Survey says … What does the Survey Say? And how Important is it to your Company?

“Customer satisfaction measurement is one of the most overlooked yet important tools that management has,” wrote Roger F. Jones in his ebook, Strategic Management for the Plastics Industry: Dealing with Globalization and Sustainability. He continued, “Unless you know what your customers think of your company, you are effectively navigating by dead reckoning.” He suggests that you survey your customers to find out what they are thinking about your company, products, and services.

Ian Linton of the Houston Chronicle agrees. In his article, “Benefits of a Customer Satisfaction Survey,” Linton wrote, “Customer satisfaction surveys are a valuable tool for small businesses, helping you gain a better understanding of your customers’ requirements and concerns so that you improve your products and your standards of service in line with customers’ needs. By monitoring customer satisfaction and responding to problems, you can improve customer loyalty and protect revenue and profitability.”

One company that agrees with this advice is Team 1 Plastics, a plastic injection molding company for the transportation industry. According to the company’s Customer Service Manager, Kari Masternak, “Surveys are a key indicator of how well we service our customer — a vital role within Team 1 Plastics. At Team 1 Plastics, we strive for Customer Service Excellence.” Masternak said that the company routinely conducts surveys of its customers. Those surveys allow them to “… identify problems within the company that might create an unsatisfied feeling from our customers. It also allows us to measure our customer’s loyalty, our progression through the years, and to verify that processes we’ve implemented in the past have worked to increase the customer’s satisfaction.”

“Feedback from customers and contacts offers a wealth of information you can use to improve your customer service, pinpoint small issues before they become big problems, and even gather suggestions for new products or services,” wrote Megan Totka of business.com in her article, “The Best and Worst Times to Survey Your Customers: What You Need To Know.“ However, she cautioned, “When you’re surveying customers, timing is everything. The key to gathering useful data is asking the right questions – at the right time.”

And, of course, you don’t want to annoy your customer. Jones wrote, “Mailing out bland survey forms to customers is not an acceptable or reliable way to learn how your customers view your company. In fact, such surveys are as likely to irritate your customers as they are to obtain genuine expressions of their concerns.” He suggests that a company “… conduct formal benchmarking studies by questionnaires and telephone interviews. These latter studies are best done through outside, neutral parties, for example, consultants or market research firms, who have the necessary experience in conducting such surveys in a nonintrusive way.”

Masternak agrees. That’s why Team 1 Plastics’ utilizes several different surveys as well as different survey methods. The company uses Survey Monkey for most of its customer surveys and limits the length and topic of the surveys to one single subject. And, the company has utilized an outside vendor, VIVE, LLC, in the past to help them conduct customer phone surveys. In addition, Team 1 offers its customers the option to remain anonymous, which Masternak said makes some customers more comfortable in responding.

These are the types of customer surveys used by Team 1 Plastics:

Customer Satisfaction Survey – annual survey to every customer
PPAP (Production Part Approval Process) – given to a customer at the time that PPAP approval has been finalized
SOP (Start of Production) – given to a customer shortly after a new part has gone into full production
Customer Phone Survey – conducted in 2014 by VIVE, LLC; expecting to conduct another survey in 2018

The annual Customer Satisfaction Survey is sent to all of Team 1’s contacts in each customer’s company — positions such as buyers, program management, and quality. Masternak said that the response rate is typically 10-20%. However, she said that “if we work with a contact on a day-to-day basis, they are normally willing to respond.”

She added, “We had one customer express to us how pleased he was with Team 1. He said that he appreciated that we value his responses. He also relayed that he was honest with us on the survey because he knew that we would hear his concerns and take action. He added that a lot of customers send him surveys, but if he doesn’t feel the customer will value his opinion, he does not complete their surveys.”

Listening, Linton wrote, is one outcome of customer satisfaction surveys. “A satisfaction survey provides a channel for customers to express their views … Asking your customers for their views on your company’s products and performance indicates that you’re prepared to listen to customers and take account of their views.”

But, listening isn’t enough. You need to do something with the information your customer gives you. Linton wrote, “Analyzing the responses to a satisfaction survey highlights your company’s strengths and weaknesses from your customers’ perspective. Focus on areas of your business that achieve very low satisfaction scores and prioritize improvement programs so that you can remedy any serious problems in those areas.”

According to Masternak, the management team of Team 1 Plastics “discusses the responses to the surveys, celebrates its successes, and implements a plan to correct any identified issues. These are tracked through the Customer Service Department’s KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and monitored regularly.”

She added that Team 1 has “… recently implemented face to face meetings with customers who have given us adverse feedback. We take this time to meet with them to discuss their concerns and the steps that we have taken to help correct current issues and prevent future issues.” And that only increases the customer’s satisfaction and retention.

So, what does the Survey Say? And how Important is it to your Company? Totka concludes, “When you ask the right questions at the right time, you can use customer opinion to steer your company in the right direction.”