Last month we posted the results of our most recent Vermont Woods Studios Furniture customer satisfaction survey.  We received reviews and ratings from 69 of the 130 customers we surveyed (a response rate of 53%).  The questions we asked customers assessed the: quality of our furniture, ease of ordering online, shipping and delivery experience, price and response of customer sevice personnel. 

We also asked overall questions:  Would you purchase from Vermont Woods Studios Furniture again and What complaints do you have?

My previous post focused on customer reviews of our shipping and delivery performance, including a recent complaint and how we handled it.

Today I wanted to share customer feedback about the quality of our Vermont made furniture. When asked to rate "Quality of Furniture" our customers responded:
   *    Excellent or very good – 94.03%
   *    Neutral – 1.49%
   *    Needs improvement – 0%
   *    Unsatisfactory – 0%
   *    No answer or not applicable – 4.48%

So these numbers are good, but our goal is to have 97-100% of responses in the excellent to very good range so this 3% deficit is going to bother me.   We’ll be working on identifying the cause of this shortfall and fixing existing systems or implementing new systems to continuously improve. 

One positive thing is that there were no responses in the “needs improvement” or “unsatisfactory” categories.  But 1.49% were neutral and 4.48% either did not answer the questions or said quality was not applicable.  Hmmm? 

I wonder if some people are just uncomfortable rating the quality of fine, handmade furniture.  It’s kind of a science, really.  And an art.  I’ve written a number of posts recently about defining fine furniture.  There’s a big difference (quality and price-wise) between made to order furniture, customized furniture, custom wood furniture and custom artisan furniture.  It all depends on the type of wood used, styles of craftsmanship, sustainability and more. 

So it's complicated and maybe that's why a few people declined to answer that one.  I'm not sure. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.  Please feel free to post below in the comments, or on our Vermont Furniture Facebook or email me directly at peggy@VermontWoodsStudios.com.  Thanks!

The post Furniture Reviews: Customer Ratings For Quality appeared first on Vermont Woods Studios.

Well, I figure the same is true for people when they're investing in high end, handmade furniture.  But unfortunately not much performance data is available from furniture companies.  Either they don't do customer satisfaction surveys or they choose not to publish their results.  Why is that?

Although we're a small company, we've been surveying our customers since we started our business 6 years ago.  I thought I would share some of our results and performance metrics with you over the next couple weeks.  These results are taken from a survey of 130 customers who just received their new furniture over the last few months.  We received 69 customer responses for a pretty decent response rate of 53%.  The questions we asked them included:

Please rate our performance in the following areas

*  Quality of furniture
*  Ease of ordering
*  Shipping and delivery
*  Response of customer sevice personnel
*  Would you purchase from Vermont Woods Studios Furniture again?

Here's the link to follow the results of our customer reviews, complaints and satisfaction survey as they emerge.  Check back in now and then over the next few weeks to see what our customers are saying about their furniture.

The post Online Furniture Shopping: 2011 Customer Reviews, Complaints and Performance Metrics appeared first on Vermont Woods Studios.