Customers & Quality

• Customer is the ultimate judge of quality
• Customers can be internal or external
• Cost of acquiring new customers is typically 5-6 times more than the cost of retaining existing one
• Only about4% of customers ever express their dissatisfaction explicitly. Rest simply switch
• Customers may not always use the product for its intended purpose. E.g: A customer may be using PDA for only voice as the data connectivity is poor.

CTQ

• CTQ (Critical to Quality) characteristics of a product are the key quantifiable characteristics that should be met to meet customer satisfaction.
• CTQ’s ideally have upper and lower limits and come from qualitative feedback that come from customers
• Value-added features of a product are add-ons that may not be perceived as critical to quality.

Factors governing customer satisfaction:

• Performance : Tyically measures in speed, accessibility, savings in cost & labor etc.
• Features
• Reliability : Perform at an expected level without breakdown
• Conformance : Conform to pre-established quality standards.
• Durability: Lenght in time a product should perfor, before it deteriorates in quality
• Servicability: Ease, Speed and convenience of service and courtesy of service personnel
• Aesthetics : Look & feel. Smell, sound and taste where applicable
• Perceived value: Created in customers mind based on product desciption and advertised features.