Introduction

In 2003, an automotive machine tool manufacturer contacted Perspectives Consulting Group, Inc. to conduct a customer satisfaction survey with their customers. The goal of the survey was to provide benchmarking information to measure and improve customer satisfaction across all aspects of the organization including the proposal process, installation, machine quality and re-work. This is the third year Perspectives Consulting Group, Inc. has conducted the customer satisfaction survey to evaluate progress by the company in improving their customer satisfaction.

Research Objectives

After a meeting with company management and staff, the following research objectives were developed for this project:

• Importance of factors like quality, price, service, delivery and technical capability on decision to select a machine supplier
• Evaluation of the company compared to other machine suppliers in categories like quality, price, service, delivery and technical capability
• Identify concerns and discover suggestions for changes or improvements in machine suppliers, products and services
• Sources of information used to select a machine supplier

Research Process

Perspectives Consulting Group, Inc. completed the following activities for the company:

1. Initial meeting with company management and staff to understand the market position and mission of the company as well as the history of the company. The research objectives were refined and clarified and specific information needs to be accommodated in the survey design were discussed.
2. Developed a customized telephone survey, incorporating the ideas and concerns of the management of the company. The customized survey included 48 questions and took approximately ten minutes, on average, to complete.
3. Perspectives Consulting Group, Inc. contacted the current customers of the company based on a list of customers provided by the company. The surveys were completed during normal business hours. Perspectives Consulting Group, Inc. made a minimum of three attempts to secure a completed interview with each customer during the interview period.
4. Analyzed and summarized the survey data. The survey data was analyzed on a general level, and then by factors such as; company, position, etc. to determine if there were statistically significant differences.
5. Developed a narrative summary report including a summary of the project, major findings, analysis and conclusions.
6. A meeting with company management and staff upon completion of the research. The meeting included a discussion of the research results and how to interpret them.

Reporting

Perspectives Consulting Group, Inc. prepares a narrative summary report for every research project we complete. To see some sample pages from the narrative summary report for this project – click here:

Narrative Summary Report Sample (Adobe Acrobat format)

In addition to the narrative summary report, all research projects include a statistical reference binder with the statistical information from the report. To see some sample pages from the statistical reference binder for this project – click here:

Statistical Reference Binder Sample (Adobe Acrobat format)