Legal
The supplier sent a questionnaire
Forty questions from a client who does not negotiate, with a deadline and nobody to ask what they mean.
An email arrives from your best client with a forty-question questionnaire, a two-week deadline and a note saying it is a condition of remaining a supplier. **You did not negotiate it, it is not in the contract and there is nobody to argue with** — the person who sent it did not write it either. This is now one of the commonest ways documentary demands reach a mid-sized company: not through a rule, but through a customer.
What a questionnaire actually asks
| Kind of question | What they want to know | What it costs you |
|---|---|---|
| Do you have a policy on X? | Whether the document exists | Little, if it exists |
| Can you evidence it? | Whether there is something to show | Quite a lot, if it was not kept |
| How many cases were there? | Whether you keep records | A great deal, if it was never counted |
| **And your suppliers?** | **Whether you pass the same on** | **The dearest of all** |
Important
**A questionnaire is not answered, it is built once and reused.** That is the difference between this position being an annual problem or an afternoon. The first costs weeks because everything has to be hunted down; the second costs little because the answers already exist and only the form changes. What makes a questionnaire expensive is not the questions: it is that every client asks them differently and every time it starts from zero.
How to make it reusable
- 1
Keep the answers, not just send them
With the date and the document that backed each one.
- 2
Know where the always-attached items live
It is nearly always the same eight or ten documents.
- 3
Note down what you did not have
That list is the year's agenda, and it comes free.
- 4
And review before the next one, not during
The next questionnaire is coming. It always comes.
Watch out
The temptation in this position is **answering yes to everything so as not to lose the client**. It is understandable: there is a contract at stake and a short deadline. The problem is that a questionnaire is not a sales conversation — it is filed, it is signed, and in some cases it is verified afterwards with a visit or a request for evidence. An answer you cannot back up is worse than «we do not have this yet, we will by June», which many clients accept without fuss.
Worth knowing
What requirements a client may impose, which of them come from rules that apply to them and reach you by contract, and what signing a declaration of this kind entails **depends on the sector, the country and the contract, and is settled by your adviser**. Here we cover the operational part: how to answer without starting from scratch each time and how to back up what you say.
›Can I refuse to answer?
You can, and it usually costs the client. Answering honestly tends to work better than either alternative.
›What do I do about what I do not have?
Say so, with a date if there is one. It is acceptable far more often than it seems.
›Is last year's answer usable?
As a starting point, always. As an unreviewed answer, no.
A real case
The situation
A client sends a questionnaire with a two-week deadline.
What you do
- Keeps previous answers and what backed them
What you get
You start from what was already answered rather than zero.
The situation
The always-attached documents live in five folders.
What you do
- Gathers the company file in one place
What you get
Attaching stops being half the job.
The situation
Yes is answered to something that cannot be backed up.
What you do
- Shows which document backs each answer
What you get
You answer what can be evidenced.
The situation
The client later asks for evidence of what was declared.
What you do
- Keeps what was sent, with its date
What you get
You show exactly what was declared at the time.
The situation
Every client asks the same things on a different form.
What you do
- Reuses the same documentary base for each request
What you get
The third questionnaire costs an afternoon.
The situation
What was missing last year is still missing this year.
What you do
- Records what was left outstanding
What you get
The list of gaps gets worked through during the year.
This article answers
- client sent a supplier questionnaire
- how to answer a sustainability questionnaire
- asked for policies i do not have
- supplier onboarding questionnaire