TABLE OF CONTENTS ISO 9001:2000 requires organisations to monitor ' customer perception as to whether the organisation has met customer requirements.' When customers are making supplier selection decisions, perception is reality, even if the customer's perception is not accurate.
Apart from organisations with a very small customer base, an objective quantitative survey will be the only way to reliably measure customers' perceptions.
To conduct a quantitative survey, most organisations will choose between a telephone survey and self-completion questionnaires, typically in the form of a postal survey. Of the two methods, postal surveys are cheapest but telephone surveys will usually provide more detail and greater reliability due to higher response rates.
New technology will often be inappropriate for customer satisfaction measurement due to unrepresentative samples.
Although it is normal to use one data collection method for the whole survey, approaches can be mixed provided core questions occur at the beginning of the questionnaire and are asked consistently across all methods used.
To guarantee honest and objective answers, respondent confidentiality must be offered. If respondents are happy to be named, a hot alert system will enable the organisation to address any instances of high dissatisfaction.
Annual baseline surveys will usually be most appropriate for organisations with ongoing customer relationships. For transaction specific relationships, a rolling event-driven survey should be administered at the conclusion of the process.
