As an EQA provider, our customers’ satisfaction with our services is of critical importance to CMPT. Every year, CMPT designs and sends out a survey to evaluate the degree of satisfaction of our customers with our products and services.
Whereas in previous years we tailored our surveys to the programs our customers participated in, this year we sent a survey that covered major CMPT’s aspects and services and applied to all our customers regardless of the programs in which they participate. CMPT is committed to follow up on the feedback received and monitor its customer satisfaction over time.
In March 2023 a general Customer Satisfaction Survey was sent to approximately 150 labs. We received 31 responses (21%).
Survey report
Communications
97% of the responses indicated they had experienced no problems communicating with CMPT, either by telephone, email, or other notifications.
| NO problems | 97% |
| Mostly fine (business as usual) w/some problems | 3% |
EQA samples’ transport and receiving
97% of the responses indicated no problems with PT samples shipping transport and receiving
| NO problems | 97% |
| Mostly fine (business as usual) w/some problems | 3% |
EQA sample’s construction, appearance, functionality
88% of the survey participants considered CMPT’s samples relevant and of high quality.
| Relevant and of high quality | 52% |
| Relevant and of high quality, mostly fine w/ some problems | 6% |
| NO quality deterioration over the last year. | 30% |
| Mostly fine w/some problems | 4% |
| NO deterioration in the quality | 22% |
Most of the issues found were associated with lack of growth of some organisms.
CMPT reports, critiques (grading, clarity, fairness)
81% of the responses considered the CMPT reports and critiques consistently excellent.
| Consistently excellent | 55% |
| Consistently excellent, w/NO significant loss in the quality | 26% |
| NO significant loss in the quality | 13% |
| Mostly fine but some problems stood out. | 6% |
Value of CMPT’s paper and video challenges
50% of the responses considered PC and VC as a valuable or very valuable tool
| Very Valuable | 5% |
| Valuable | 45% |
| Not very valuable | 7% |
| Indifferent | 31% |
CMPT introduced the Paper Challenge (PC) and Video Challenge (VC) as PT tools to further evaluate the extra-analytical phase. These challenges are created through a process that involves the selection of a topic, the description of a scenario, the design of possible answers, and the selection of the best response and unacceptable ones.
These challenges are only sent to participants in our Clinical Bacteriology programs and thus, other participants do not receive them. It is important to note though, that extra analytical errors occur in all industries, and in the case of the clinical laboratory, they constitute up to 95% of the total number of errors.
CMPT will continue to work to create relevant challenges that target the extra analytical laboratory phase.
How often do you access PD course /critiques?
Access to critiques or PD course resources varied, however 35% of respondents indicated they do not access them at all.
| Annually | 16% |
| Monthly | 16% |
| Quarterly | 32% |
| Not at all* | 35% |
The PD course is geared to Clinical Microbiology participants and thus, we understand that environmental or industry testing laboratories would not find this information or resources relevant. CMPT is committed to provide value to all our customers, irrespective of their testing areas.
In partnership with its sister program, Program Office for Laboratory Quality Management (POLQM), CMPT will work to offer relevant educational resources to Environmental and Industry testing laboratories.
CMPT’s newsletter
72% of respondents found value in our newsletter, while 30 % were indifferent or were not aware of it.
| Very Valuable | 30% |
| Valuable | 42% |
| Other, please comment | 10% |
| Indifferent | 20% |
CMPT’s newsletter has had a major overhaul this year with the help of our Marketing and Communications assistant Peter Davoust, and is now sent to subscribers as an e-newsletter. We expect this change to increase our readership and bring this valuable resource to our participants and potential customers.
We are also committed to publish articles that would be of value to all our programs participants. You can subscribe to our newsletter here.
Complaint
CMPT takes customers’ complaints very seriously and we approach each of them as an opportunity for improvement. A customer that took the time to write their concerns with our services deserves our attention and response.
Out of six comments left in the general comments portion of the survey, we received one complaint. In their comment, the participant indicated a lack of clarity of reporting instructions and forms; definition of consensus for a particular program, realistic composition of enteric samples, stability of organisms, and lastly turn-around time for the result letters.
In response to this complaint CMPT has initiated a series of activities to address these concerns including:
- Revise reporting instructions and reporting forms to increase clarity
- Publish consensus definition and grading guidelines for every CMPT programs and make them readily available and evident to our participants.
- Continue to work on improving the stability of fastidious organisms as the incorporation of these organisms to PT challenges is important for the testing of the laboratories’ competence in isolating them.
- Investigate alternative ways of creating PT reports to decrease turn-around time for certain programs. Some programs like Clinical Bacteriology, Parasitology, and Mycology rely on technical committees to evaluate the results, grade, create clinically relevant comments and educational content that is of great value for the laboratory and the laboratory staff. This process takes time and we believe it is essential to the quality of our reports. These programs have preliminary results published soon after the survey is due, giving the participants an opportunity to check their results with the expected ones.
Ultimately, CMPT would like to remind participants that while PT reveals weaknesses in the testing process, it also allows laboratories to implement corrective actions that help strengthen their quality system and thus, improve the quality of their results and services.
