Our commitment to quality

TNS Research International is committed to quality in our service to clients and in the way we manage our people and our business. 

We are accredited to ISO9001:2008 and ISO20252:2006, the international standard for market, opinion and social research.  This verifies that we meet the set standards for quality assurance, project management, data collection, preparation and processing. 

We also abide by the code of conduct of the Market Research Society (MRS), the quality commitment of the MRS Company Partner Service and the code of Marketing & Social Research Practice of the International Chamber of Commerce/European Society for Opinion and Market Research (ESOMAR).

The accreditations mentioned above form a sound basis for our commitment to continuous improvement in all the work we do for clients and in the way we manage both our business and our people.

TNS Research International has a dedicated Quality department working with teams across the business to develop systems and procedures to ensure we deliver the highest possible levels of quality throughout the research process. An extensive network of Quality representatives across the company act as facilitators between the Quality team and the different company departments and locations.

We understand the importance of client feedback and maintain a robust programme, requesting external clients to rate TNS Research International on the service received.  We do this by issuing client satisfaction questionnaires on completion of projects and with clients with whom we have on-going relationships we have regular face-to-face reviews of our performance. 

Regular cycles of internal audits, which include review of research project compliance to quality standards, are planned and conducted, providing detailed feedback to every area of the business and feeding into process improvement. In addition, bi-annual external audits ensure quality levels are maintained to the standards of ISO20252/9001.

TNS Research International is committed to continual improvement.  Quality issues may be identified via our client feedback process, our internal and external audit programmes, or directly via client complaints.  We aim to be a customer-led organisation and, as such, need to identify, understand and action where and how, if we fail to meet our clients’ expectations.

The Quality team take ownership of any such issues which are recorded in a central log. These issues are then followed up rigorously to ensure the problems are understood by all the relevant parties and corrective and/or preventative action is taken as appropriate (e.g. processes amended, training provided etc) to avoid any recurrences. 

Any issues or complaints received are taken seriously by TNS Research International and it is a priority that all existing/outstanding issues are dealt with as quickly and efficiently as possible.

TNS Research International has always invested heavily in training and developing its people. This means we are committed to the principles and practice of satisfying everyone’s learning and training needs on a planned basis throughout the organisation.  Staff are appraised on a formal basis and individual training needs identified, thus providing the individual with the appropriate training and support they need to succeed and provide clients with the optimum service.