Customer satisfaction measurement for ISO 9000:2000

Foreword xi 1 Why measure customer satisfaction? 1 Summary 1 1.1 What the Standard says 1 1.2 Keeping customers is profitable 2 1.3 Satisfied customers are more likely to stay 4 1.4 You can’t manage what you don’t measure 5 1.5 From measurement to action 6 1.6 An overview of the CSM process 6 1.7 Conclusions 7 2 Customer satisfaction measurement and ISO 9001:2000 9 Summary 9 2.1 Background to the new Standard 9 2.2 Components of the ISO 9001:2000 family of standards 11 2.2.1 ISO 9000:2000 11 2.2.2 ISO 9001:2000 11 2.2.3 ISO 9004:2000 11 2.3 The philosophy of ISO 9001:2000 12 2.4 What the Standard says 14 2.4.1 Management responsibility 14 2.4.2 Customer requirements 15 2.4.3 Customer satisfaction 16 2.5 The transition to ISO 9001:2000 18 2.6 Conclusions 18 3 Identifying customers’ requirements 20 Summary 20 3.1 What the Standard says 20 3.1.1 ISO 9000:2000 definition 20 3.1.2 Determining customers’ requirements 21 3.1.3 The customers’ role 21 3.1.4 Whose responsibility is it? 21 3.2 The importance of identifying customers’ requirements 22 3.2.1 How not to do it! 22 3.2.2 How to do it 22 3.3 The lens of the customer 22 3.3.1 Specifications or requirements 23 3.4 Exploratory research 24 3.4.1 Qualitative and quantitative research 24 3.5 Depth interviews 25 3.5.1 Organising depth interviews 25 3.5.2 Conducting depth interviews 26 3.6 Focus groups 29 3.6.1 Recruiting focus groups 30 3.6.2 Running focus groups 31 3.6.3 Identifying customers’ requirements 32 3.6.4 Prioritising customers’ requirements 34 3.7 Conclusions 34 4 A representative sample 36 Summary 36 4.1 What the Standard says 36 4.2 Sampling theory 36 4.2.1 Probability and non-probability samples 37 4.2.2 Non-probability samples 37 4.2.3 Probability samples 39 4.3 A sampling example 40 4.3.1 Sampling the customers 40 4.3.2 Sampling the contacts 41 4.4 Sample size 42 4.4.1 Sample reliability relates to sample size 42 4.4.2 Drilling down 43 4.4.3 Sample size and response rates 44 4.5 Conclusions 44 vi Contents 5 Survey decisions 46 Summary 46 5.1 What the standard says 46 5.2 Personal interviews 48 5.2.1 Personal interviews – advantages 49 5.2.2 Personal interviews – disadvantages 49 5.3 Telephone interviews 50 5.3.1 Telephone interviews – advantages 50 5.3.2 Telephone interviews – disadvantages 50 5.4 Self-completion questionnaires 51 5.4.1 Self-completion questionnaires – advantages 51 5.4.2 Self-completion questionnaires – disadvantages 52 5.5 Maximising response rates 52 5.5.1 Essentials 53 5.5.2 Advisables 55 5.5.3 Marginals 56 5.5.4 Avoidables 57 5.5.5 Maximising response rates – a summary 58 5.6 New technology 59 5.6.1 Web surveys 59 5.6.2 Interactive voice response 60 5.7 Choosing the most appropriate type of survey 61 5.7.1 Telephone or postal 61 5.7.2 Mixed methods 62 5.8 Confidentiality 62 5.8.1 Confidentiality – the advantages 62 5.8.2 Confidentiality – the disadvantages 63 5.8.3 The right approach to respondent confidentiality 64 5.9 When to survey 64 5.9.1 Continuous tracking or baseline survey 65 5.9.2 Timing 66 5.10 Conclusions 66 6 Questionnaire design 68 Summary 68 6.1 What the Standard says 68 6.2 Questionnaire layout 69 6.2.1 Questionnaire length 70 6.2.2 Questionnaire sections 70 Contents vii 6.2.3 Instructions 70 6.2.4 Satisfaction and importance questions 71 6.2.5 Classification questions 72 6.2.6 Design issues 72 6.3 Questionnaire wording 72 6.3.1 Knowledgeable answers 73 6.3.2 No ambiguous questions 73 6.3.3 No jargon 74 6.3.4 No double questions 74 6.3.5 No biased questions 75 6.3.6 No biased rating scales 75 6.4 Rating scales 77 6.4.1 Likert scale 77 6.4.2 Verbal scale 78 6.4.3 Numerical scale 80 6.5 Conclusions 81 7 Analysis of data 83 Summary 83 7.1 What the Standard says 83 7.2 Manual or computerised analysis 84 7.3 Computer software 85 7.4 Analysing the results 86 7.4.1 Analysing numerical scales 86 7.4.2 Analysing verbal scales 90 7.5 Reporting the results 92 7.5.1 Reporting numerical scales 92 7.5.2 Reporting verbal scales 98 7.6 Conclusions 99 8 Customer communication 101 Summary 101 8.1 What the Standard says 101 8.2 Introducing the survey to customers 102 8.2.1 Who? 103 8.2.2 How? 103 8.2.3 What? 103 8.3 Feedback on the survey results 105 8.3.1 Who? 105 viii Contents 8.3.2 What? 106 8.3.3 How? 108 8.4 Progress reports 108 8.4.1 Performance and perception gaps 108 8.5 Conclusions 109 9 Internal communication 111 Summary 111 9.1 What the Standard says 111 9.2 Employee buy-in 112 9.2.1 The launch 113 9.2.2 Key staff 113 9.3 The mirror survey 114 9.3.1 Understanding customers’ requirements 115 9.3.2 Understanding customer satisfaction 115 9.3.3 The value of mirror surveys 116 9.4 Internal feedback 116 9.5 Conclusions 118 10 ISO 9004:2000 – Beyond customer satisfaction measurement 119 Summary 119 10.1 What the Standard says 119 10.1.1 Interested parties 120 10.1.2 Competitive advantage 121 10.2 Benchmarking your performance 122 10.3 Comparisons with direct competitors 124 10.3.1 Comparison indicator 124 10.3.2 Market standing 125 10.4 Achieving customer satisfaction 127 10.4.1 Top management support 127 10.4.2 Prominence 129 10.4.3 Accurate methodology 129 10.4.4 Extensive feedback 129 10.4.5 Swift decision making 129 10.4.6 Action 130 10.4.7 Continuing focus 130 10.5 Conclusions 130 Contents ix Appendix A: ABC Ltd Customer Survey – Telephone 132 Appendix B: ABC Ltd Customer Survey – Self-completion 136 Appendix C: ABC Ltd Customer Survey – Internal 140 Index 145