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In order to better serve the campus community, a customer satisfaction survey was distributed in December 2007 to measure the overall effectiveness of the Purchasing Department. Questions centered on the core purchasing functions in an effort to both evaluate current practices and identify strategic purchasing initiatives.

A total of 242 members of the campus community were invited to complete the survey, which included academic and administrative managers, purchasing liaisons and other individuals with purchasing authority. Responses from 34 individuals in the target group were received by the deadline (a 14% response rate). Individuals were asked to rate performance using a scale of 1 (not satisfied / strongly disagree) to 5 (very satisfied / strongly agree). If the individual did not use a particular process, n/a was indicated.

The majority of the respondents expressed strong satisfaction with the services provided by the Purchasing Department, as exhibited in the last graph, with 86% rating either 4 or 5 overall and 99% rating either 3, 4 or 5 overall. To further simplify and support this rating, respondents were given two choices (choose either favorable or unfavorable) to assess their overall level of satisfaction with the Purchasing Department. We are extremely pleased to report that 97% of the respondents choose a favorable rating!

In comparison to the 2004 Purchasing Satisfaction Survey, the results generally shifted upward in each category, as evidenced by the trends exhibited on the individual bar graphs presented below. Overall, as a means to determine whether general process improvements that have been accomplished, the percentage of respondents who rated each factor either a 4 or a 5 has increased from 2004 to 2008.

The specific recommendations for improvement and/or enhancement will be used as goals and objectives in the future.

For reference, the 2004 Purchasing Satisfaction Survey results are available here.

The Purchasing Department would like to thank all those who participated in this survey. If you have additional questions regarding the survey, please contact Brian Rounsavill at brouns@princeton.edu or by phone at 8-3402.