PRACTITIONER SURVEY
Over the last year we have asked you (via a short questionnaire) what kind of service you would like from Herbal Apothecary and how you think we could improve our service.
We received over 1000 responses to our questionnaire. The largest single group responding were medical herbalists but we also had responses from Doctors , Dentists, Homeopaths, Osteopaths, Chiropractors, Naturopaths, Dieticians, Aromatherapists, Reflexologists and other health practitioners.
We asked you for your opinion about the importance of organic products, your interest in biodynamically produced herbs, and about ways in which you felt we could improve our service to you.
First of all -
SERVICE LEVELS
Certainly you have had some hard things to tell us about our service levels including comments about:
Out of stocks
Dispatch problems – wrong products – poor packing
Delivery times
Quality
Website failures
Poor communication
It is not easy to list these failings but it is helpful to admit them and to understand their real scale. We know there will always be some problems and some we can do little about – courier services included! But we have had too many. The difficult changes we have been through have caused us all a great deal of anxiety especially where we have felt we have been letting down practitioners who rely on us for their herbal medicines.
Dispatch Problems Down by 50% over the last year
Getting the wrong products (sods law is it is usually the one you need most urgently) is infuriating. Products missing or products damaged on arrival are frustrating. Moving dispatch to our new factory has brought good and bad news. Good in that we are better organised bad in that we are disconnected from both sales and production. But these problems are down by 50% and will improve further when sales move to the new unit (end of October ) and Production before Christmas.
Delivery Times Improved by 15% over the last year
We have changed our courier twice over the 18 months and have now settled down with Parcel Force They have not been perfect but since we started claiming compensation the failure to deliver rate has decreased. Some times there is nothing we can do about this. We hope our new tracking system is helpful. See TRACKING YOUR PARCEL
Quality Returns reduced by 70%
This has not been a major problem but where we have not been in control of our all our manufacturing (especially creams) there have been problems. As we bring more manufacturing back in – house and with the benefit of our new laboratory we fully expect these problems to decrease further. ( See our feature on Quality )
Website Problems Down significantly!
When we moved Herbal Apothecary we did not have a web site – then the first site we had was a disaster. Our new site both looks better and works better. However www.herbalapothecaryuk.com ,which we consider vital to both us and you, remains a work in progress. The addition of plantandbee.com we hope will provide a much more effective way of talking to practitioners and telling you about what we have to offer.
Poor Communication Continuous Improvement
Keeping customers informed about out of stocks and delivery times has been a weakness but as all our systems improve – stock control, stock levels, and dispatch, the pressure on our sales teams is easing and they are more able to keep up with and keep in touch with your needs.
No Magic Wand -
But Thank You
In the end in the absence of being able to solve all our problems at once we have tried to work through them one by one. We are definitely getting there as I hope this website shows. Thank you to those of you who have continued to support us.
Stock Levels improved by 30% over the last year
Our stock levels have moved from around 60% levels to nearer 90%. We have realised too that we cannot guarantee to supply all our 1800 lines next day. We are working on some new stocking parameters.
TELL US MORE
please consider filling in our QUESTIONNAIRE
© 2008 Natures Laboratory Ltd.