REACTION PAPER NO.

01

Name : BODO, JENNIFER E.

Class : TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT

Professor : BITAS, JOWELL

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• What have you learned from the topic(s) we discussed? discuss and elaborate.

Total Quality Management (TQM) is customer-oriented management philosophy and strategy. It is

centered on quality so as to result in customer delight. The word “Total’’ implies that all members of
the organization make consistent efforts to achieve the objective of customer delight through
systematic efforts for improvement of the organization.

This customer delight is measured in three (3) categories:

1. Customer Satisfaction - is a measurement of a customer's attitude toward a product, a service,

or a brand. It's usually measured by a customer satisfaction survey on a numerical scale.

2. Customer Retention – is a metric that revolves around the likelihood of existing clients to
continue to use your products or services, even though they may not be engaged with the brand
or completely satisfied.

3. Customer Loyalty – is a set of behaviors and attitudes that a customer exhibits that demonstrate
loyalty to a product, service, or brand, such as repeat purchases or choosing the brand over a
competitor.

In my opinion, the broad objective of this study is to illustrate how the implementation of TQM serves
as a precursor to sustainable customer loyalty in a competitive business environment. The specific
objectives are to firstly, examine how continuous product improvement can sustain customer loyalty
and secondly, to determine how top management commitment to TQM can enhance customers’
patronage.

• Are there incidents that the topic(s) been applied in your organization? Write a business case,
give examples.

Yes. Our agency launched a web-based customer feedback management (CFM) where we have
strengthened our feedback mechanism to better serve the general public and other external
stakeholders. As part of the initiatives under the Engaged Stakeholders Theme of the BSP Strategy
Map 2012-2017, the BSP Feedback Management (BSP FMS) was launched in September 2015. The
FMS offers user-friendly tools that range from conventional paper-based forms to electronic tablets

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and kiosks, and online forms. The use of innovative feedback channels aims to enhance transparency,
accountability and efficiency in BSP’s service delivery and underscores the importance of external
stakeholders’ perception in enhancing the quality of BSP services.

Certainly, managing customer feedback is a challenge many organizations face on a daily basis
especially when dealing with a large amount of feedback, coming from multiple resources and various
digital channels. With the help of BSP-FMS, it will streamline the feedback data, in a way that it helps
our organization gather, analyze and take action on a feedback. Hence, it will certainly thrive and give
the customer the online experience they deserve.

Considering the above, the BSP FMS can be considered as Customer Feedback Management – one of
TQM’s Quality Systems in delivering customer needs.

• How does the topic(s) be applied in your organization? Write a business case, discuss and
elaborate.

The modern embodiment of quality systems started with Edwards Deming in the early 1950’s or after
the World War II, when he took the work, he was doing on process control to Japan. However,
historical accounts suggest that the American industry ignored this development as it was still riding
high because of lack of competition could not get any traction with US based companies for his ideas
but that Japanese organizations were willing to embrace them. Edwards Deming, an American quality
expert helped the Japanese to apply concepts of TQM. They concentrated on customer satisfaction
and focused on understanding customer needs and expectations.

Today the ideas introduced by Deming, and his contemporaries, have developed into a whole range
of different methodologies.

Considering the methodologies that have evolved over a period of time, allow me to further elaborate
and associate the said customer satisfaction focused methodologies by giving an example in our
organization.

Prior to BSP FMS deployment, the following were the challenges:

1) lack of feedback mechanism and tools of most departments;

2) multiple objectives in gathering feedback; and
3) feedback tools limited to survey form with different attributes, rating scales and frequency of
feedback gathering was either on a per engagement basis or another period.

BSP-FMS endeavors to leverage on technology in developing a uniform and simplified feedback

process flow and thus streaming processes to improve customer satisfaction and create customer-
oriented culture, establish various innovative feedback tools that enable and encourage the public to
provide information on their perception of the quality of specific services on their engagements,
transactions, or dealings with BSP, link the feedback gathered to the continual process improvement

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plans of BSP departments/offices, and provide statistics and analytical reports on feedback responses
that will serve as basis for top management’s planning and decision-making.

SOLUTION AND IMPACT

With BSP FMS, external clients may provide feedback either through paper-based or electronic
methods. The available channels are as follows:

a. A system-generated one-pager structured form to be manually filled out; this form can be
automated through scanning and uploading in the system;
b. An emoticon tablet (happy, neutral, sad) with provision for unstructured comments;
c. A touchscreen kiosk that has front-end features: feedback can be through emoticon or
structured form; and provides-a directory of floor locations of BSP departments/offices; and
d. An online application at the Feedback Corner of the BSP Website.

It has a back-end facility for the following:

• Dashboard for all Servicing Departments/Offices (SDOs)-With flags and real time alerts on sad
emoticon/negative feedback (structured forms with rating of 1 and 2);
• Data-entry facility to update action/s taken by the SDOs on the sad emoticon
responses/negative feedback -with audit trail/logs; and
• Statistical and analytical report generation both for SDOs and FMU

The Feedback Management Unit (FMU), as the system administrator, consolidates all feedback results
from different F.MS channels and provides comprehensive and timely reports to BSP Management
and SDOs. With real-time alert notifications, sad emoticon responses/negative scores are immediately
acted upon by SDOs or action plans are devised to efficiently address the complaints from external
clients. Facilities-related concerns such as air-conditioning units, lack of chairs at the reception areas
or availability of restrooms are given timely actions by the BSP’s Facilities and Management
Engineering Department. Also, verbatim comments provided by external clients triggered SDOs to
reassess their existing procedures and policies to address issues and concerns.

MILESTONES

While the BSP FMS has yet to receive an award, the valuable inputs gathered from comments of
returning clients after improvements were done, serves as a reward itself. Positive responses have
been received due to timely and efficient actions taken by departments/offices stemming from
negative feedback received earlier. Clients would often give words of gratitude for their comments
being taken on a positive note and giving much priority to their concerns. The BSP FMS shall continue
to innovate and enhance as business processes evolve.

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Another key attribute of quality systems is the concept of continuous improvement. Quality is not a
destination but a never-ending journey. As customers’ needs evolve, competitors change and
technology options, evolve the definition of quality is continuously changing.

Here again continuous customer feedback is needed to track not just changing customers’ needs but
also changing company delivery against customer expectations.

• What is your assessment, observation, comments, suggestions, or opinion of the topics discussed?

In the customer feedback action journey, there are several phases of evolution. It starts with simple
data collection and ends with customer driven, company-wide, continuous process improvement.
Some of the phases are easy, such as setting up data collection.

While some of them are not-so-easy, one of the not-so-easy phases is implementing the continuous
improvement process. That is not to mention that the skills and approaches do not exist.

It’s just that continuous improvement and quality system skills are not well known outside the
manufacturing industries. In addition, in the customer feedback space there has, until recently, a
distinct lack of real time customer feedback information. Deep and wide data are vital to effective
continuous improvement outcomes.

I suggest taking a look at some of the strategies advocated by experts to be adopted by the CEO and
the top management to lead the organization on TQM principles. The head of an organization, of
which he/she is the author in guiding the organization, has adopted these strategies for the success of
the organization in its TQM journey. Thus, they are very practical. Some of the strategies is the
Measurement of Success.

Measuring for success primarily involves, looking for, measuring and analyzing the feedback from
customers, either internal or external. An organization marching towards Total Quality Management
(TQM) has to make efforts to measure how well the organization is performing in terms of fulfilling
the customers needs and expectations. The management should help employees to know how well
they are doing. Employees should be helped to measure and report performance. Each employee
should be helped to measure his own performance. Thus, measurement should be part of routine
work.