Customer satisfaction definition

Most people have their own subjective view of the meaning of quality in everyday life. When asked to define exactly what they understand by the term, then their definitions tend to be rather woolly and it is obvious that there are different meanings depending on the environment that the term is used in. The traditional view of quality derives from the inspection/measurement approach used in quality control when quality consists of conformity with a pre-determined specification. For example, quality is the degree to which a specific product conforms to a design or specification [1]. The view of quality, especially within the context of the pharmaceutical industry and quality assurance, has now moved away from this rather narrow view, and the definition more or less accepted at present tends to be fitness for purpose [2]. The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) has further refined this definition in the application of the ISO 9000 quality standards to mean fitness for purpose with customer satisfaction. This is to take into account the fact that toe ISO 9000 standard covers an extremely wide range of products and services where customer satisfaction is toe main determinant of quality. 

Some view supply chain design as integral to their strategies for competing. For them, competing successfully centers not only on products, but also on the operations that make up the extended product as described in Chapter 1. These operations deliver the physical and extended products to customers hands. With this viewpoint, supplier relations, logistics, and information systems support customer satisfaction and fall within the definition of SCM. This, in turn, leads to increased market share and profit. Costs, while important, are secondary with this viewpoint. Efforts to reduce cost must also support strategy. 

Companies deliver products and services in response to the customer demand. In order to produce and deliver products, companies procure services and materials from their partners. As a result, a partnership network of the companies is established. The main characteristics of the network are (1) the flow of products starting with materials used in production to the ready to use end-products, (2) the flow of information about customer demand and coordination of production and delivery activities, and (3) dependence of all companies involved in the network on satisfaction of the end-customers. The definition below captures all three aforementioned facets of supply chains ... 

Information itself has no value. Only when information is used specifically, it becomes an important success factor, TTiis is also valid for customer information. Information about customer satisfaction must be used to improve the performance of the customer related processes. Therefore it must not only be defined how the information is collected. In addition to that it must be defined what will happen to the collected information. This leads to the definition of quality control loops [2]. 

Commercial Testing. The commercial test lab is by definition, in the business of testing. The satisfaction of its customers is paramount. Quality service and responsiveness holds old customers and attracts new ones. Getting dependable data fast is important, but here cost is critical. In a competitive market, the ability of LIMS to bring down the effective cost per test means more profit and/or the ability to keep or increase one s market share by lowering prices. 

The definition of appropriate service objectives is made easier if we adopt the concept of the perfect order. The perfect order is achieved when the customer s service requirements are met in full. Clearly such a definition is specific to individual customers, but it is usually possible to group customers into segments and then to identify, along the lines described earlier, the key service needs of those segments. The perfect order is achieved only when each of those service needs is met to the customer s satisfaction. 

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