January 2000
Volume 7 • Number 1

Contents

The paper applies Gustafsson and Johnson’s (1997) framework for bridging the quality-satisfaction gap to recent improvements in quality and satisfaction at Volvo Car Corporation. The framework integrates two leading approaches to improving quality and satisfaction–quality function deployment (QFD) and customer satisfaction modeling (CSM). The study illustrates how Volvo monitors customer satisfaction, uses this data to set priorities and improve product designs, and tracks the effects of these changes on subsequent satisfaction. The study also uses these framework to identify weaknesses in the current process and suggest improvements. This includes ways of making an already-complicated translation process more efficient and cost effective.

Key words: customer satisfaction modeling, product design and development, quality function deployment, quality improvement

by ANDERS GUSTAFSSON, UNIVERSITY OF KARLSTAD AND LINKÖPING UNIVERSITY, FREDRIK EKDAHL, LINKÖPING UNIVERSITY, KURT FALK, VOLVO CAR CORPORATION, MICHAEL JOHNSON, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

INTRODUCTION

Quality fills two important business performance goals in today’s competitive global economy. Improvements in quality have positive effects on productivity and subsequent cost reductions (Crosby 1979), albeit more so for physical products than for services (Huff, Fornell, and Anderson 1996). Quality also plays a critical role toward increasing customer satisfaction, which increases customer retention, lowers marketing costs, and increases revenues (Johnson 1998). Yet the bridging of internal quality and external perceptions of customer satisfaction remains a complex process. It involves the translation of satisfaction into its means of accomplishment within a company. It also involves an understanding of how the company’s actions pay off in terms of increased satisfaction. As the areas of customer satisfaction and quality have traditionally been studied within two very different domains (marketing and manufacturing), the process also involves different perspectives and methods.

In a recent paper, Gustafsson and Johnson (1997) provide a framework for bridging this quality-satisfaction gap. The framework integrates two leading approaches to improving quality and satisfaction, quality function deployment (QFD) and customer satisfaction modeling (CSM). When considered together, these approaches illustrate the conceptually different steps in the overall translation from satisfaction to its means of accomplishment. A primary goal of the current study is to use this framework to illustrate the crucial links between product design improvements and customer satisfaction. Using a recent case study from Volvo Car Corporation, the study shows how Volvo monitors customer satisfaction, uses these data to set priorities and improve product designs, and tracks the effects of these changes on subsequent satisfaction. Another goal of the study is to use the framework to identify weaknesses in the current process and suggest improvements. Finally, given the overall complexity of the translation process, Volvo’s experience suggests concrete ways of making the process more efficient.

In this paper, the Gustafsson and Johnson framework is reviewed in detail. Then the application of the framework at Volvo and the lessons learned are described. The study illustrates how Volvo achieved outstanding results by linking satisfaction to product design in the improvement of the transmission system of the Volvo 850.