Hidden Value in ISO 9001 Customer Satisfaction Data

Although collecting customer satisfaction and feedback is part of your required performance evaluation for your ISO 9001 accreditation, you are likely missing out on other hidden value in the data. Many manufacturing companies do the bare minimum when it comes to collecting customer feedback. They accomplish this through an open-ended comment box, customer service notes, or other informal procedures. This helps them meet the loosely defined ISO standards of performance evaluation from customers.

However, the best manufacturers find ways to maximize and squeeze all kinds of value from their customer feedback as part of the ISO process.

Some suggest too many barriers exist to ask anything beyond the basic questions needed for ISO 9001 fulfillment. Naysayers will say customers don't have time to answer a any more than a 1 question survey or our manufacturing company doesn't have time to design or analyze the survey.

We believe this to be incorrect. Every market research project we conduct finds ways to collect feedback from respondents where they offer up 1 minute, 5 minutes, or 2 hours of their time to give us feedback on a product, service, or brand. If you ask and plan on doing something with the data, they will respond.

In large part, most manufacturers manage the process in house without using an ISO 9001 customer satisfaction survey company. The survey question(s) is short, direct, and posted in a few places: website, customer support emails, etc.

Unfortunately, many manufacturing companies fail to think beyond the basic questions on their ISO 9001 customer satisfaction survey. But, if you are interested, here are 9 suggestions for ISO customer satisfaction surveys.

In this post, we'll talk about 3 hidden values in your data you likely are collecting today from your customer feedback tools in place.

Hidden Value in ISO 9001 Customer Satisfaction Data

There's hidden value in your ISO 9001 customer data.


Hidden Value 1: Conflict Resolution

Ever hear the phrase, if you don't ask, you'll never know? This same notion holds true with your customer survey data. Even if you don't ask, customers are likely to include some valuable anecdotes and verbatim comments in their open-ended comments.

You should consider tying this customer data directly into a closed-loop process. Not sure what a closed-loop process is in customer experience (CX)? Read more here.

By collecting and categorizing this feedback, action can be taken with your sales reps or managers. If a customer is unhappy with a recent order, perhaps a call from customer support can help solve it. Maybe a customer is unhappy with the responsiveness of the sales rep. In this case, the regional manager can follow-up to understand the issues and provide a solution.

Manufacturers should not just collect customer feedback for the sake of collecting it. Tremendous value exists in siphoning through this data and creating action plans to resolve them.


Hidden Value 2: Lead Generation

Chances are there are plenty of data points and signs in the feedback you are collecting which point to opportunities to cross-sell or up-sell a customer. Not only will these data points pop-out in open-ended comments but asking a few simple questions like "What is the most important factor when choosing a firm for product ABC?" will help you identify factors which are critical to choice.

Reading between the lines customers may also talk about prices, quality, or shipping times in their open-ends. Essentially they are telling you what is important to them and what they are happy or unhappy with at your company.

How is this valuable? Next time your sales rep makes a phone call or sends an email, they can be aware of decision-making factors most critical to the end-user. By tying this customer feedback to your Salesforce.com platform (or equivalent), this customer feedback is integrated into the customer record file for future use.

The sales team can now make customized and relevant pitches and sales calls to sell more product to end users. They'll know customer A cares most about price and quality while customer B cares most about turn-around time and customer support.


Hidden Value 3: Drivers to Loyalty

Read through your open-ended comments and feedback to understand competitive differentiators. In the feedback you can identify themes which customers are most satisfied with when it comes to your manufacturing company.

You may read things like "Your technical support is excellent." You may also hear "The sales rep Shaun has been great for us, he always gets back to us right away and finds the best price."

These themes can be grouped and categorized for your marketing team as messages and differentiators to include in your campaigns. If respondents are taking the time call-out specific pieces of their experience, they're really telling you "here is what stands out".


Contact Us

Not getting enough value from your ISO 9001 customer survey data? Drive Research is an ISO 9001 customer survey company located in Syracuse, NY.

Have questions or need advice? Contact us at 315-303-2040 or email us at [email protected].

Customer Satisfaction