Yes, you can conduct a Voice of the Supplier (VoS) survey in-house, but whether you should depends on your goals, capabilities, and how strategic supplier relationships are to your organisation.

Here’s a breakdown of "in-house vs third-party" VoS survey, including pros and cons, and why someone might choose a third-party like SRM Tribe.

✅ Doing a Voice of the Supplier Survey In-House

Pros

• Cost control: No third-party fees, especially appealing for tight budgets.

• Full control: You own the process, questions, and data handling.

• Speed: Potentially quicker setup if internal teams are available.

• Customisation: Easier to tailor questions exactly to your internal priorities or operational quirks.

Cons

• Lack of objectivity: Suppliers may hold back honest feedback due to fear of damaging the relationship.

• Internal bias: Survey design and interpretation may be unconsciously shaped by internal expectations or politics.

• Limited insight: In-house teams may default to transactional or operational questions, missing deeper relational or strategic dimensions.

• Capacity constraints: Internal teams may lack the time, expertise, or analytical rigour to run a meaningful programme end-to-end.

✅ Using a Third Party (e.g., SRM Tribe for Voice of the Supplier)

Pros

• Neutrality encourages honesty: Suppliers are more likely to give candid feedback when they know a neutral party is collecting and anonymising responses.

• Depth & sophistication: SRM Tribe’s surveys go beyond typical KPIs (like OTIF or price) and focus on strategic relationship dimensions like:

  • Collaboration

  • Transparency

  • Innovation enablement

  • Responsiveness

  • Trust

• Benchmarking: Responses can be compared across industries or peers (if available), giving context to the scores.

• Actionable insights: SRM Tribe specialises in segmenting feedback and linking it to supplier enablement, not just scorecards.

• Supplier development lens: Their model promotes mutual growth and relationship maturity not just a report card.

• Time and effort saved: Outsourcing frees up internal resources for follow-up and implementation.

Cons

• Cost: A third-party survey is a professional service and comes with a price tag.

• Less immediate control: While you co-create the survey, the process and data handling are externally managed (though still GDPR-compliant).

• Perceived distance: If not well-communicated, some internal stakeholders might feel less ownership of the insights.

When to Use a 3rd Party Like SRM Tribe

Choose SRM Tribe if:

• You want to go beyond basic performance metrics and really understand how suppliers experience your organisation.

• You're aiming to build more strategic, collaborative supplier relationships.

• You lack internal capacity or experience to design and run a supplier-focused listening programme.

• You want objective, supplier-trustworthy data that goes deeper than traditional procurement surveys.

• You’re committed to acting on the feedback, and need insights structured around improvement pathways, not just red/yellow/green scores.

SRM Tribe’s Voice of the Supplier survey is built around nine core pillars that reflect the fundamentals of effective supplier relationship management spanning areas like governance, communication, responsiveness, and collaboration.

But what truly sets it apart is its integrated layer of future-proofing indicators that go beyond traditional scorecards. These secondary dimensions such as innovation enablement, adaptability, trust-building, and supplier-led growth offer a forward-looking view of relationship maturity and strategic alignment rarely captured by standard surveys.

Designed by SRM experts for procurement and supply chain professionals who want more than transactional feedback, this approach delivers insight that drives lasting value, not just better scores.

If you would like to find out more and just have a chat, contact us here