Customer Satisfaction

Organizations of all types and sizes have come to realize that their main focus must be to satisfy their customers.

This applies to industrial firms, retail and wholesale businesses, government bodies, service companies, nonprofit organizations and every subgroup within an organization.

Two important questions:

1. Who are the customers?
2. What does it take to satisfy them?

Who Are the Customers?

Customers include anyone the organization supplies with products or services. The table below illustrates some supplier-customer relationships. (Note that many organizations 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
High school	Students and parents	Education
County recorder	Residents of county	Maintenance of records
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 organizations 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’s needed. In many situations, it’s 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.

Excerpted from Donald W. Benbow, Ahmad K. Elshennawy and H. Fred Walker, The Certified Quality Technician Handbook, ASQ Quality Press, 2003, pages 1-2.