1 September 2006

Standards New Zealand has scored high marks from customers for its accuracy and efficiency in billing and processing orders.

In June,  three stakeholder groups completed our annual customer survey for 2006. The survey was completed by 1382 respondents (a response rate of 22.2%) and measures the perceptions of:

• Members of Standards NZ
• Customers who have purchased Standards from us
• Organisations that have a contract for the development of Standards.

Respondents were asked to rate us on a scale of one to seven (with seven being the highest score), in relation to our performance in the areas below.

Purchasing Standards

Overall satisfaction with the purchase process and service was positive with a rating of 5.75. The areas where customers rate us the highest are accuracy in billing, accuracy in processing purchases and speed of processing purchases or downloading pdf files.

Customers rate us the lowest on availability of information to help choose the right document, gaining access to appropriate staff and the ease of using Standards documents. We are addressing these concerns through:

• Availability of information: We will soon be providing the foreword, scope and table of contents of documents on our website, to allow customers to easily select the Standard they need.
• Access to staff: A customer feedback register is being developed to track customer queries and improve access to staff who can answer technical queries promptly.
• Ease of use of Standards: The language used in Standards is often complex, as noted by one respondent who wrote, “Standards are very technical and require some knowledge surrounding the area, or time to process the information.” To improve the understanding of Standards information, we are introducing a plain English writing programme for Standards NZ staff. This will help to ensure jargon is avoided and language is simple to understand.

On-line Subscription Service

This service presents a new way of accessing NZ and joint AS/NZS Standards and overall received a high rating of 5.8. One respondent said, “the service to set up the on-line subscription has been excellent, there has always been someone available to answer questions and the system is easy to operate.”

Website performance

Our website www.standards.co.nz rated reasonably well, with an overall rating of 5.61. one respondent commented, “I have been amazed at how quickly I have received documents when ordering through the webshop – keep it up, it’s fantastic.”  However, there are still areas we need to improve. Website enhancements, based on customer feedback, will soon be implemented to improve both the amount and quality of information on our website.

Overall Quality of Service

Our overall quality of service is rated at 5.59. A number of favourable comments were made about Standards NZ staff and our service. one respondent commented, “the personality types of the people with whom
I’ve had dealings with exceed expectations in friendliness, availability and willingness.”

Value for money

Value for money from Standards is rated 5.04. This rating is lower than we would have liked and we received a number of comments about the cost of Standards. Grant Thomas, General Manager of Marketing at Standards NZ, says that Standards NZ do not receive direct government funding. “We know that many customers believe that  Standards should be free or at a nominal cost, however we are a self-funded, not-for-profit Crown Entity and rely on revenue primarily from  contracts and sales of publications. The ongoing development of  Standards is only possible as a result of funding through contracts and
document sales.”

Contracts

The survey included organisations with contracts for the development of Standards. The biggest improvements have been for effectively managing issues, access to appropriate staff and the overall quality of
service received, which was rated 5.38.

“We would like to thank members, customers and organisations who participated in the survey,” says Grant. “Feedback is being incorporated into our plans and programmes to address the key issues raised will begin to be implemented from August onwards.”