Don't Let Your Customers Fool You

World Conference on Quality and Improvement vol. 46 - May 1992

Abstract: This paper develops a pro-active, dynamic strategy to improve customer satisfaction based on individual customer group's needs rather than traditional complaint collection.

A successful improvement strategy includes continuous assessment of the current market situation, including customer expectations. Sources of market situation information are: inside information from the production and/or delivery process, end product or point of delivery assessment, and customer satisfaction/reaction data. The sources for customer reaction data are internal standards, complaint departments, standard follow-up cards andquestionnaires, open-ended questionnaires, and open-ended personal interviews.

This customer satisfaction model is a continuous improvement strategy that determines and drives customer satisfaction by providing direct and continuous feedback for design, production, and development, enabling the company to develop products and services to meet and exceed current market expectations as well as to drive continuous change in future markets.

Keywords: Continuous improvement (CI) - Customer supplier relationships - Customer satisfaction (CS) - Customer service - Marketing - Quality management (QM)