IRCA publishes from 2003 customer satisfaction survey

We have now analyzed the results of IRCA's 2003 customer satisfaction survey and are delighted to provide you with a summary of the key messages and the actions we are taking to increase your current level of satisfaction with IRCA.

The main objectives of the survey were to:

•  Gain a clear insight into the issues that you consider important
•  Receive feedback regarding how satisfied you are with our services and products
•  Improve our understanding of what you want us to provide.

In October 2003 we sent an electronic survey to over 5,500 auditors. By choosing the electronic method of surveying, we were able to target a large number of auditors from a broad range of locations. The electronic survey was designed to be quick and easy to complete, and to provide an excellent mechanism for benchmarking our service year on year.

The response to the survey was extremely encouraging, with more than 40% of auditors returning the completed survey from 97 countries world-wide.

Key messages and actions from IRCA

The results of the survey were encouraging and have provided us with valuable information about areas of our service you wish to see us improve. The main areas highlighted were:

•  More news and information
•  More benefits
•  Better and more effective administration
•  Better communication

We are considering your recommendations and have made them a priority for 2004. We are aready working on these and we are pleased to provide you with details of our progress.

What we are doing to meet your requirements

Providing more news and information

61% of you who completed the survey identified that you would like to receive further information and news from us. This was no surprise, as we are often asked to provide advice and information on issues and topics. To meet this demand, in December 2003 we launched IRCA INform, a new quarterly electronic newsletter.

We have decided to offer the magazine free to anyone who registers on our website. This supports our objective of raising awareness and value of certification generally within industry. A wide and varied audience has already signed up to INform and we are confident the magazine will communicate within a wide range of interests the value of the work IRCA certified auditors contribute.

We automatically send INform to all IRCA auditors for whom we have an email address. Registration is available via the IRCA website at www.irca.org/inform.

Providing more benefits

70% of you stated you want to have the register of auditors available on-line from our website. Over the past two months, we have undertaken a project to meet this request. This is now completed and the new online auditor register is now accessible at https://www.ircasecure.org/irca/directory/.

Already the register has attracted very positive feedback from certification bodies and other users (many of whom are amazed we do not charge a fee for providing this service!). We are confident the online auditor register will help both employers and auditors by identifying auditors available for work, and providing their contact details to potential employers and other users. We will be promoting this new register to organizations across the world.

We also plan to provide additional benefits and support for our auditors via a new 'IRCA auditors only' section on the website. IRCA certification marks and logos will be available for you to use on your business cards, letterheads and in your advertising material generally, in order for you to promote your certified status. We anticipate this will be available in April 2004.

Better administration of your certification

Many of you identified our administration of your certification as one of the most important areas in which you wish to see improvement.

We agree! And have now implemented an additional feature on the IRCA website to enable you to manage your own records. The update your details section on the IRCA website enables you to amend, edit and add valuable information onto your IRCA profile. This means you no longer need to contact us if your circumstances change and you wish to have those changes reflected in your certification details. You simply do this yourself.

We think it very important that you make full use of this new functionality. By maintaining your information up to date you will help us to promote your services to potential employers and others who may want you to help them. It will also mean we will always have the correct contact details, which is important when we need to contact you about maintaining your certification.

The new website at www.irca.org has been designed to make it easier for you to access forms and documents. To make maintaining certification even easier, we are planning to introduce rolling renewals in the second half of 2004. Currently, we operate a fixed certification period based on the calendar year. This means we experience a huge demand on our services in the first few months of the year, when everybody renews and wants to pay their fees, and this makes it very difficult to provide the quality of service we would like and you demand. Spreading the renewal time across the whole of the year will reduce this load and allow us to provide a better service.

To make it easier to pay your fees, we have incorporated new software within our website which enables you to pay your fees online as well as view your account details. We know this new service is a success because more than 40 % of all payments received so far for 2004 have been made online!

Better Communication

We recognize that 'getting closer to the customer' must be a priority, especially when you, the customer live and work in a part of the world where English is not the first language. Part of our strategy for getting closer to you is to develop partnerships with organizations in your part of the world. These organizations don't just act as our agents, they liase with us on your behalf. During 2003 we opened offices in Japan, Thailand and Korea, look out for information on further office openings in the second half of 2004.

Another part of our 'getting closer to the customer' strategy involves communicating more frequently and effectively in different languages. This year we will be launching Japanese and Chinese language versions of our website. We are also translating many of our key documents into Chinese and Japanese and these will also be available on the new sites. Look out for translated IRCA documents in other languages later in 2004.

The above is a summary of the key messages from the survey and the main improvements IRCA are offering throughout 2004 and beyond. We hope the information is useful and provides reassurance that we take customer satisfaction seriously.

The Director and staff at IRCA would like to thank all of you who gave your time and participated in this valuable exercise. We hope you are happy with the changes we have made so far, and we look forward to adding more as the year progresses.