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Insights: Customer Satisfaction
IQPM Clients have come to realise that their main focus must be to satisfy their customers.
This applies to industrial firms, retail and wholesale businesses, government bodies, service companies, nonprofit organisations and every subgroup within an organisation.
Two important questions:
- Who are the customers?
- What does it take to satisfy them?
Who Are the Customers?
Customers include anyone the organisation supplies with products or services. The table below illustrates some supplier-customer relationships. (Note that many organisations are simultaneously customers and suppliers.)
| Supplier-customer relationship examples | ||
| Supplier | Customer | Product or Service |
| Automobile manufacturer | Individual customers | Cars |
| Automobile manufacturer | Car dealer | Sales literature, etc. |
| Bank | Checking account holders | Secure check handling |
| Hospital | Patients | Healthcare |
| Hospital | Insurance company | Data on patients |
| Insurance company | Hospital | Payment for services |
| Steel cutting department | Punch press department | Steel sheets |
| Punch press department | Spot weld department | Shaped parts |
| All departments | Payroll department | Data on hours worked, etc. |
What Does It Take to Satisfy Customers?
Don't assume you know what the customer wants. There are many examples of errors in this area, such as "new Coke" and car models that didn't sell. Many organisations expend considerable time, money and effort determining the "voice" of the customer, using tools such as customer surveys, focus groups and polling.
Satisfying the customer includes providing what is needed when it is needed. In many situations, it is up to the customer to provide the supplier with requirements. For example, the payroll department should inform other departments of the exact format for reporting the numbers of hours worked by employees. If the payroll department doesn't do this job properly, it bears some responsibility for the variation in reporting that will occur.
