survey | National Inventory Certification Association

17 Aug 2016

We Asked; You Answered

Over the past few ,months, we asked you to take surveys, telling us what you think. We truly appreciate all of you who took the time to respond.

We kept the questions, and the number of questions, to a minimum, respecting your time. Knowing that everyone is busy, we truly do appreciate your responses. By giving us your preferences, you are enabling us to serve you in the manner you choose.

Survey categories

The three categories that were included were 1) member benefits, 2) continuing education courses, and 3) customer service. We discovered:

what benefits you find most important, so we can continue to focus on those first
what courses you want to see added to the curriculum, and one is already contracted
that we are very responsive to your calls and emails, and we commit to continuing to retain that level of assisting you.

That’s a lot of information!

You helped create the vision

We now have a vision for the remainder of 2016 and for 2017. We will use your survey results to guide us as we make these decisions of what to work on first, and what should be tabled for later.

We offer each of you a BIG thank you for your participation!

22 Jun 2016

Curriculum Survey

We are so appreciative to all members and also professionals in the industry who are not members for responding to our surveys. Your input is very important to us. The board will review all the tabulated results and will use this information for our 2017 planning session. Knowing what you want from your industry education association will help us provide more of what you want, and less of what is not of as much importance.

This Curriculum Survey will be the final survey for quite a while. We’ve accumulated enough information to move forward with your preferences in mind. We thank you for giving us your opinion in the previous surveys, and thank you in advance for taking the time to give us your input once again.

Curriculum includes a good mix of topics

The April survey informed us that you are happy with the mix of topics we offer. And now that we have achieved a good balance of industry- and non-industry-related courses, we will continue to strive to provide two new courses per year. To meet your needs, we want to know your interests. Growing our curriculum is essential so you can maintain your CIS designation. We want to ensure that we provide topics of interest so you can meet the 5 CEU annual requirement of continuing education.

Project Management was our first course released this year, responding to this request in the 2015 survey, two additional courses are currently in the initial planning stage, both also suggested in the 2015 survey.

Curriculum survey will help determine future courses

Your responses to this Curriculum Survey will help us plan future courses. Here is the link to the Curriculum Survey. It should take only about a minute of your time. Results will be reported in our July newsletter and also here on the website.

27 Apr 2016

A Quick Minute Of Your Time

Small business owners are extremely busy, and some have stated that they just don’t take the time to answer surveys. So, what does an association or other organization do when they are seeking input from the members of their industry? Since we sincerely do want to hear from you, and also respect your time, we are taking a member’s recommendation under advisement.

She suggested that rather than ask a multitude of questions only once a year, we just ask 2 or 3 questions on a more frequent basis. Since everyone’s email box gets overloaded, she also thought we might want to include the questions in our newsletter, the NICA News. Her belief is that we will be apt to receive more responses when it will take less than a minute of your time, and the link is right there in the newsletter, making it extremely convenient. Also, by being included in the newsletter, we are reducing the amount of emails you ‘ll receive from us AND your responses will remain anonymous.

We also decided to include the survey questions within our blog, because whether you’re a member or not, your input about our industry is very helpful.

Your responses will enable us as an association to learn what we need to work on and what we’re doing right. While you’re here, just click on this link, answer 3 short questions, and you’ll be on your way. Oh! And if you don’t receive the newsletter, click here to sign up for our future monthly issues!

11 Nov 2015

Customer Service Is Key Says Survey

How important is your customer service? More importantly, how important is your customer service reputation?

One of the difficulties with customer service is that it is difficult to measure. How do you put a number on the result of your interaction? Often people ask for a response on a scale of 1 to 5. What is the difference between 3 and 4, or 4 and 5? Does anyone deserve a 5? Would that mean they are perfect, or just that your recent situation left you extremely satisfied?

Often people turn to their Facebook and Twitter accounts to receive feedback regarding a company’s customer service. Unfortunately, one bad report will receive attention, while many might have been extremely happy with the service they received, but because of peoples’ nature, don’t report it.

In a recent survey, 64% of the respondents said that a company’s customer service reputation is “very important” when they are comparing and choosing which company to do business with. Good customer service is appreciated, but often it goes unmentioned. However, a company that provides bad customer service has found themselves blasted across the social media platforms and it spreads very quickly. Another 35% said it is “somewhat important.”

Knowing this, it is obvious that it is extremely important to provide a service that leaves the client feeling good about you and your company. This is true when seeking new clients, as well as being able to retain your client base. There are standards in the asset inventor industry, and this is addressed within the Code of Ethics. The National Inventory Certification Association offers an online, self-directed course, titled Customer Service. Topics covered are a variety of skills and techniques that can be utilized to aid in the success of an inventory business, as well as any service-based business.

Check it out, and learn some helpful information to help ensure that you have a great reputation for excellent customer service.

12 Mar 2014

Inventory Survey Results Are In

The Inventory Institute and the National Inventory Certification Association (NICA) joined together to conduct the first Inventory Industry Survey. It was distributed in late February 2014, and netted a better-than-normal response rate. This shows that Asset Industry Professionals welcome the opportunity to provide feedback for their growing industry. In response to the two organizations’ goals of being member-focused, there are plans to reach out to industry professionals again to gather more pertinent information.

As Industry Organizations, The Inventory Institute and NICA will continue to work on developing information, creating metrics, and achieving industry related initiatives that will enable them to support their members and the industry as a whole.

As a gesture of thanks for the time spent answering the survey, a drawing was held after the survey. Congratulations to Patty Kreifels of Picture This Asset Inventory Service, as the winner of the book, A Business Guide to Asset Inventory.

If you did not receive the first survey, and would like to provide your thoughts and ideas in the future, please email Johanna Curtiss of the Inventory Institute at jkcurtiss@inventoryinstitute.org to be placed on the mailing list. The results of the Inventory Industry Survey, along with the comments associated with the questions, are provided for your review.

Both organizations welcome members as well as non-members to share ideas that will benefit either The Inventory Institute, the National Inventory Certification Association, or the industry in general.