In December 2021, we asked our Australian customers what they thought of us
After a tumultuous two years, in December, we asked our customers to participate in our first full Australian customer survey. This came at the end of the third full lamb marking season since our Australian launch in June 2019. Those three years have been challenging for us all – who could have foreseen the changes that have beset every business in the country over the past two years?
Nevertheless, Numnuts® has made solid progress in Australia. That’s great, but not enough for us – we want our customers to be absolutely satisfied, which means listening to the views of lamb and wool producers as we move forward.
First, some good news
The survey was sent out just before the Christmas holiday period, meaning our customers probably had their minds on other things…
For that reason, we were really pleased that with 140 submissions, the response rate was 23%. That’s very acceptable for this kind of survey.
Before we share some highlights from the results, we’d like to announce the winner of the survey prize draw. Our congratulations go to Tom English in Victoria, who’ll be receiving a years supply of NumOcaine® for the 2022 season.
Who are our customers?
Not surprisingly, 86% of survey respondents classed themselves as (commercial) producers, with just over 50% having used Numnuts for the first time during lamb marking.
Here’s where our respondents live in Australia.
We asked: Did you notice any changes in the lambs?
This is one of our favourite outcomes: 91.5% of respondents noticed a positive change in their lambs’ behaviour when using Numnuts®.
Changes included a clearly observable reduction in discomfort, and a greater ease in subsequent mothering up and herding after marking.
We asked: How was your Numnuts experience?
Good news: 85% of respondents reported that Numnuts fitted in easily or very easily into their lamb marking process. (You can read our Numnuts case studies here)
We asked: How many lambs do you mark?
Now, this is always interesting to learn.
65% of respondents told us they mark up to 500 lambs per day.
A further 28% mark between 500 and 1,000 per day.
Further, 89% of respondents used Numnuts® across their entire flock, with 72% using Numnuts® for both castration and tail docking.
What’s more, 26% limit its use to castration only.
It has always been our recommendation and best practice that pain relief is provided for BOTH tail docking and castration, as both husbandry producers induce stress.
More science information about the effectiveness of Numnuts® for tail docking can be found in this science paper:
“Local anesthetic delivered with a dual action ring and injection applicator Numnuts® reduces the acute pain response of lambs during tail docking”
Concluding: “The present study demonstrated that the Numnuts® device can provide immediate pain relief for the acute pain phase of ring tail docking in lambs”
We asked: Have you had any problems?
When asked, some producers told us about problems they’d experienced with the device. These ranged from issues with the Fluid Junction (which we’ve already upgraded, see here) or 2 Stage Injector (also upgraded, see maintenance tips here).
We’ve since been in touch with everyone who mentioned a problem to ensure they’ve received replacement parts, which we offer for free. We’ve also recently updated our FAQs and Troubleshooting pages.
We asked: Can you find information easily?
We understand that locating information quickly and easily is important, especially in the middle of lamb marking. We’ve recently been improving our website, so we were very pleased to learn that over 82% of respondents already found our site easy or very easy to use.
More than 90% of respondents found the Numnuts® online shop easy or very easy to use. 84% reported no difficulties in obtaining Numnuts®. This is all very good news!
The 75% who’d contacted us directly reported that Team Numnuts were very responsive – there were no negative reports.
We asked: How should we move forward?
Clearly, we wish to continue developing Numnuts®, but we want to know what our customers think is important for the future of the device.
57% of respondents offered ideas and, not surprisingly, they were wide ranging. Over 50% were supportive of further Numnuts development in the interests of bringing greater animal welfare practices on-farm.
The remaining recommendations included a focus on cost and value, pharmaceutical development, species and size migration, hardware design, construction and maintenance, tail docking, and information and training.
We asked: Will you use Numnuts again?
Overall, 86% of respondents said they would definitely use Numnuts® again, with a further 12% saying it is likely or undecided. Only 2% are not planning to use Numnuts® in the future, with most citing cost as the main disincentive.
Overall, 90% of respondents reported themselves to be very satisfied or satisfied with Numnuts®.
Thank You from Senesino!
We mentioned the good news at the top, so you may be looking for the bad news – well, we’re delighted to say that there isn’t any.
What can we say, but ‘thank you’ to everyone who took time to respond to our survey. We are pleased that so many people are finding our device valuable and are planning to continue using Numnuts® in the future. For those who offered constructive criticism, we are equally grateful, and take it all on board in the improvement of our product.
