Our strategy for engaging with our customers

The Intellectual Property Office takes customer engagement very seriously. We engage with our customers in a variety of different ways in order to continually review our practices. Some of the primary methods we use are detailed below.

Our Corporate Plan

This is an annual process and involves both our Board and Steering Board in comprehensive discussions about the strategy for the coming year. Further details are available.

Customer Relationship Management

A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Unit was established in April 2007 to bring a corporate approach to all aspects of customer related work. The CRM Unit analyses feedback from our engagement activities for customer insight that enhances our understanding of those who want to use our services. A CRM Focus Group, made up of representatives from across the IPO, supplements the customer insight function by providing a strategic overview of how we engage with customers corporately.

Methods of Consultation

We engage directly with our customers in the following ways:

Customer satisfaction survey

CRM Unit oversees a twice yearly ongoing survey of a statistically significant representative sample of customers. The surveys are conducted by telephone as this provides the most effective means to fully understand what is important to our customers.

Customer insight

Market research studies in respect of Patents, Trade Marks and Designs have been undertaken with the assistance of a professional market research company. A programme of further research is in development that will incorporate the findings from these studies, and also of our benchmarking activities, to build on what we have already learned. We also have an ongoing programme for collecting customer intelligence in-house.

Consultations

Public consultations are always required before making significant changes to our practices, policies and legislation. The Cabinet Office publish a set of guidelines that govern public consultations, and the Intellectual Property Office is a signatory committed to following this consultation code of practice .

Details of past and present public consultations are available from the IP professional area of the website.

Informal Consultations take place when we want to seek customer opinion about less significant proposals which would not involve statutory changes. We often use this method in the early stages of developing new policies and this is usually done by asking our representative groups for their views and by publishing consultation notices on our website.

Patents customer visit programme

We visit our patents customers to get their views on our services and the way we work. We ask their opinions on our service levels and any changes or developments that affect their working relationship with us.

Practice Working Groups

We have long established Practice Working Groups with representatives of both the legal profession and small businesses. The Patent Practice Working Group (professional section) provides us with users' views on patent practice issues.

Business Outreach and Education

The team maintains a strong relationship with and fosters a network of various institutions; businesses and enterprises to support its efforts. These include BIS, Business Link, Chambers of Commerce, CBI, CIPA, and ITMA amongst others.

The team’s efforts start from the children and adults in our schools and universities, through to the business leaders and managers in the UK. These groups are supported or work in collaboration with other interested parties and enterprises mentioned earlier.

Exhibitions and seminars

The Business Development team represents the office at a range of exhibitions and seminars, many of which are primarily aimed at Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). This and some of the more recent campaigns have been worked on in partnership with CIPA, ITMA and a number of other external business support organisations.

The Business team also runs a variety of other workshops for Business Advisors, owners of SMEs and academics on all aspects of IP. They often work in partnership with Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) such as Invest Northern Ireland, the Business Link teams in England and the Intellectual Assets Centre in Scotland to promote all the services the Intellectual Property Office has to offer. An "IP Masterclass" course has also been created with Coventry University and has had considerable positive feedback.

Tell us what you think

We are always interested to hear what you think about the services that we offer and the way in which we engage with everyone who uses our services. Please let us have your comments by completing the online customer feedback form. If you want to, you can also make a formal complaint to our Chief Executive.