Key insights from our 2024 customer survey

The inaugural survey results have highlighted several key issues that will help us improve the administration of the accreditation program and determine how we work with businesses going forward. These valuable insights will shape our marketing and communications approach to ensure we maximise your accreditation. While we’re proud of the overall results, we recognise that there are areas where we can further develop, such as increasing consumer awareness and canvassing more government support.  

Here are some key insights you need to know from our 2024 survey… 

100% of respondents plan to re-accredit with Ethical Clothing Australia 

We were pleased to see that all participants would re-accredit their business with Ethical Clothing Australia, which reinforces the value of our accreditation body and the strength of our customer service. However, we noted that 51% of respondents felt that we could improve our ability to partner effectively with them. We are looking at our current framework and finding ways to streamline and foster a better collaborative relationship with accredited businesses. 

When it comes to customer satisfaction, 55% of participants responded favourably to Ethical Clothing Australia 

While our overall response to customer satisfaction was positive, with 55% of participants answering favourably, 38% of participants responded in a more neutral light, and 8% of participants were unfavourable. Those who were accredited for over a decade were the most satisfied, followed by those accredited for 2-4 years and 1-2 years. Interestingly, those accredited for 6-10 years were the least satisfied. We intend to increase our efforts to shift those who were neutral and unfavourable to favourable.  

In the survey, when asked about relationship satisfaction, 63% of participants responded approvingly when asked about the ease of doing business with us, while 59% agreed that Ethical Clothing Australia was responsive to their needs. Despite the majority-positive feedback regarding relationship satisfaction, we acknowledge that there is a lot more work to do to ensure accredited businesses who responded neutrally or unfavourably are more satisfied. In particular, we will endeavour to understand your business requirements, which was rated at 51%. Moving forward, we will be more proactive and increase communication to understand your business’ changing needs and priorities. 

The top four key factors that you value  

We asked respondents to rank the most critical factors of Ethical Clothing Australia from ‘most important’ to ‘fourth most important’, with the ordered results below:  

1. Accreditation demonstrating that your business has an ethical supply chain 
2. Accreditation demonstrating that your business’ products are made in Australia 
3. Marketing benefits  
4. Use of the Ethical Clothing Australia trade mark 

As you can see, Ethical Clothing Australia’s mission is reflected in the top two most important factors. While marketing was listed as important to responders (coming in third), only 36% of participants were satisfied with our output. Additionally, only 52% of respondents were in favour with the use of the Ethical Clothing Australia trade mark. This indicates we must boost our marketing efforts to maximise your accreditation, amplify the benefits of our trade mark and increase consumer awareness of your business’s commitment to ethical manufacturing in Australia. This is something that we have already been working towards, and we are currently creating a more robust marketing strategy and increasing our promotional output. We’ll continue to provide education to consumers and ensure that accredited businesses have the tools at their disposal to best utilise the Ethical Clothing Australia trade mark as a marketing tool. Additionally, we will increase our communication to accredited businesses, detailing marketing activities and expanding your opportunities to get involved. 

We’re currently working on our Ethical Clothing Australia Week campaign (October 7-13), which will build further brand awareness of Ethical Clothing Australia, our trade mark and accredited businesses. 

Government Advocacy  

It was highlighted within our survey results that respondents wanted greater support from the Government. Advocacy on local TCF procurement opportunities and policies was ranked 7th (out of 9) in the most important factors of Ethical Clothing Australia, however, only 28% of participants were satisfied. We are committed to advocacy and aspire to be a stronger and more vocal presence in the industry, as reflected by Rachel Reilly’s recent involvement in inquiries into procurement, you can read more about that here.  

Thank you 

While the results were generally positive, there was one clear desire from respondents: greater promotion among consumers about Ethical Clothing Australia, which we aim to achieve before the next survey in two years. We want to thank everyone who participated, your feedback is invaluable and will help us improve our accreditation program. Our goals are to increase participation, boost engagement and see a lift in customer satisfaction when we repeat our survey in 2026. 

If you have any questions, thoughts, or feedback about our 2024 Customer Survey, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us here.