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Fundamental Concepts

Customer Driven Organisation


Developed by:

Stephen P. DAlessandro
M.A. (Mrktg), B.A. (Hons.) Bus. Mang, FIM, MCIM, TEP, MIOD

Clive Scerri
B.Com. (Hons.), MIM, MAWOP

This module has been level-rated at MQF Level 5 by the Malta Qualifications Council according to the
European Credit System for Vocational Education & Training - ECVET.

Living the Customer Care Philosophy


Customer Care is all about listening and
understanding a customer's needs and taking
positive action to help a customer meet these
needs.
It is the basic building block for any
organisation in the service industry
Irrespective of the status, appearance or
nationality of the customer, the level of service to
be given must be at a par, if not superior to that
provided by other firms in the service industry

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Living the Customer Care Philosophy


Customers expectations can be very high, often
not even realistic, and yet the challenge is to
meet and indeed exceed customer expectations
Customer care is one of the main factors which
in today's fast-changing business climate has the
potential to provide positive competitive
advantage
Service quality is determined by the degree to
which a customer's initial expectations are
fulfilled - whether real contact with the company
is better than expected, as expected, or less than
expected
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Living the Customer Care Philosophy


To succeed, organisations must therefore ensure
that all members of staff are committed to a valid
Customer-Oriented Philosophy

Who is the customer?


Is it really anybody who calls upon the
services of the company?
Can we segment this market?
What are the criteria to be used to differentiate
between one customer group and another?

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The meaning of Quality


Total Quality means continually meeting and
exceeding the needs and expectations of
customers - both inside and outside of
organisation
It must become second nature in everything
an organisation does, indeed it must be seen
in every facet of operations

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The meaning of Quality


As competition becomes more fierce, looking
after existing customers is itself a challenge
There are always plenty of organisations which
are prepared to go to all the trouble and effort it
takes to meet and exceed the customers'
expectations

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The meaning of Quality


Quality evolution
The first stage of quality, and therefore the initial
focus of quality programmes, was to stop poor
products going to customers
This required control - quality control - and the
effort was internal
Quality inspectors were the key players whose
job was to find defects after production

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The meaning of Quality


Quality evolution
It is a reactive approach to quality, but does
provide useful feedback on areas of deficiency
and non-conformity, so that improvements can
be made.
It also introduced the concept of the definition of
a quality standard and measurement against this
standard

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The meaning of Quality


Quality evolution
At this stage, quality awareness within an
organisation is basic
It is the first level in most organisations quest for
quality improvement programmes

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The meaning of Quality


Quality evolution
The growth of quality awareness moves some
companies from quality control to quality
assurance
This seeks to avoid customers receiving
products or services of inferior or substandard
quality

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The meaning of Quality


Quality evolution
A quality assurance programme is a more
proactive approach, focusing on processes
rather than product
It requires definition and execution of systematic
actions in order to ensure that a product or
service will satisfy its quality requirements
This is often called 'designing quality in'
At this stage quality is still in the province of
experts - 100% of the quality responsibility lies
with 5% of the work force
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The meaning of Quality


Quality evolution

Over the past 30 years, leading-edge firms


implemented Total Quality programmes, where
the responsibility for quality is with the whole
work force
Each employee is responsible for the quality of
their own job, their own actions
A TQM programme empowers and rewards
every person to add value to a company's
products and services
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The meaning of Quality


Quality evolution

It unites all groups with a common goal and a


common language, and it provides a common
framework for the company to sustain
differentiation
Each approach builds on the successful practice
of the preceding approaches

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The meaning of Quality


What is Quality?
What is really meant by quality and how can it be
achieved?
One of the obstacles in implementing quality
programmes is the differing ideas of what
quality means.
It is not just "meeting the specification" or
"fitness for use"
It is not even "being the best"

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The meaning of Quality


What is Quality?
What is really meant by quality and how can it be
achieved? (cont.)
Of course all these elements may be involved,
but the marketing context of quality is
understanding what your customers want and
exceeding their expectations
And its' not something that only applies to the
end products or services, quality is of value in
all activities within the company
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The meaning of Quality


What is Quality?

Achieving excellence is a never-ending process.


Customers expect even better service so
organisations improve their service, which in turn
raises customer expectations even higher.
This means the changes that take place will
become routine and systematic some
changes will be achieved rapidly, other will
take longer

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The meaning of Quality


What is Quality?

Tom Peters' and Nancy Austin's seminal work, A


Passion for Excellence, explain that winners
compete by delivering a product that supplies
superior value, rather that one that costs less

Source: Peters T., Austin N. 1994, A Passion for Excellence The Leadership Difference,
Profile Books
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The meaning of Quality


What is Quality?

In markets that are full of players, products and


services become commodities - there is little
opportunity for companies to make themselves
stand out
The only successful long-term differentiator is
sustained quality and this is compounded by
customers' changing expectations

What may have been acceptable a few years


ago is no longer acceptable today
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The meaning of Quality


What is Quality?

The development of better and more consistent


quality products raises customers expectations
Quality ideals and actions bring many benefits improved image, improved productivity, cost
reductions, improved morale, more effective
services to customers - which all lead to higher
customer satisfaction and therefore more
committed customers who buy time and again

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The meaning of Quality


What is Quality?

Improving personal standards of performance is


the best investment.
An essential element is the ability to create a
culture within the firm where people aim to
have the satisfaction of saying, I did my best
and the customer was fully satisfied with the
service
Keeping the highest standards of performance is
an achievement and calls for recognition
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The meaning of Quality


What is Quality?

Frontline staff need to learn to be nice to


themselves and look after their positive can do
attitudes
Its hard to be nice to customers, if you cant
be nice to yourself

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