TABLE OF CONTENTS There are various stages where communication with customers will be essential or helpful. The entire process of customer satisfaction measurement involves communicating with customers, from the exploratory research to identify customers' requirements through to the main survey itself. Even if the main survey is postal or web-based, it remains a customer communication process. These processes have already been covered in the preceding chapters of this book, but there are other aspects of customer communication that are important both to the survey process and to the bigger picture of continual improvement of customer satisfaction. There are three main areas of customer communication that will be covered in this chapter.
How to introduce the survey to customers to maximise participation and to enhance customers' perception of the purpose and professionalism of the exercise.
Providing feedback after the survey to inform customers about its results and the learning that your organisation has gained from the exercise.
Continuing the communication on a regular basis to keep customers informed about the improvements your organisation is making as a consequence of the survey.
The most fundamental aspect of communicating with customers applies to the process for measuring customer satisfaction. ISO 9000:2000 makes it quite clear that customer satisfaction can be measured and monitored only through communicating with customers. Beyond the actual measurement of satisfaction, however, the Standard does make specific reference to customer communication in Section 7. As we saw in Chapter 3, Section 7.2 of the Standard, ' Customer-related...
