to rate each item for importance and satisfaction
- Choose the biggest 3 gaps as your priorities for improvement
- Communicate and take action
- Do it again in 3 years or so

You can see the methodology here:
Example Customer Satisfaction Survey

It's just one method Yorky; hope it helps.

I think Steve's right about doing a quick and short telephone questionnaire to solve your immediate problem.

Regards,
Simon

[yorkshire]

Wow thanks for the very quick response.

Send me your survey and I'll give you 11 out of 10.

I will see what my colleagues in Sales think,

cheers

[Charles Chew]

Hi Yorky,

Just curious, do you have a list of responsible persons / department defined to handle specific duties especially Customer Feedback.

If you have not, suggest this could be your way out of this NCR but if you have - then I feel your food auditor had gone out of line as you have already defined "authority and responsibility".

A feedback is a feedback and a response is a response. Personally, Sales Department SHOULD NEVER BE ALLOWED to handle BOTH "Sales and Customer Complaint" at the same time. Generally, another department or a designated person that has nothing to do with Sales would handle this issue - this method is in fact an on-going internal audit against the Sales Department for the purpose of specific objectives that may lead to unhealthy trending as mentioned in the long list given by Simon.

In essence, I believe the auditor is asking you to manage objectives of your customer feedback through an approach that is measurable. Probably in statistical form.

Hope I am on the right track!

[okido]

Hi Yorki,

We ran into an ISO auditor with the same problem you described.

We use now:

1. a yearly questionair to all customers
2. visit reports of sales and technical people
3. leadtime of claim handling
4. non product related complaints

This does it in our case for ISO and BRC IoP

Okido,

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