Case 3: A Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card

Services(A)
Submitted By:

Shefali Singh Satwaliya

PGP12087
Case Overview:

Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award rotates silently on a pedestal within a glass case. It may be a
senior manager, putting on a headset to listen to calls while working out in the company gym. Or it may be
a quality monitor in another building, scribbling ratings and comments on a one-page sheet that will help
determine whether everyone in the company gets a bonus for that day. In the eyes of the executives who
designed the company’s operating philosophy and strategic plan, the monitored calls were an indispensable
component in boosting AT&T Universal Card over its competitors, and making it a true quality company.

Pillar of Quality: Baldrige-based quality assessment

The quality of the organization in terms of customer satisfaction related to product, services and
treatment provided to overcome the issues. For credit card the quality of plastic and customer services
are the most important factors. To empower the employee, it introduced the U-WIN, U-KNOW and
UNIVERSE information systems that relate the employee’s performance with the quality.

Challenges:

UCS was no longer in a start-up, entrepreneurial phase. Davis and other senior managers were questioning
many of the basic concepts underlying the measurement system that had helped the company achieve so
much through innovation measurement and compensation system. Card holder of UCS had dramatically
increased and it became the third largest card service provider in term of volume in the market. But there
was an abrupt drop-off in management which affect the higher efficiency of the standards the company had
been following. Customers were not satisfied, so there were three alternatives: Customer-cantered measures,
Statistical Process Control and a link to external results.

Conclusion: The quality of the company includes both internal and external factors- employees are the
internal factor and providing their training helps in maintain the quality, and customer service and quality of
credit card are the external factors.