Customer expectations - determination

Ensuring that the policy is relevant to the expectations and needs of the organization s customers is a little more difficult. Companies need to predict what their customer expectations and needs are (now a requirement in clause 4.1.4 under Business plans). They may be beyond what they specify in contracts although they may in fact be identical to such specifications. For companies to create satisfied customers they not only need to meet requirements specified by the customer but meet national and international legislation and have consideration for the needs and expectations of society. As explained in Part 1 Chapter 1 on Quality characteristics, customers are not only the buyers but comprise several other interested parties. You need to provide a means of determining what the customer expectations and needs are and then subject the written quality policy to a review against those expectations and needs to determine if there is any conflict. As part of your business planning procedure you should indicate how you determine your customer s current and future needs and expectations. 

The standard requires methods to he in place to determine current and future customer expectations. 

For a more comprehensive treatment of market research the reader is advised to consult the many books available that will provide a range of methods for determining customer expectations. 

Zeithaml VA, Berry LL, Parasuraman A. 1993. The nature and determinants of customer expectations of service. J Acad Market Sci 21 1. 

Customer dissatisfaction is one of the hardest costs to determine, but the most easily observable. Customers expect that products typically held by a pharmacy are readily available for purchase during normal business hours. Stockouts often produce frustrabon and dissatisfaction among customers, but, if infrequent, may be forgiven. However, frequent stockouts can result in a loss of business. In hospitals, frequent stockouts of commonly used products can result in a decline in the quality of patient care, create frustration among the medical and nursing staffs, and promote dissension between the pharmacy and other staffs. 

As can be seen, there are numerous instruments available to make objective, but incomplete, measurements of those physical properties that determine fabric hand. It is fair to say, however, that the best of these very expensive tools is, in general, not any better for making real time production decisions than an experienced finisher who knows what his or her customer expects. 

Once you ve gathered customer expectations, categorize each one as either a performance or perception expectation, and determine how you will measure it. For performance expectations, establish the operational definition, unit of measure, and targets for each of the measurements. For perception expectations, use a surrogate measure that is strongly correlated to the expectation. 

Scenario Let s suppose a bank is testing a new information kiosk that provides customers with rapid approvals on refinancing mortgages. The bank assembles a team, the Kiosk Configurators, to pilot the new system and determine its process capability—or how well it meets customer expectations. 

Continue to drill down on each possible cause, asking, Why When you finish, you will have narrowed down the potential causes to the main root causes. These can be further investigated using a Cause Effect Matrix (Technique 54) to determine which inputs have the greatest impact on customer-centric outputs and, thus, need to be addressed to maintain customer expectations. 

Multiattribute methods are based on the assumption that the quality perception of customers is determined by assessing distinctive attributes of the particular service. With regard to each attribute, the customer compares the expected and the received quality. The overall judgment then results from a weighted addition of those comparisons. The most prominent example of this type of method is SERVQUAL (Parasuraman et al. 1988), a multiple-item scale consisting of 22 items grouped into five dimensions. 

Pump In HPLC the pump drives the mobile phase through the system at a given, constant flow rate in the proportions determined by the user Qualitative An analysis in which identification of the analyte of interest is determined. This is usually achieved using a particular characteristic of the compound of interest, such as retention time, detector response (e.g., UV/Vis/fiuorescence), and reference standard comparison Quality assurance The process of establishing whether a process or product meets customer expectations and is suitable for its intended purpose Quality control The systems that are put in place in order to ensure that the product is fit for its intended purpose... 

Managing customer expectations Service performance based on customer requirements CRM software used Manage customer expectations CRM keeps customer informed Studies determine new customer expectations... 

It is essential to determine the relevance of the details supplied to specify the product. The customer expects the manufacturer to be the expert. It is essential that the manufacturing company is able to reconcile the stated specification with the proposed end use of the component. This must be the first step. It may be very costly to correct at a later stage. In some cases the drawing is unaccompanied by any detailed specification. In this instance the supplier needs to agree standards for the component with the cnstomer. 

The planning process started with developing the design criteria for the new distribution center. Input from the marketing department was solicited to determine the future customer expectations from the distribution center... 

Marketing is determining research and development (R D) decisions. A new product is designed to answer customers expectations within financial benefit. Although out of the scope of this book, cost approach is of utmost importance in technological design. Ashby and Johnson (2003) reviewed the basics of the industrial approach that is controlled by a simple relationship ... 

Factors that enter into any economic analysis of handhng-warehousing systems are (1) expected mechanical and economic life of the system (2) annual maintenance cost (3) capital requirements and expected return on investment (4) building-construction cost and land v ue (5) detailed analysis of each work position (to determine trade-offs of labor and equipment expected future costs and availability of labor are important) (6) relation of system control and personnel used in system (trade-offs of people versus mechanical control) (7) type of information system (computerized or manual) and (8) expected changed in product, container, unit pallet loads, and customer preferences during the life of the system. 

How do you determine the current and future expectations of your customers ... 

As a supplier you have a responsibility to establish your customer requirements and expectations. If you do not determine conditions that may be detrimental to the product and you supply the product as meeting the customer needs and it subsequently fails, the failure is your liability. If the customer did not provide reasonable opportunity for you to establish the requirements, the failure may be the customer s liability. If you think you may need some extra information in order to design a product that meets the customer needs, you must obtain it or declare your assumptions. A nil response is often taken as acceptance in full. 

Blind samples are types of sample which are inserted into the analytical batch without the knowledge of the analyst - the analyst may be aware that blind samples are present but not know which they are. Blind samples may be sent by the customer as a check on the laboratory or by laboratory management as a check on a particular system. Results from blind samples are treated in the same way as repeat samples - the customer or laboratory manager examines the sets of results to determine whether the level of variation, between repeat measurements on the blind sample or between the observed results and an expected value, is acceptable, as described in Section 5.4.3. 

The customer gives the analytical laboratory information about the characteristics of the sample submitted for analysis. Such information should be, for example, the analyte to be measured, the expected concentration levels, which substances that might interfere with the determination of the analyte are present, how the sample was taken etc. 

Therefore, the majority ruled that the Customs Service had a compelling interest that justified infringing on the applicants expectation of privacy. However, in the case of employees applying only for jobs involving classified material, the Court decided that there was insufficient evidence on the record to make a determination. 

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