Supplier Surveys: Enhancing Partnerships & Pipelines

One essential tool for enhancing supplier relationships and optimizing the supply chain is the supplier survey.

Below, we’ll delve into what a supplier survey is, its purpose, and provide examples of supplier survey questions.

What is a supplier survey?

A supplier survey is a process where businesses gather feedback from suppliers who provide goods or services to the company. By seeking input from suppliers, organizations gain a deeper understanding of how they perceive product quality, communication, and overall satisfaction levels.

There are two types of supplier surveys; current supplier surveys (aka supplier feedback questionnaires) and potential supplier surveys (aka new supplier questionnaires).

Current supplier surveys aim to collect feedback about the supplier’s experience in working with your company. By analyzing this feedback, you can make well-informed decisions, pinpoint areas for improvement, and strengthen your partnerships with suppliers.

Potential supplier surveys ask many of the same questions but aim to determine whether you want to work with them.

Create free supplier surveys with FOS

Always ask your important questions first. This means that even if your completion rate is low you still have the data you need to make

What's the purpose of a supplier survey?

1. Enhancing Supplier Relationships:
   Regular feedback through supplier surveys fosters open communication, strengthening the bond between businesses and suppliers.
2. Identifying Areas for Improvement in the Supply Chain:
   Insights from supplier surveys help identify weak points in the supply chain, allowing businesses to implement necessary improvements.
3. Assessing Supplier Performance and Quality:
   Supplier surveys aid in evaluating performance, ensuring they meet standards and deliver quality services or products.

What should be considered in a supplier survey?

A well-designed supplier survey should cover a range of topics that assess everything from supplier satisfaction to product/service quality.

By writing both open-questions and closed-questions, businesses can gain comprehensive insights into the strengths and weaknesses and improve supplier relationships.

Below, we’ll explore some essential topics to consider in a supplier survey:

• Overall Satisfaction: Assess the suppliers’ overall satisfaction level with the partnership experience.
• Communication and Responsiveness: Evaluate the effectiveness of communication channels and the promptness of responses.
• Product/Service Quality: Gather feedback on the quality and consistency of the products or services provided by the supplier.
• Delivery and Fulfilment: Assess the efficiency and reliability of the delivery and fulfillment processes.
• Cost and Pricing: Determine if the pricing and payment terms align with the value provided by the supplier.
• Supplier Support: Evaluate the level of support and assistance offered by the supplier when dealing with issues or challenges.
• Understanding of Business Needs: Measure how well the supplier understands and meets the specific needs of the business.
• Innovation and Improvement: Determine if the supplier contributes to continuous improvement and offers innovative solutions.
• Reliability: Assess the supplier’s reliability in meeting deadlines and fulfilling commitments.
• Flexibility: Evaluate how well the supplier adapts to changes in requirements or circumstances.
• Risk Management: Identify the supplier’s approach to risk management and their ability to mitigate potential risks.
• Communication of Changes: Gather feedback on how effectively the supplier communicates changes that may impact the partnership.
• Feedback and Complaint Handling: Evaluate the supplier’s responsiveness to feedback and how they handle complaints or concerns.
• Long-term Relationship: Determine the supplier’s willingness to foster a long-term and collaborative partnership.
• Suggestions and Additional Feedback: Encourage suppliers to provide additional feedback and suggestions for improvement.

How to survey suppliers

To successfully gather insights from suppliers, consider the following approaches:

• Use a Supplier Survey Questionnaire Template: The easiest way to begin would be with a supplier survey template. This will depend on the survey tool you’re using, but you can always use the questions in this article as a template.
• Leverage Customer Satisfaction Survey Templates: Many of the questions that are standard to CSAT surveys will apply to suppliers too. So, if you’ve surveyed customers in the past, you can save time by duplicating this and making a few small changes.
• Ask Both Closed and Open-Ended Questions: Combine closed-ended questions for quantitative analysis and open-ended questions for qualitative data. The open feedback will also provide much-needed context to closed questions.
• Measure Your Net Promoter Score (NPS): Implement Net Promoter Score to gauge supplier loyalty and find your advocates.

Pro Tip

Always ask your important questions first. This means that even if your completion rate is low you still have the data you need to make