June 26, 2012

Customer Focused Approaches to ISO 9001 and OHSAS 18001 Certification

As part of a 3-part blog series (ISO 9001 and ISO 18001), we are looking at experiences with ISO certification bodies. Last week, we discussed compliance focus versus business focus. In this blog, I would like to discuss customer-focused approaches to certification.

Note that as with the previous article, the following information is not targeting specific ISO certification bodies and is based on personal experiences. Most often, the certification body is fine; it is usually the individuals within the certification body that are usually the problem.

An interesting point is that many would naturally assume that an auditor that daily works with ISO 9001 would actually be quite knowledgeable about customer satisfaction, perhaps even a great example of being customer focused. There are so many stories about how this is not the case, but following are just a few.

ISO 9001 and ISO 18001: Mistaken Identity

One of our clients had been waiting to hear back regarding his ISO 9001 and OHSAS 18001 certification audit date. Our client waited and waited for over a month and then took it upon himself to call up the certification body to find out what was going on.

He received a rude reply that the certification body was not interested in working with him because he never pays his debts. Trust me; this is the wrong guy to accuse of not paying debts. He almost always pays our Bill on the day he receives it, but if he doesn’t its a few days later and he is very apologetic about that. Obviously our client was quite hurt by this situation because of the irony of it.

It turns out that they had the wrong client, because they refer to clients by number and not name. There had been a keystroke mistake and all of a sudden our client “doesn’t pay his bills”. What was interesting was all the cover-up and lack of interest in apologizing. No surprise that our client decided to work with another certification body.

ISO 9001 and ISO 18001: ISO Auditor with No Manners

One client tells of their previous auditor that demanded his own room at the client’s place with a computer in it for him to use. He also demanded lunch. There was more but you get the drift. If you ever have an ISO auditor like this you might want to think about changing auditors.

Most ISO auditors should be grateful that you are simply paying them. You shouldn’t have to bow and scrape for them also. Common courtesy is important though so I don’t mean you should treat your auditor without regard of course. I’m an auditor too.

Own Agenda

A consulting client of ours had an auditor that was convinced that every workstation in a metal fabrication workshop should have a computer terminal. Now this would probably be a good idea except that it would cost an enormous amount of money and there was so much dust in that workshop that it probably wouldn’t be practical.

Now suggestions are all right, but the consultant insisted at every visit and even considered penalizing them if they didn’t, true story.

Not Engaged

Working as a certification auditor I met with one company whose previous auditor apparently was not very interested in engaging with them during his audit. Apparently he didn’t seem to ask any many questions and preferred to simply spend the day looking through the company computer on his own. Apparently it was quite a weird audit to be at.

It is important to point out that an auditor’s job is not to consult. However it does not mean that he cannot be friendly or explain what he means if he speaks gibberish of course, there are great auditors out there, would love to see more of them.