Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 160: To ask the Taoiseach the purpose of the customer satisfaction survey (details supplied) being carried out for his Department; the number of people being surveyed; the way the persons who received survey forms were selected; the estimated cost of the survey; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1035/08]

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

My Department's Customer Charter commits us to providing friendly, efficient and courteous service to our customers. In order to monitor our performance against this and other commitments in the Charter, we conduct an annual survey of our main customer groups, as well as using other evaluation mothods such as mystery shopping, customer feedback, interviews and focus groups. We then report on progress against the commitments in our Charter in our Annual Reports.

The results of previous surveys, carried out by the Department itself, have shown consistently high customer satisfaction ratings. While there is no evidence to suggest that these results do not represent a true picture of how our customers perceive us, it would nevertheless provide added re-assurance if they could be validated independently. This would ensure that the results can withstand external scrutiny and, hopefully, provide further confirmation that we continue to meet the commitments in our Charter.

Following a competitive tender, my Department commissioned an independent third party to conduct the 2007 customer satisfaction surveys. There were 966 people surveyed at a cost of €8,390.

There is a strong quality customer service structure within my Department which is supported at the highest level. The Quality Customer Service Sub Group, which reports to the Partnership Committee and has been in place for a number of years, is a useful platform to discuss, promote and facilitate customer service issues such as the customer satisfaction surveys.

This group acted as a steering group for the survey process and each member also acted as a "QCS Champion" or point of contact to assist with the development of a reliable sample size, by providing contact details for customers their particular division had dealt with over the previous twelve months.

These lists, along with customer information obtained from alternative sources, were amalgamated into a single database, representative of my Department's main customer groups. A random sample of this customer database was invited to participate in the survey.