Page 64 - DMGT524_TOTAL_QUALITY_MANAGEMENT

Unit 5: Customer Satisfaction

3. Service Notes
4. Warranty
5. Price
6. Reputation and goodwill
Performance: Performance involves “fitness for use” – a phrase that indicates that the product
and service is ready for the customer’s use at the time of sale. Other considerations are:
1. Availability, which is the probability that a product will operate when needed;
2. Reliability, which is freedom from failure over time;

3. Maintainability, which is the case of keeping the product operable.
Features: Identifiable features or attributes of a product or service are psychological, time
oriented, contractual, ethical, and technological. Features are secondary characteristics of the
product or service.
Service: An emphasis on customer service is emerging as a method for organization to give the
customer-added value. However, customer service is intangible- it is made up of many small
things, all geared to change the customer’s perception. Intangible characteristics are those traits
that are not quantifiable, yet contribute greatly to customer satisfaction. Providing excellent
customer service is different from and more difficult to achieve than excellent product quality.
Warranty: The product warranty represents an organization’s public promise of a quality product
backed up by a guarantee of customer satisfaction. Ideally, it also represents a public commitment
to guarantee a level of service sufficient to satisfy the customer.
Price: Today’s customer is willing to pay a higher price to obtain value. Customers are constantly
evaluating one organization’s products and services against those of its competitors to determine
who provides the greatest value. However, in our highly-competitive environment, each
customer’s concept of value is continually changing.
Reputation: Most of us find ourselves rating organizations by our overall experience with
them. Total customer satisfaction is based on the entire experience with the organization, not
just the product.

Did u know? Good experiences are repeated to six people and bad experiences are repeated
to 15 people; therefore, it is more difficult to create a favorable reputation.

5.2.1 Feedback

Customers continually change. They change their minds, their expectations, and their suppliers.

Note Customer feedback must be continually solicited and monitored.

Customer feedback is not a one-time effort; it is an ongoing and active probing of the customers’
mind. Feedback enables the organization to:

Discover customer dissatisfaction.
Discover relative priorities of quality.
Compare performance with the competition.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 59