BORGONIA, VIKTORIA VENICE

BLOCK 1

Case - Mercantile Stores

Discussion Questions
1. How does Mercantile view quality? Explain the roles of people and information
technology in achieving quality in the Mercantile organization.
Mercantile Stores is dedicated in providing highest level of service and offering
superior quality and value products. It was their company’s mission. In achieving
quality, information technology, with the help of Quick Response, was instituted to
improve all aspects of operation. It helped them achieve great improvement in
internal quality that would lead to higher customer satisfaction. Also, Mercantile
Stores established University Business School in which all associates in the
organization are trained to be responsible in complete customer satisfaction.

2. Compare the importance of "internal quality" (what the company sees) and "external
quality" (what the customer sees). Do they conflict? What is needed to ensure that they
are consistent?
In my opinion, both are important in different ways. The internal quality will help
to improve the company’s operation. However, what might be a good quality for
them is not how the customer sees it. Both are really important in different ways but
they must be balanced to provide customer satisfaction because in the end, it is the
customer’s satisfaction that matters. To know if they don’t create conflict and are
consistent, feedback from their customers would really be of great help.