12 October 2010 | Andrew Hillman

Finding out what suppliers really think can enhance your relationship with them, says Andrew Hillman

As a procurement professional, you spend many hours with your suppliers in several different ways. Yet, most of the time, these forums do not afford the opportunity to understand and gauge what suppliers think of your company. Most will not express what they truly feel and experience in their relationship with your organisation, its employees and specifically its buyers.

So, what do your suppliers really think of you? One successful and powerful tool that can help you to find out is a supplier opinion survey. This will provide you with valuable information on how suppliers view various aspects of your organisation, to enable you to understand what you are doing right as well as wrong, and to help you to improve.

The survey should aim to address both business and communication issues as well as measure the quality of the relationship between your company and the supplier. Surveys can be brief or in-depth, depending on the level of insight you want into your supplier. They can range from a short 20-question quiz to surveys that contain various sections spanning all aspects of the organisation, from procurement through finance, marketing and production.

The supplier can remain anonymous, should they choose to do so, if you engage an independent company to conduct the survey. This allows for greater transparency and honesty in responses, which is needed for the process to succeed and for the information to be accurate.

Surveys should also include a section for the supplier to provide additional comments or examples, and suggestions for improvement.

The results of the survey will highlight the areas where both you and the supplier have invested resources to improve key processes, as well as identifying those areas that require improvement.

The process leads to an improvement in supplier relationships and the creation of a desired culture where dealings are collaborative.

Enlisting technology

So what are the fundamentals of developing a supplier opinion survey, and what are the benefits?

Traditional, paper-based surveys can be costly to administer and analyse. Much of the cost of data collection lies in providing staff and hard resources, such as paper copies of a survey.

However, harnessing technology allows you to create, conduct and review surveys at a much lower 
cost, while gathering information with a speed and efficiency that 
you could never achieve using paper. In addition, online 
data-management systems can automatically convert the data into 
a useful form for analysis.

The most efficient and effective way of conducting supplier surveys is by using online survey software. One benefit of this software is that it collects and analyses your results automatically, which takes a lot of the work out of your research.  

Online surveys also offer several other benefits: they reduce lengthy delays between collecting and interpreting the results; they eliminate the need for data entry costs; remove problems caused by lost or damaged paper surveys; and eradicate problems related to interpreting responses that are written by hand. They also reduce the time it takes for participants to complete and submit a survey, as well as the amount of consumable materials needed to conduct it; they place the survey in a location where it can easily be found and administered; and broaden the audience of it while improving response rates.

Design details

To design an effective survey, you should ensure the following aspects are covered:

• Determine what type of survey you need to send out and to whom.
• Make sure respondents have the skills, knowledge and access to technology in order to complete the evaluation.
• Collect data from a statistically appropriate sample size. It is not necessary to survey every participant.
• Provide incentives for participants to complete the survey.
• Consider whether you need to provide assistance to your participants for them to complete the survey. An evaluation of your entire supply chain might contain more than 100 questions, which, however, do not all need to answered by each respondent, so you might need to provide a helpdesk to assist respondents in completing the questionnaire.

• Protect respondents’ privacy when you are asking for sensitive information. Data can be easily encrypted in online surveys to provide anonymity.
• Time your survey according to the information you are hoping to gather. Pre-implementation data is used to guide your programme development, while post-implementation data seeks to gauge the programme’s success and make recommendations for change. Look to your programme objectives to determine the kind of data you need.

• Good questions are essential to a survey’s success. They should be focused to avoid unexpected responses that confound data analysis.
• When formulating a question, start by determining the type of answer you wish to receive. If you want a lengthy description or opinion, ask an open question, such as: “What did you do today?” If you want a “yes” or “no” response, ask a closed question, such as: “Did you go to the supermarket today?”

Good questions will find a way to measure the expected response. To this end, you should make a list of possible indicators that relate to the type of responses you are seeking. Once indicators have been determined, you can formulate a valid question.

One effective method for obtaining consistent survey responses is to use a Likert Scale. This allows a participant to provide feedback that is more expansive than a simple closed question, but much easier to quantify than a completely open-ended response.

The Likert Scale lists a set of statements and provides a five or six-point scale for which the participant can rate their level of agreement with the statement.

For example: “I was able to locate the information I needed.”

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Not sure
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

Reaping the rewards

Supplier opinion surveys have been successfully used across several industries. Their results have identified areas in need of attention ranging from internal processes to payment issues, from corporate governance to relationship concerns.

The suppliers surveyed tend to be pleased to be part of the process. They appreciate that you value their opinion, and that their response to the survey will be used to improve the relationship and the processes involved.

So conducting a supplier opinion survey will boost supplier satisfaction, with several benefits ensuing: improved quality through better processes; increased profitability; activated and motivated business development; boosted efficiency; proactiveness towards the customer; improved communication and service; fewer conflicts; more loyalty in terms of priority, flexibility and capacity; a people-to-people relationship; transparency and openness; improved co-operation – sharing of ideas and technology with the customer; and a seamless, fluent supply chain.

Together with your suppliers and partners, the survey facilitates the development and improvement of your organisation’s internal and external processes, and creates a win-win situation for you and your vendors.

• Andrew Hillman is director of Bespoke Sourcing Solutions in south Africa