Satisfied with survey

Through working with clients across a diverse range of vertical sectors, SGS aims to match them with auditors that have relevant industry expertise. When asked to rate the auditor’s knowledge of their sector, 84% of respondents scored 8-10, which was up from 79% in 2017. Furthermore, when it came to the audit itself, 86% of those questioned scored between 8-10 when asked about auditor communication, confirming their auditor was clear, open-minded and informative – a figure that improved on 2017’s score of 82%.

For the quality of content and presentation of the audit report, 78% of respondents answered in the 8-10 bracket, up 3%. Further improvements were highlighted with 90.3% saying they were satisfied with the timeline for delivery of the audit report – up from 88.2% in 2017. To complement these excellent results, 94.7% felt that the site visit was structured well to suit their operations. 

SGS prides itself on the quality, expertise and integrity of its auditors, which is important because, as a UKAS accredited body, the company is subject to regular assessments of its offices, records, processes and people. Jon Murthy, UKAS head of marketing, comments: "Our assessments enable SGS to demonstrate its competence, impartiality and performance capability, in turn instilling customer confidence in the services it provides. The combination of our assessments, the objective evidence reviewed, and the results of the 2018 Customer Satisfaction Survey show that SGS employs a high level of scrutiny when allocating auditors, which gives clients confidence in its services.’

SGS was delighted that its Net Promoter Score (NPS) had also increased. The NPS measures the willingness of customers to recommend a company’s products or services to others and is calculated as the difference between the percentage of promoters and detractors. Promoters are respondents who answer 9 or 10, passives 7 or 8, and detractors give a rating of less than 7. SGS’ NPS was 13% in 2018, with 40.46 falling within the promoter category. This is impressive given that the global benchmark is 10%.

"The 2017 Customer Satisfaction Survey produced some remarkable results, so we knew that to exceed them in 2018 would be a tough call," concluded Heather Crick, business manager at SGS. "However, our clients’ rating showed a marked improvement, particularly with respect to the performance of our audit team, and it was great to have the quality, expertise and hard work of our auditors confirmed. More than 42% of our auditors have more than 7 years’ service – which proves that SGS really is a great place to work. Not only that, in order to meet the increasing demand for our services, we continue to recruit new personnel, so we now have a team that balances recent industry experience with exceptional auditing skills."