Customer Value Research
The past twelve months have seen an improvement in the way OGCbuying.solutions conducts research. Overlaying all research at a strategic level is the ongoing customer value research programme, described below.
Since April 2006 Buying Solutions have embarked on a customer value research programme with objectives designed to provide an understanding of customer perceptions of the service being provided and to identify potential areas for improvement.
The customer research is a quarterly survey which allows for quick reaction times to the responses from customers. Customers are selected at random to take part with approximately 1,000 customers taking part each year. The telephone interviews are managed externally by ORC International, a supplier within Functional Consultancy, to allow for an unbiased view with each interview lasting approximately 15-20 minutes.
The questionnaire is split into a number of sections:
- Customer profile
- Customer satisfaction and overall measures
- Customer Value Indicators (CVIs)
- Usage, attitudes and perceptions
- Problem Incident Tracking
Customer Profile
It is important to understand the profile of the customers who take part in the research. Quotas are set for each customer sector but no other restrictions are applied. The profile section looks at whether the customer uses Catalist, Managed Services or both; how long customers have been a customer for, with nearly half (47.6%) of respondents having used Buying Solutions for more than 3 years; when the customer last used Buying Solutions, with over 82% of customers having used Buying Solutions within the past 6 months and nearly half (49.9%) having used Buying Solutions within the last month and finally whether the customer is a procurement team member, the head of procurement within a particular business unit or the head of procurement for the whole organisation, see fig 1
Customer Satisfaction and Overall Measures
92.2% of customers stated that they were either very satisfied (23.5%) or somewhat satisfied (68.7%) with their overall experience of Buying Solutions.
Around half of customers (49.2%) said that they believed that Buying Solutions has improved what it does over the past year or so and 93.1% of customers participating in the survey foresee their future use of Buying Solutions increasing or staying the same.
Almost all customers would recommend Buying Solutions to a colleague or other public sector body (88.4%) with a further 5.7% saying that they would possibly recommend them.
Customer Value Indicators (CVIs)
Customers were asked to rate a set of 30 customer defined value indicators (CVIs) both in terms of importance to them and also in terms of Buying Solution’s performance.
The top ten CVIs in order of importance to customers are as follows:
- They help me/my organisation to save money
- They can demonstrate value for money and efficiency savings
- They help me/my organisation to save time and/or resource
- They provide a high standard of customer service and support
- They leverage buying power effectively on behalf of the public sector
- Their pricing, including the commission structure, and contract terms and conditions are clear and transparent
- They communicate with me effectively
- They provide framework agreements that are fit for purpose and reflect what buyers want and need
- They provide a fast, flexible and efficient service
- They are easy to do business with
The top 5 CVIs in terms of Buying Solutions’ performance are:
- They help me/my organisation to save time and/or resource
- They provide access to a wide choice of suppliers
- They leverage buying power effectively on behalf of the public sector
- They have an excellent understanding of the marketplace, in terms of both demand and supply
- The quality of their framework agreements is consistently high
Areas in which Buying Solutions could look to continue to improve include providing useful and timely management information, having a user-friendly website and by communicating more effectively.
Usage, Attitudes and Perceptions
Customers were read a list of statements and asked to specify which one best described the way they used Buying Solutions. 18.2% of customers stated that Buying Solutions was their first port of call with 22.5% ending to use Buying Solutions for commodity or non-specialised procurement.
Customers were asked how they viewed Buying Solutions, with the largest proportion of customers (41.2%) saying that they are OK, but really just one of a number of options available to them, followed by 39.3% of customers stating that they are convenient and easy to use although not necessarily always best value and 10.25% of customers think that Buying Solutions generally offer the best solutions and value for money around.
Customers were asked to state what other procurement routes they used other than Buying Solutions. 39.0% of customers run competitive tenders on an ad hoc basis, whilst 33.2% have their own set of framework agreements.
Problem incident tracking
The final section of the questionnaire seeks to discover if the customer has experienced a problem either in using Buying Solutions or directly with a supplier. Some of the areas customers felt could be improved were the navigation of the website, query response times and delivery times.
Actions
The most important aspect of the customer research is that actions are taken from the given responses. Some of the current actions that Buying Solutions are going to take are shown below:
- Many customers expressed concerns around the Buying Solutions website. This has led to a further piece of research around the website and a usability review. The website will continue to be improved following these studies.
- Following low performance scores in the CVI ‘provision of useful and timely management information’ the content and distribution of management information will be reviewed.
- To ensure effective communications it is important that customers understand exactly where and how Buying Solutions add value.
Further Information
For further information on Customer Research, please contact suppliermarketing@ogcbs.gsi.gov.uk
