Context

The management system of BCCM/LMBP, BCCM/LMG and BCCM/MUCL has been certified as meeting the requirements of the ISO 9001:2000 standard for the accession, control, preservation, storage and supply of biological material and related information in the framework of public deposits, safe deposits and patent deposits. Being part of the Scientific Institute of Public Health, BCCM/IHEM is accredited according to the ISO 17025 standard.

In the framework of the BCCM quality management system, and in view of the continuous improvements of its activities, the BCCM-consortium has performed a client satisfaction survey.

Methodology

The staff of the BCCM collections developed a common questionnaire concerning their activities of distributing biological material and accepting biological material as safe or patent deposits, these activities all being covered by the respective quality management systems.

In the survey, most of the questions were combined questions about the client’s satisfaction with a particular aspect of the BCCM services and the importance that the client attached to this particular aspect. A scale from 1 to 4 was used to indicate the level of satisfaction and importance1.
An open question allowed the clients to formulate their own remarks and inputs.

The survey was announced a few weeks before the questionnaires were sent out. 898 questionnaires were sent to clients that have placed orders in 2004 and/or 2005 for one of the services that were taken into account. Clients could complete and return the questionnaire as a hard copy or download the questionnaire from a restricted area on the BCCM website and complete and return it electronically.

Results and actions taken

The BCCM received 256 completed questionnaires, which amounts to an acceptable overall response rate of 28.5%. All of the clients that responded, received a letter to thank them for their reply and contributions. The BCCM consortium was very pleased with the results of this survey. In general, 98% of the respondents were satisfied or very satisfied with the BCCM collections, 99% stated that they will order their biological material again from a BCCM collection, and 99% would recommend the BCCM to others.

The mean satisfaction-values indicated by the respondents for specific aspects of the BCCM services are presented in Figure 1. These values vary between 3,2 and 3,7 (the maximum possible score was 4), meaning that most clients assess the BCCM services positively.

The biological material offered by the BCCM is already very diversified. Some clients were quite helpful in suggesting types of material that could be made available by the BCCM. The BCCM consortium will continue to take the requests of its clients into account in the development of its collections.

By default, BCCM/LMBP distributes its plasmids as host-plasmid combination. Since a quarter of the respondents would prefer to receive plasmids as DNA instead of as host-plasmid combination, BCCM/ LMBP will offer this way of distribution.

The information on the biological material that is available on the BCCM website will be continually updated. The BCCM/ MUCL catalogue is already updated daily, and the catalogues of the other collections will soon follow this frequency.

Clients that order material via the BCCM website will receive an acknowledgement by e-mail, stating that their order has been received and will be processed as soon as possible.

Some clients indicated that they experienced a problem with the biological material that they received from the BCCM. Almost all of these clients were very pleased with the way the BCCM handled their complaint and resolved the problem.

Only about half of the respondents indicated that they knew about the safe and patent deposit service that is offered by the BCCM. But those clients that have used this service highly appreciate its quality. BCCM will organize a targeted mailing to clients that might have an interest in safe and patent deposits in order to raise the visibility of this service.

Future plans for the client satisfaction survey

The BCCM consortium will continue to monitor the level of satisfaction of its clients. This will be done by means of regular contacts between BCCM and its clients but also of a client satisfaction survey. The next survey is planned for 2009. At that occasion not only the clients that receive material from BCCM will be contacted but also the depositors that entrust the BCCM with their biological material in the frame of public deposits. As such the BCCM consortium will continue to optimize its entire process, from accepting a strain through its preservation and control, to its distubution to parties requesting it.

1 For the satisfaction scale: 1 = very dissatisfied, 2 = dissatisfied, 3 = satisfied, 4 = very satisfied
2 For the importance scale: 1 = unimportant, 2 = less important, 3 = important, 4 = very important