CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

CONTENT OUTLINEWho is the customer?Customer perception of TQM

Customer feedbackUsing customer complaints

Customer serviceTranslating needs into requirements

Who is the customer?

A customer can be defined as one who purchases or patronizes for the purpose of receiving products or services

DR. W. EDWARDS DEMING

Stated quality means anticipating the future needs of the customer.

Because satisfied customers will lead to increase profits

2 types of customers:

External- Buys product or services

InternalReceive a product or services

The formula for successful internal customer/ supplier relationships: 3 basic questions as advanced by LaBOVITZ;

1. What do you need from me?2. What do you do with my

output?3. Are there any gaps between

what you need and what you get?

Every department or unit must determine what activities/ task are important to both external and internal customers and manage quality step by step of the way.

CUSTOMER PERCEPTION OF TQM

One of the fundamentals of the TQM philosophy is continuous process improvements

The customer’s needs, values, or expectations are constantly changing and becoming more and more demanding

The AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR QUALITY CONTROL (ASOC)- conducted a survey on customer’s perceptions of important factors that influenced purchases showed the ffng. Ranking:

PERFORMANCE- Fitness for use- ready for

customer’s use at the time of sale.

Availability- operate when needed

Reliability- freedom from failure overtime

Maintainability- product can be kept operable

FEATURES

-Service are psychological, time- oriented, ethical, and technological.

- Are secondary characteristics of the product or service.

SERVICE

-greatly emerging as a method for business organizations to give customer added value.

-contribute greatly to customer satisfaction

WARRANTY

-represents a business organization’s public promise

-gives feedback-motivates customer to buy -generates more sales

PRICE

-present customers are willing to spend higher price to obtain value.

-customer’s concept of value is continually changing.

REPUTATION

-total customer satisfaction is based on the entire experience with the business organization, not just the product.

-willing to pay a premium for a known or trusted brand name and often become customer for life.

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK

According to D.H. BESTERFIELD customer feedback must be continually solicited and monitored. Feedback enables the business organization to:

1. Discover customer dissatisfaction.

2. Discover relative priorities of quality

3. Compare performance with the competition.

4. Identify customer needs

5. Determine opportunities for improvement.

Feedback has become very important that it drives new product development.

Effective business organizations take time to listen to the voice of customer and feed that information back to the idea stage

Types of method/techniques that can be used to obtain responses

from the customer:

COMMENT CARD

Low cost method of obtaining feedbacks from customers.

Purpose is to get basic information: name, sex, age, address, occupation, monthly income, and what influenced the customer’s decision to buy the product.

SURVEY

Common techniques or tool for gathering opinions about a business organization and its product and services.

FOCUS GROUPSMethod used to determine what the

customers are thinking.

Gather in a meeting room to answer several questions

Meetings are designed to focus on current, proposed and future products or services.

TOLL- FREE TELEPHONE NUMBERS

Are good technique for receiving complaint feedback

business organizations can respond faster and cheaper to the complaint.

CUSTOMER VISITS

Managers should be evolved in these visits and should not be delegated to just anybody.

Nice to bring along skillful/ knowledgeable employee

REPORT CARD

Normally it is sent to every customer on a quarterly basis.

The data shall be analyzed to determine areas of improvement

Other methods of gathering data are: 1. Evaluating customer

satisfaction during contract review

2. Reviewing service or field staff reports

3. Systematically following up on last sales

4. Utilizing the services of market research organizations

USING CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS

In a study conducted by AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR QUALITY CONTROL (ASQC) revealed that more than half of dissatisfied customers will buy again if they believe their complaint has been heard and resolved

Some activities undertaken according to ASQC:1. Investigate customers experiences2. Develop procedures for complaint

regulation3. Analyze complaints4. Work to identify process and material

variations5. Managers should contract the customer

and strive to resolve the concern.

6. Establish customer satisfaction measures

7. Communicate compliant information

8. Provide a monthly complaint report9. Identify customers expectations

beforehand rather than afterward through compliant analysis

Front personnel should know how to handle a wide range of situations that arise.

Training from personnel becomes the top priority to encourage customers to discuss their complaints and deal with them skillfully.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

It is a set of activities that a business organization uses to win and retain customers satisfaction.

It can be provided before, during, or after of the sale of the product or exist on its own.

Elements of Customer Service according to Jacques Horovits and Chan Cudennec-poon:

ORGANIZATION

Identify each market segment

Write down the requirements

Communicate the requirements

CUSTOMERMeet the customers expectation

Get the customers point of view

Deliver what is promisedMake the customer feel valued

Respond to all complaintsOver respond to the customer

Provide a clean and comfortable customer reception area.

COMMUNICATIONOptimize the trade-off between time

and personal attentionMinimize the number of contact

pointsProvide pleasant, knowledgeable

and enthusiastic employeesWrite documents in customer

friendly languages

FRONT LINE PEOPLEHire people who like peopleChallenge them to develop better

methodsGive them the authority to solve

problemsServe them as internal customersBe sure they are adequately trainedRecognize and award performance

LEADERSHIP

Lead by exampleListen to front line peopleStrive for continuous process

improvement

TRANSLATING NEEDS INTO

REQUIREMENTS

Realistically, the customer doesn’t buy specification, the customer buys the product or services to fulfill a need. Just meeting a customers need is not enough; the organization must exceed the customers needs.

Management must know that continuous improvement and customer satisfaction go hand in hand. Maximize customer satisfaction and financial results will follow.