Customer Satisfaction and Success

We listen to our customers and respond to their input

We at the Volpe Center are committed to our customers' satisfaction. Highquality work and responsiveness to customers' needs are central to our culture. Customer-satisfaction surveys provide an important measure of our success and also a tool to enable us to improve.

The Volpe Center's technical expertise was cited by customers as the number one reason for seeking us out.

In FY 2006, the Volpe Center initiated a third round of customer satisfaction interviews for all active projects. We received a nearly sixty percent response rate. The survey was designed to obtain candid customer perceptions on our current products and services and to provide a benchmark for comparing the results of future surveys. Such feedback allows us to act on suggestions for both project-specific and Center-wide improvements.

We were gratified to discover that, overall customer satisfaction, on a 10-point scale, approached 8 at the senior level and exceeded 8 at the project-manager level. It is clear that our customers highly value our technical expertise and accessibility to quality staff.

The interviews also provided us with an opportunity to identify how we can better meet our customers' needs. They expressed the desire for more frequent and effective reporting about the progress and costs of their projects. We will place increased emphasis on ensuring that these concerns are addressed.

Finally, customer surveys provide a measure of customer success, reflecting how well the Center is helping to solving customers' strategic concerns. Nearly all of our customers provided examples of how the Volpe Center has contributed to their success.

The customer satisfaction survey is only one step toward our mission of increasing our understanding of our customers and enhancing our effectiveness. The effort continues on a day-to-day, project-by-project basis, as each and every Volpe Center employee strives to provide customers with the products and services that they need and have come to expect from us.

This is an ongoing structured process, but we also welcome informal feedback from our customers.

Curtis J. Tompkins