MODERN SLAVERY STATEMENT – CUSTOMER FAITHFUL LIMITED

Our business, Customer Faithful Limited is committed to combatting slavery and human trafficking in its business and supply chains, and we make this statement to assist with compliance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015. This statement relates to our financial year ending 2019/20. As our business has a turnover of less than £36 million, we do not have a legal obligation to produce a modern slavery statement. Nevertheless:

a) We agree that exploitation within all supply chains ending in the UK is a blight on our society, and we are committed to playing our part in eliminating exploitation.

b) We understand that customers with obligations under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 cannot comply with those duties without our cooperation.

To that end, we confirm that we have examined our own business and, to the extent that it is reasonably practicable, businesses within our supply chain and we confirm the following:

  1. We confirm that within our own business, no relevant offence relating to slavery or human tracking has been committed.

  2. We have made enquiries of businesses that supply directly to us and we are confident that no relevant offence is committed in that business.

  3. Insofar as it was reasonably practicable, we have examined our own supply chains and confirm that we found no evidence of slavery or human trafficking.

Our business is consumer research and consultancy – we design, conduct and analyse market research projects to understand what matters to end users – e.g. shoppers, patients, passengers, diners, travellers, members, employees, etc. We develop customer segmentations, customer experience journeys, satisfaction surveys – using qualitative and quantitative techniques.

Our business structure is based on a small, close-knit team of highly experienced research associates. This enables very small project reporting lines, with Rick Harris personally overseeing all projects. All decisions on supply chain procurement are managed by Rick Harris, so maintaining complete consistency of standards and control. Across Customer Faithful, all team members are expected to highlight any concerns, using the appropriate reporting channels.

To date, we have operated in the following countries:

  • United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and USA. 

Our supply chain falls into broadly three areas:

  • Within research recruitment – we periodically use specialist recruitment agencies to find participants for our studies on behalf of clients. 

  • Within research venues – we typically conduct ethnographic research within participant’s homes or in observation with them as they conduct day-to-day activities.

  • Within social media listening activity – we hire specialist agencies based in the UK to conduct this work, typically exploring comments made by people within the last 12 months.

Our policy is to only to hire suppliers in these areas that can meet our own standards and commitments in relation to combating modern slavery. We may impose contractual obligations requiring compliance to this. We commit to reviewing our supply chains annually to evaluate forced labour risk and, if a risk is identified, we will take appropriate steps to address it. We consider the conduct of each supplier against our ethical standards when awarding and/or renewing business with the supplier. 

In addition, we expect our suppliers to be members of appropriate industry associations and comply with codes of conduct regarding legal and ethical standards. For our industry, these include but are not limited to:

  • Association for Qualitative Research (AQR)

  • Market Research Society (MRS)

  • British Healthcare Business Intelligence Association (BHBIA)

  • European Pharmaceutical Market Research Association (EphMRA)

Where it is reasonably practicable, we ensure that businesses in our supply chain have made a similar statement relating to slavery and human trafficking.

Rick Harris, Managing Director - January 2020