Vulcan GMS recently conducted a four-question customer survey. The survey was posted on line on the Monkey Survey service and was open to responders between the hours of 12:00pm Eastern Time on April 27 and 8:00pm Pacific Time on May 4, 2011.
The mechanism for soliciting responses was an email message to 182 Vulcan GMS customers. Recipients were invited to participate in the survey. A report of the findings and analysis was offered as an incentive. A reply provision was built into the survey to enable responders to submit a request for the report upon answering the questions.
The response rate to the survey was 5%. The question-completion rate of the survey was 100%.
Questions included in the survey were:
- How do you expect your business to do in 2011?
- What are your plans for hiring in 2011?
- What are your capital plans for 2011?
- Will your company borrow funds to invest in 2011?
Answers indicated that customers believed their businesses will do well in 2011. Sixty-four percent indicated their business would be somewhat better; twenty-seven percent said it would be much better; nine percent said it will be about similar to 2010.
Forty-six percent of the answers to the hiring question indicated that the responders would be hiring more than five people in 2011. The remaining fifty-four percent of responses were evenly divided between companies that plan to hire 1-5 people and those who do not plan any hiring in 2011.
[Note: Although Vulcan GMS, Inc. serves a number of the largest corporations in the world, more than half of the company’s customers are made up of small-to-mid-size companies.]
Regarding 2011 expenditures, the survey revealed that approximately half of responders planned to make capital investments this year. About 25 percent planned no capital expenditures, and that another 25% were uncertain whether their company would be making any capital expenditures in 2011.
Replies to our fourth question on borrowing indicated that fifty-five percent of survey takers were not certain whether their companies would borrow funds for investments in the business. One-third reported that their companies would not borrow money for investments. Approximately ten percent of responders reported low levels of borrowing this year, only up to $500,000 and under.
For more information on this survey, please contact Tom Trisco, Vulcan’s Director of Sales and Marketing.
About Vulcan GMS
Vulcan Global Manufacturing Solutions is a leader in the manufacture of custom-made radiation shielding products made from lead, tungsten, high-density plastics and non-lead metal polymers. ISO 9001/2008 registered, Vulcan GMS is a provider of components and assemblies for some of the world’s largest equipment companies. The company specializes in the security, medical, aviation and explosives industries.