TOTAL QUALITY Quality for customer satisfaction means:
MANAGEMENT „ Using customer’s perspective;
PRINCIPLE 2: CUSTOMER FOCUS
Who is the Customer?
„ External Customer – one who purchases/
uses the product or service, or one who
influences the sale of the product or service.
The external customer falls into 3 categories
– the current
current, prospective and lost customer.
customer
„ Internal customer – every person in a
production process is considered a customer
of the preceding operation. Each worker’s
goal is to make sure that the quality meets
the expectations of the next person.
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Customer Perception of Quality
„ Quality is judged by customers. Thus
quality must take into account all product
and service features and characteristics
that contribute value to customers and lead
to customer satisfaction, preference and
retention.
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„ Meeting or exceeding customer
expectations;
„ Anticipating future needs of the customer.
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Dealing with the Internal
Customer
„ The formula for successful internal
customer/ supplier relationships varies. But
it always begins with asking three basic
questions.
questions
„ What do you need from me?
„ What do you do with my output?
„ Are there any gaps between what you
need and what you get?
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„ The American Society for Quality (ASQ)
surveys perceptions of important factors:
1. Performance – fitness for use. Other
considerations include (1) availability, which
is the probability that a product will be there
when needed; (2) reliability, which is
freedom from failure over time; and (3)
serviceability, which is the ease of keeping
the product operable.
2. Features (add-ons) – these may be
physical, time-oriented, contractual, ethical
or technological.
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3. Service – this is an intangible requirement
by customers and may differentiate between
purchasing a service/product in one place
relative to another – a way of serving the
customer better.
b and update each customer’s perception of
4. Warranty – it represents an organisation’s
public promise of a quality product backed
up by a guarantee of customer satisfaction.
It also represents a public commitment to
guarantee a level of service sufficient to
satisfy the customer.
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Getting Customer Feedback/
Collecting Customer Information
Feedback enables the organisation to:
„ Discover customer dissatisfaction
„ Discover relative priorities of quality
„ Compare
C performance
f with
ith competition
titi
„ Identify customer needs
„ Determine opportunities for improvement
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„ Customer visits – An organisation can
proactively monitor a product’s performance
while in use thereby identifying any specific
or recurring problems.
„ Employee feedback – They can offer
information and insights about conditions that
inhibit service quality, and can also
brainstorm on ideas to address those
problems.
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5. Price – Today’s customer is willing to pay
a higher price to obtain value. On-going
efforts must be made by everyone having
contact with customers to identify, verify
value in relation each product and service.
6. Reputation – Total customer satisfaction
is based on the entire experience with the
organisation.
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Ways of getting customer feedback/
information
„ Comment card – to give feedback on a
specific service/product
„ Report card – A quarterly report card could
be sent to repeat customers
customers.
„ Customer questionnaire – by mail, in
person or via phone
„ Focus Groups – A group of customers is
assembled in a meeting room to answer a
series of questions/discuss issues.
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„ Online feedback – Internet users can use
given feedback online possibly on a
company’s website
„ Imprint analysis – Imprint refers to the
collection of associations and emotions
unconsciously linked to a word, concept or
experience.
„ Managers acting as customers – Managers
can act as customers of their own
establishments in order to understand
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customer needs better. TQM 2009 - 4
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 Process vs. Customer Customer Satisfaction: Three-Part System

„ Customer complaints are often as a result of Human

Customer
process variation. Resource
Expectation
Management
„ From the company’s viewpoint, customer
satisfaction is the result of a three
three-part
part
system: (1) company processes
(operations); (2) company employees who Customer
deliver consistent product or service and (3) Satisfaction
customer expectations.
Company Operations
(Operations )
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Integration of customer and process

Customer Focus Process Focus
„ The overlap represents the extent to which
Listen to the Determine the
customer satisfaction is achieved. The voice of the customer voice of the process
objective is to make this area as large as
Predict customer behaviour Predict process behaviour
possible and ultimately
p y make all three (Purchase decisions,
decisions preferences) (outcomes variations)
(outcomes,
circles converge into an integrated system.
Determine customer Determine optimum
quality expectations process outcomes

Propose and test

process improvements
to meet customer expectations
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10 Key Excellence Indicators for

Customer Satisfaction
1. Service standards derived from customer 5. Attention to hiring, training, attitude, morale
requirements for frontline employees
2. Understanding customer requirements 6. High levels of satisfaction – customer awards

„ Thoroughness/objectivity
7. Proactive customer service systems
y
„ Customer types
8. Proactive management of relationships with
customer
„ Product/service features
9. Use of various listening posts
3. Frontline empowerment
„ Surveys, product/service follow-ups,
4. Strategic infrastructure support for
complaints, turnover customers,
frontline employees
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employees TQM 2009 - 4 18

3

10. Quality requirements of market segments
„ Surveys that go beyond current
customers
„ C
Commitment
it t tto customer
t „ Develop procedures for complaint resolution
(trust/confidence/ making good on
word)
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„ Establish customer satisfaction measures
and constantly monitor them.
„ Communicate complaint information and the
g
results of investigations to all p
people
p in the
organisation (this can be a sensitive area,
so avoid mentioning individual names).
„ Provide a monthly complaint report to the
quality council for their evaluation and the
assignment of process improvement teams.
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„ Organise processes – this may mean an
entire change in business processes to
serve customers better, e.g., reduce
bureaucracy;
„ Organise physical requirements – this may
mean organising related offices close to
each other to reduce travel time wasted or
to have easy access by customers to a
reception area.
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Using Customer Complaints
Positive ways to handle customer complaints
„ Investigate customers’ experiences and
seek to act promptly
and include empowering frontline personnel
„ Analyse complaints and try to identify
underlying causes
„ Work to identify process and material
variations and eliminate the root causes.
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Maintaining/enhancing Service
Quality
Consider the following 5 key areas:
1. Organising for service quality
„ Identify each market segment
„ Write down the requirements – a service
quality handbook should be created with
the description of each service quality
standard
„ Communicate the requirements – may be
done through training, personal coaching
and meetings, use the intranet for FAQ
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2.Customer care
„ Meet the customer’s expectations
„ Get the customer’s point of view
„ Deliver what is promised
„ Make the customer feel valued
„ Respond to all complaints
„ Over-respond to the customer
„ Provide a clean and comfortable customer
reception area
„ Develop a customer code of ethics
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3. Have Adequate Communication Channels
„ An organisation’s communication should be
consistent with its level of quality promised.
„ Optimise the trade-off between time available
for your job and personal attention to each
customer.
„ Provide pleasant, knowledgeable and
enthusiastic employees.
„ Write documents in customer-friendly
language.
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4. Pay attention to Front-line people
„ Hire people who like people – hire the best,
develop them into professionals and
motivate them to stay and excel in the
organisation.
„ Challenge them to develop better methods
– provide training and encourage them to
improve their customer service skills.
„ Give them the authority to solve problems
„ Recognise and reward performance
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5. Provide Consistent Leadership Customer Retention and Profitability

„ Lead by example „ Ultimately, the firm seeks customer
„ Listen to frontline people retention.
„ Strive for continuous improvement „ Customer retention represents the
process activities that produce the necessary
customer satisfaction that creates
customer loyalty which in turn improves the
bottomline.

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Customer retention and profitability

System
„ The driver for improving customer
Internal
Service retention and profit is employee
Quality
satisfaction (and retention). The system
components
p are:
Employee Employee Customer
Profit
Satisfaction Retention Retention „ Internal service quality: which
Driver establishes and reinforces a climate and
External
Service
organizational culture directed towards
Quality quality.
Customer
Satisfaction
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„ Employee retention, which is achieved
through good human resource management
practices and organizational development
methods such as teams, job development
and empowerment. Employee retention
depends on employee satisfaction, which in
turn can be related to external service and
customer satisfaction.
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„ External service quality, which is
delivered through the organization’s quality
infrastructure and personnel.
„ Customer satisfaction and follow-up
follow up, in
order to reduce customer defections and
improve retention.
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