EXAMPLE RFP TEMPLATE

We’ve created this template Request for Proposal or Request for Tender to help you
commission Customer Satisfaction Research for your organisation.

Depending on your organisation, you may be asked to provide information about your
research project requirements to your Purchasing Department, who will prepare your RFP
for you. Or you may need to ask them for details about their preferred scoring criteria to
include on your RFP.

If your organisation is quite small, you might not even have a purchasing team, or a standard
system for writing RFPs and scoring proposals, in which case, this template is still for you.
It contains all the questions you should ask yourself – and your tenderers! It encourages you
to think carefully about particular aspects of the project, what you want to know, how you
will use the data, how you want the research presented, what assumptions you make – and
ultimately, will help you to write a fantastic RFP that means that your bidders understand
just what you’re trying to achieve.

Good luck with writing your RFP!

Glyn Luckett,
Commercial Director
Email: gluckett@tti-global.com

TTi Global Research, Langley Business Centre, Station Rd, Slough SL3 8DS
www.tti-global-research.co.uk
Tel : 01753 214000
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COVER PAGE

Request for Proposal (RFP) /

Invitation to Tender (ITT)

[INSERT COMPANY LOGO ]

For the Provision of

Customer Satisfaction Research Services

[INSERT DATE]

This RFP is the exclusive property of [YOUR COMPANY ]. This RFP may not be copied, transmitted or
disclosed by any means without the joint written consent of all involved parties. By accepting a copy
hereof, the recipient agrees to be bound by these conditions and to use these documents solely for
responding to this RFP.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

COVER PAGE........................................................................................ 2
Table of Contents................................................................................3
About [insert company name here].......................................................3
1. Corporate Overview.......................................................................................................................................3
2. Contact Information.......................................................................................................................................4
Overview and Timeline......................................................................... 4
3. Project Rationale & Objectives.......................................................................................................................4
4. Project Timeline.............................................................................................................................................4
Proposal Outline.................................................................................. 5
5. Proposal Contents..........................................................................................................................................5
6. Contract award criteria...................................................................................................................................6
7. Scoring methodology.....................................................................................................................................8
8. Proposal requirements...................................................................................................................................8
9. Presentation of tender requirements.............................................................................................................8
10. Assumptions..............................................................................................................................................9
Appendices..............................................................................................................9

About [insert company name here]

1.Corporate Overview

Insert here a detailed description of your organisation’s background, to include company size,
locations, capabilities and systems, stakeholders, expansion plans, and business goals you are working
to achieve. You should also include details of relevant sector and/or industry experience.

INSERT COMPANY OVERVIEW – Target customer base, marketing activities, brand experience, and
research solutions offered.

INSERT INDUSTRY OVERVIEW – including your competitors, positioning, opportunities for growth, go
to market strategies, and so on.

OVERVIEW – Key attributes you seek in the firm you are hiring, and your reasoning for choosing to
commission customer research

2.Contact Information

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Provide your company’s contact details here, to include:

 Primary contact’s information

 Email address to which all queries should be addressed
 Proposed location for any presentations to be made

OVERVIEW AND TIMELINE

3.Project Rationale & Objectives

Provide a description of the tendering requirement and background for your project, including
research objectives, target sample groups – e.g. B2B customers, internal customers, consumers –
geographical and language requirements, your preferred methodology if you have one, reporting
requirements, and any other additional project requirements or specifics.

4.Project Timeline

Insert your proposed timeline for proposal submissions, providing a breakdown of elements, and
specify dates by which each should be delivered. Detail how each bidder is required to deliver the
proposal e.g in electronic format, via presentation etc.

Here’s an example, but yours may have different phases:

Activity Deadline date

1 Questions invited from tenderers 20 January 2019
2 Tender submission deadline 3 February 2019
3 Evaluation period 4 February – 20 February 2019
4 All tenderers notified of evaluation outcome 21 February 2019
5 Short-listed tenderers present at London Office 27 February 2019
6 Complete post tender negotiations 4 March 2019
7 Notification of Contract Award to all tenderers 10 March 2019
8 Contract award 20 March 2019

If timescales are subject to change, make this clear.

Contract Period – Specify here how long the project contract will run for, once rewarded, and detail
any additional terms to which the parties will mutually agree in writing to adjust for changes in cost
and scope.

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RFP Questions – Include here details of how bidders may submit any questions or request clarification
on any details of the RFP, or elements specified in the procurement timeline. State the details of a
primary contact, for example:

Chief Procurement Officer: [Insert Name]

Email: [Insert email]
Telephone: [Insert Telephone]

Evaluation Criteria – Give details of how you will evaluate submissions, explaining your criteria.

PROPOSAL OUTLINE
5. Proposal Contents
Here, list any information you have that will help the bidder to understand your requirements.

1. List them all as numbered points, so it’s easy for your bidder to address each one specifically,
and for you to see that each point has been covered in their proposal.
2. For example, if you know you want telephone or postal surveys, detail how many you expect to
send, and over what time frame.
3. If you’ve conducted research in the past, detail what you felt worked well and what didn’t, so
you and your bidders can benefit from hindsight.
4. If you’re a regulated industry and need your research partner to conform to certain guidelines,
state them here.
5. If you want surveys conducted to a particular timescale, at certain times of day, or response
data to be send to you daily or weekly, for example, detail that here.
6. Do you have your own research portal that the bidder is to populate with data? If so, specific
what you expect them to do and how. If you want them to provide a customised portal for you
to access the data, be sure to explain your requirements.
7. Think about how often you’d like updates or meetings with the research partner, and list it
here.
8. What are your requirements for frequency of customer surveying (eg, are customers only to be
contacted once a year?)
9. How are you expecting to provide the contact data for your customers? Will you need any help
from the bidder to clean the data or remove duplicates?
10. Is this is a one off project or will you find value in an ongoing reviews or periodic surveys to
assess improvements?

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11. What would you like the research partner to do with the data? If analysis or more detailed
reporting is required, explain what you’d like to see.
12. How will any contact preferences (eg unsubscribes) be fed back into your company?

If you’re unsure about the specifics of the research project or don’t have any particular requirements,
reiterate your goals here – what decisions do you hope the data will inform? Who will be interested in
the results? How often will they want to review the data? The more the bidders understand what you
hope to gain from the research, the better suited their proposal will be to your needs.

6.Contract award criteria

Explain how you will award scores to the bidders. For example, will the RFP proposal contribute to
100% of the score? Or will extra materials contribute to the score?

If you intend to shortlist three highest scoring bids, mention that here, and that those shortlisted
bidders will be invited to present.

Sometimes, the presentation may affect the RFP proposal scores upon further clarification of some
points.

Companies have varying scoring methodologies, and many UK business choose winning tenders using
the MEAT model (Most Economically Advantageous Tender). Your purchasing department can give you
more information about the criteria, which you should include in your RFP.

Here’s an example that is specific to Customer Satisfaction Research that you may want to use.

Even if your organisation doesn’t use anything as formalised as MEAT, the example questions below
will help you to think about each requirement and how important it is to you, how you’d like your
bidders to approach them, and how you’re going to award points.

The MEAT assessment will be formed on a combination of Competence (40%); Cost (40%); and Approach (20%).
Please be advised that in each assessment area individual questions carry equal weightings within the evaluation
methodology. Where questions have sub-questions, the overall weighting for the whole question will carry equal
weighting within the evaluation.

These criteria are described in more detail below:

Competence 40%:
1. Using two case studies as a reference, highlight your experience, knowledge and expertise of providing
services of this nature.
2. Explain the detailed process/methodology you will use to deliver our requirements
3. Explain how you will provide assurance through your processes and reporting that you can adhere with all
aspects of quality control standards and procedures and Data Protection legislation

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4. Detail how you would deliver the [one or more main points from the Requirements section, if you feel this is
important to know].

5. Using a case study, demonstrate how you have designed or would design a portal to meet our requirements
including any added value to the business.
6. Detail your process for analysing survey return data to determine;
a. What the key indicators of satisfaction are and identify any trends
b. Key themes and any areas for concern/opportunities to focus

7. Detail your SLAs on response and resolution to our queries

8. Provide assurance that on termination of contract, mechanisms for which all relevant data will be provided
back to us in their required format and at no additional charge

Cost 40%:
1. Provide a clear unit and volume discount breakdown of costs associated with all set up and delivery costs
associated with the services as listed within the Requirements section.

2. Please show any discounts for volume of work alongside using the appropriate pricing models (capped, fixed
pricing etc...)

3. Detail within your pricing structure for surveying over and above the minimum requirements.

3. Provide any assumptions you have used in determining your price

Approach 20%:

1. How would you provide value add services and innovation to us?
a. How can you provide value to us for developing our customer survey strategy?
b. What value can you bring us from other industries so we can benchmark our services with other
industries?

2. How would you ensure you provide flexibility in delivery of the service? For example when ad-hoc requests
for analysis or project activities arise from the business

3. From your experience what lessons learnt from other relevant assignments or projects would you apply to
this service?

4. What steps would you take to ensure a successful and collaborative relationship with us?
a. Please provide a lead name responsible for the ongoing management of the account relationship,
their relevant experience and track record, and your overall team structure including names and
roles of team members you would use to deliver the services
b. What continuity plans and commitment will you make to ensure that a suitably qualified and
experienced account manager will remain on these accounts at all times?
c. What commitments will you make to ensure business continuity in the event of key personnel
becoming unavailable?
d. What assurances can you give that your team’s knowledge and experience will be maintained for the
duration of this service?

5. Provide a detailed mobilisation plan and highlight any key risks (including any mitigation actions) to achieve
the project timeline, and include a cost breakdown.
6. Share your approach, ideas and commitment to how would you work with current service providers to
ensure a seamless and successful transition.

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7. Scoring methodology

If your organisation uses a standard scoring methodology to accompany the criteria set out above,
include it here. Your purchasing department can help with this part.

If you don’t have a scoring system, think about how you score the proposals fairly.

8. Proposal requirements

If your purchasing team like to have similarly formatted proposals to review, ask them for the criteria
and add it here.

Here’s an example:
 All documents shall be formatted as follows: A4 paper size, double-sided, Arial font, size 10-point, 25mm margins
for Top, Bottom, Left and Right. Font size used in charts, graphs, figures and tables may be smaller than 10-point,
but must be clearly legible.
 We require that responses to this RFP are limited to 30 pages in total. This is to be considered as the maximum
number of pages for a Tenderer’s response in aggregate and will include any attached and/or referenced
documents which the Tenderer includes as part of its response.
 Only the first 30 pages of a Tenderer’s response will be considered in the evaluation (note: title pages, tables of
contents, lists of figures, indices, dividers, tabs, or similar inserts that do not provide any substantive information
are not counted as a page). Any page(s) that exceed this limit will not be evaluated.
 We do not require tenderers unnecessarily to duplicate information in its responses to questions. Where a
response applies wholly or in part to more than one question, Tenderers may use cross-references to refer to
information provided in another response that will support its response in the question at hand.

9. Presentation of tender requirements

These are some usual requirements for presenting a tender or bid, but you may have others.

 The top 3 highest scored tenderers will be shortlisted and asked to make a presentation to the assessing
panel during the timescales indicated above in section 3.
 All staff expected to take a key role on the project must attend the presentation to meet the team and present
their proposal.
 We reserve the right to take the next-highest ranked submission(s) through to any stage in the event of a
shortlisted bidder dropping out of the process after a down-selection has been awarded.

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10. Assumptions

Again, here is some standard info about assumptions you might want to use, but feel free to add more.

 Tenderers are free to make any assumptions necessary to enable them to submit a proposal, please
clearly define these within the proposal.
 However, where such assumptions are materially important to key elements of the proposal, Tenderers
are encouraged to seek clarification before proceeding on the basis of assumption.
 Please ensure you clearly list out all your pricing assumptions.

APPENDICES

If you have any guidelines or industry regulations that the bidders should be aware of, add them here.
If you have supporting documents that might help the bidders to propose the best solution for you,
reference them here.

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