A new customer poll has found that more than two thirds of existing Emplas customers gave the trade fabricator a nine or 10 out of 10 for support and service.

Conducted earlier this year, the study was designed to benchmark Emplas’ performance and identify areas where there was scope to do better as part of a commitment to continuous improvement.

This included the use of the Net Promoter Score metric, which is widely adopted by Fortune 1000 Companies. Emplas achieved a Net Promoter Score of 58.5%.

“The result was exceptional,” said Roberto Canassa, IT and customer experience director at Emplas. “Anything above zero is seen as a positive. A Net Promoter Score of almost 60% is absolutely first class.

“Our focus now will be on picking up on the very important feedback we received from those customers who didn’t give us a ranking of eight or above to understand why and identify areas for improvement.”

In addition to the NPS metric, the survey also included a detailed assessment of all customer touch points with 91% or respondents stating that they were either satisfied or very satisfied with the support that they received from their dedicated customer coordinator.

Emplas’s ordering process, which includes 24/7 online ordering through the EVA portal, was rated as excellent by 72% of respondents, with product quality rated as excellent by almost 60% of those responding.

“The survey results weren’t entirely complimentary,” Roberto said. “It identified a number of areas for improvement, including our returns process. That is, however, the point. We want to know where we are getting it wrong just as much as where we’re getting it right.”

Emplas’s growth has been underpinned by a programme of continuous development, committing to a spenfdof more than £5 million on a new factory extension, machinery and infrastructure since April 2017.

This has included a £1.4 million spend on new machinery, including a second Schirmer machining and cutting centre, multiple Rotox welders and saws, bringing its weekly capacity up to 3,200 frames across two shifts.

Ryan Johnson, managing director of Emplas, said: “The team here is very committed to do everything it can to support our customers but we’re not perfect, we don’t get it right every time, and we need to learn from those experiences.

“Ultimately, what we do needs to work for each and every one of our customers, as close as we can get it to all of the time.”