Why Should We Hear Our Suppliers?

Purpose: this paper demonstrates the importance of a close relationship between the organizations and their suppliers, considered to be business partners, hearing them on their easiness or difficulties to comply with the requirements (technical and administrative) defined by the buyer.
Design/methodology/approach: initially a questionnaire was prepared, with open and closed questions, which was previously sent to the suppliers with a presentation letter of the superintendant; a survey was carried out formally through personal interviews of fifteen out of sixteen service suppliers of an Environmental Management area of a Brazilian utility, to gather information to improve the procurement process. In general guidelines of the International Standard ISO 10004 – Customer satisfaction – Monitoring and measuring, with due adaptations, were used.
Findings: qualitative remarks contributed to the improvement of the procurement activities of the utility and even extrapolated this objective, since even proposals to improve Brazilian legislation on energy conservation were received (for instance, increase of taxes for electric showers).
Originality/value: The measurement of customer satisfaction is a common practice, but hearing suppliers is not usual. The methodology can be broadened to encompass all stakeholders, for instance public offices. This would mean the extension of the traditional
customer relationship management (CRM) to a stakeholder’s satisfaction measurement (SRM).

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supplier’s relationship management; supply chain