Customer feedback and satisfaction

We want to know whether we are meeting customer expectations.

Our business units proactively ask for feedback throughout the year and we regularly conduct customer satisfaction surveys before, during and after contracts have been completed. If customers are dissatisfied, we have processes in place to address their concerns until we resolve them to the customer’s satisfaction.

We conduct annual, Group-wide market perception surveys to find out how well we are performing in terms of meeting the requirements of our customers. We use an independent specialist company to conduct these surveys in which they interview our customers and encourage honest feedback. There are specific sustainability questions in the survey that help us monitor how our sustainability performance is perceived by our customers. We assess the feedback in respect of each of our business units and then devise action plans to improve performance.

In 2010, Carillion received an overall average rating by our customers of 7.4 out of 10, improving on our 2009 rating of 7.2. More customers in the 2010 survey were aware of Carillion’s performance on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability compared with 2009, and more rated our performance as ‘good’. Interestingly, however, when asked about the importance of CSR and sustainability, more respondents stated that they thought it was ‘unimportant’, compared with previous years.

While the 2010 survey showed there was greater recognition among our customers of our good performance, in respect of safety and sustainability, some areas were not rated as highly as in 2009 and we are working hard to improve customer perception in these areas in 2011.

Sustainability: the deciding factor

Emrill in desert cleanday with Deutsche Bank

Emrill, Carillion’s Joint Venture facilities management business in the Middle East, has proven that sustainability really does help to win work. Emrill joined its client Deutsche Bank in a desert clean-up day in Dubai, where families of employees from both companies volunteered and collected almost 17 tonnes of rubbish.

On renewing Emrill’s contract, Deutsche Bank’s Head of Corporate Real Estate for MENA said that Emrill’s commitment to sustainability, not only in the ‘desert clean-up’ but throughout the year, contributed to the renewal.