CM-MA-704 Conducting Customer Satisfaction Surveys

Table of Contents

1. Purpose
2. General
3. Responsibilities
4. Procedure
5. Flowchart
6. References
7. Attachments

1. Purpose

This procedure describes the process of conducting customer satisfaction surveys and the responsibilities of the individuals involved within Company.

2. General

This procedure applies to general surveys as well as to project specific surveys. The steps in the two types of survey are identical, only the responsibilities are different.

2.1 Definitions

• A General Survey is conducted to investigate the perception of a customer about Company without an ongoing project as a point of reference. Normally Company has been working with these customers and they are considered a large potential for future work.
• A Project Specific Survey is conducted on ongoing projects at predefined milestones. The purpose here is to achieve a continuous improvement process and to strengthen the working relationship between Company and customer.
• The Customer Satisfaction Committee is a platform to discuss customer satisfaction issues on a quarterly basis and is consisting of the following individuals:
• General Manager
• Director of Sales
• Director of Projects
• Manager of QA & Safety
• The Project Sponsor is assigned for each project. If there is no specific assignment the Director of Projects is the sponsor.

3. Responsibilities

The Customer Satisfaction Committee is responsible for:

• The selection of customers to be surveyed in a particular year. The criteria for selection may be, but shall not be limited to:
• The potential of projects to be initiated by the customer.
• Company’s long standing working relationship with the customer.
• Organizational changes within customer’s organization.
• The assignment of actions to be taken by individuals based on the customer responses.
• Review of the effectiveness of the customer satisfaction survey process.

The Project Team Building Session, with Company and customer representatives present, is responsible for explaining the customer satisfaction process and for defining the milestones at which the project surveys is to be conducted.

The Project Sponsor is responsible for the overall process as described in this procedure as it relates to project specific surveys. The project sponsor assigns individuals or elects to perform selected steps himself.

The Director of Projects is responsible for addressing the project survey requirements in the assignment letter.

The Director of Sales is responsible for the review of the customer responses to the general survey. This activity is to be conducted in close coordination with the Business Development Manager. The decision to request further clarification from the customer is part of this activity.

The Business Development Manager is responsible for:

• The overall process as described in this procedure as it relates to general surveys.
• The decision whether or not further clarification is required.
• The internal discussion which individual(s) is (are) best suited to conduct subject clarification meeting.

The Manager of QA & Safety is responsible for:

• Maintaining a database with scheduled general and project specific surveys.
• Registration of actions to be taken.
• Monitoring the close out of these actions.
• Regular reporting of the status to the Management Quality Team (MQT) and the Customer Satisfaction Committee.

4. Procedure

For a complete overview of the various steps see section 5 (flowchart)

4.1 Starting Point

The process starts with either the selection by the Customer Satisfaction Committee (CSC) of customers to be contacted or a project team building session in which the milestones for issuing a survey are defined. The decisions shall be reported to the Manager of QA to allow registration of planned activities in a database.

The following steps are to be taken under the responsibility of either the Business Development Manager (BDM) or the project sponsor. Depending on the circumstances the responsible individual can decide to perform all steps himself or delegate one or more steps to others.

4.2 Issue Questionnaire

Issue the standard questionnaire (ref. 6.1) with a transmittal letter, explaining the reason(s) for the survey, to the relevant level(s) within the customer organization. If necessary, a tailor made attachment may be issued as well to obtain answers to specific questions. The use of the standard is mandatory to allow trending of responses over time.

4.3 Review Response

The Director of Sales and the BDM shall review the responses resulting from general surveys whereas the Project Sponsor and the Project Manager shall review the project specific responses. In both cases an evaluation shall be made whether or not further clarification is required to obtain meaningful survey results.

If no clarification is required, a letter shall be issued within ten (10) working days after receipt of the completed survey to thank the customer for his input and to explain the process to be followed. Alternatively a request for a clarification meeting shall be made, again within ten (10) working days.

4.4 Clarification Meeting

Select the appropriate individual(s) to represent Company in the clarification meeting, meet with the appropriate individual(s) and prepare a clarification note.

Within ten (10) working days after the clarification meeting a letter shall be issued to thank the customer for his input and to explain the process to be followed

4.5 Survey Distribution

The survey response with the (optional) clarification shall internally be distributed in accordance with the following matrix:

4.6 Actions

In case of a general survey the required actions and the assignment of individuals responsible for these actions are to be discussed in the Customer Satisfaction Committee. These individuals should be invited to participate in the discussions.

In case of a project specific survey the actions and the assignment of individuals responsible for these actions are to be discussed between the Project Sponsor, the Project Manager and the BDM responsible for that project.

Minutes of meeting shall be prepared to record actions to be taken. The minutes shall be distributed to the meeting attendees and any individuals to be informed about the actions, such as department managers.

4.7 Inform Customer

Once actions have been defined and assigned, the relevant customers shall be issued a letter stating Company's action plan. This to show that the responses as received are activety followed up.

4.8 Registration and Monitoring

It is the responsibility of the Manager of QA & Safety to register the various actions, to monitor the close out of actions and to report the status to the MQT and/or CSC on a regular basis. As a consequence, individuals with assigned actions shall keep the QA Manager, the BDM or the Project Sponsor informed about the progress of their actions.

4.9 Expediting and Reporting

The BDM respectively the Project Sponsor are responsible for expediting the progress of the internal improvement activities.

The customers that initiated internal improvements through their survey response shall be kept posted about the progress on a quarterly basis by letter.

4.10 Process Review

The CSC has the responsibility to review the process as described in this procedure at least on an annual basis. Any deficiencies in the procedure shall be brought to the attention of the QA Department to initiate an update.

5. Flowchart

6. References

7. Attachments

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