1st Edition
Your Customers' Perception of Quality What It Means to Your Bottom Line and How to Control It
Providing the insight and tools needed to improve the perception your customers have about the quality of your product or service, Your Customers' Perception of Quality: What It Means to Your Bottom Line and How to Control It introduces a ground-breaking model for measuring the impact of quality perception on your bottom line. Allowing you to look at quality from an outside-in, truly customer-centric perspective, the authors pave a concrete connection between enhanced customer perception and increased profitability.
The book introduces cutting-edge concepts in customer-centric quality—explaining exactly how to identify, plan, cost justify, manage, and deliver consistent improvements to the factors that matter most to your customers. Helping you harness the power of the universal set of tools, techniques, and methods at your disposal in the field of quality, the book:
- Unveils a model that provides quantifiable information for determining the impact of customer perception on your bottom line
- Details a strategic model for attaining long-term benefits—including the tools required to make the necessary tactical changes
- Includes a wealth of customizable tools to help kick-start implementation efforts
The text clearly illustrates how to implement methods proven to improve operational efficiencies, foster customer loyalty, and drive increased revenue through positive word of mouth. Complete with helpful checklists, templates, tools, and detailed instructions on how to tailor them to your company, the authors guide you through the path of evaluating, analyzing, and implementing the value-adding adjustments needed to drive profits and boost customer loyalty.
WHY PERCEPTION OF QUALITY NEEDS YOUR ACTIVE ATTENTION
The Neglected Frontier of Quality in Today’s Qualitysphere
Actual Quality Matters
Quality Assurance, Quality Control, and Testing
Customers’ Perception of Quality: The Neglected Frontier
Why Are We Neglecting customers’ perception of quality?
Additional Evidence
Understanding Customer-Experienced Quality
Even More Proof of Neglect
Why Customer Perception of Quality Is So Important
Kaizen
Poka-Yoke
Constraint Management
Six Sigma
Capability Maturity Management Integrated (CMMI)
International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
Other Standards
New Product Introduction
Demonstrating the Return on Investment in Customer Perception of Quality
From the Rags of Data to the Riches of Intelligence
Toward a Business Case for Customers’ Perception of Quality
The Ten Commandments of Customers’ Perception of Quality
Creating the Business Case for Customers’ Perception of Quality
Step 1: Gather Supporting Data
Step 2: Articulate the Specific Problem Statement Quantifying the Problem at Hand
Step 3: Create the Drama
Sample Slide Presentation to Garner Leaders’ Support.
CLINICAL ACTIONS THAT YIELD TANGIBLE RESULTS
Garnering Support and Gaining Endorsement
Practical Steps
Steering Committees
A Framework to Derive the Right Investments
Getting Started
Surveys
Sales Representatives
Trade Shows
Lost Customers
Data Analysis
Root Cause Analysis
Analysis
Example
Data Gathering
Prioritize
Root Cause Analysis
Analysis
Managing a Journey of Continuous Improvement
Six-Step Continuous Improvement Approach
An Actionable Agile Program Management Framework
Common Challenges and Possible Resolution Strategies
Organizational Structure
Horizontal Sponsorship
Skills Gaps
System Constraints
Senior-Level Resistance
Encouraging Creativity
When Do We Know We Are on the Right Track?
Positive Signs
Warning Signs
Communications Management: The Boon of Your Customers’ Perception of Quality Initiatives
Governance
HARVESTING THE REWARDS AND CONTINUING THE JOURNEY
Metrics That Prove the Worth of the Initiatives
Metrics, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and Critical Success Factors (CSFs)
Conceptualizing Business Operations and Metrics
Classical Quality Performance Indicators
"-Ilities" in the World of Software Architecture
Functionality
Usability
Maintainability
Scalability
Availability
Security
Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ)
Quantifying Customers’ Perception of Quality
Loyalty Measurement Models
Method 1: Measuring and Increasing Customer Perception of Quality
Method 2: Measuring and Increasing Customers’ Perception of Quality
Delivering a Capability to Sustain a Customer Perception of Quality Function
Data-Gathering Phase
Analysis Phase
Documenting the New Process
Piloting the New Process
Common Hurdles That Plague Customer Perception of Quality Initiatives
Leaders Who Walk the Talk
Common Challenges
Lack of Management Commitment
Inadequate Resources, Budget, and Time
Lack of Information, Monitoring, and Measurements
Resistance to Planning
Reluctance to be Proved Wrong
Lack of Corporate Objectives, Strategies, Policies, and Business Direction
Lack of Knowledge and Lack of Appreciation of Business Impacts and Priorities
Resistance to Change and Cultural Change
Poor Relationships, Poor Communication, and a Lack of Cooperation between Business Units
Lack of Tools, Standards, and Skills
Critical Success Factors
Common Risks
Conclusion: Letter to a New Champion of Customer Perception of Quality from the Authors
Appendix B: Multivoting Exercise
Appendix C: Iterative Nature of the Process
Bibliography
Index
Each chapter concludes with a Summary & Checklist
Biography
Baboo Kureemun is a seasoned hands-on project management practitioner, with over 18 years of experience strategizing, planning, and executing business-critical initiatives in multiple industries across different cultures. He is presently employed by the Children, Youth and Social Services I&IT Cluster of the government of Ontario, Canada.
Robert Fantina specializes in business process analysis, and has served in that role as a consultant and employee in several Fortune 500 companies in the United States and Canada. He is currently employed by Research in Motion (RIM) in Canada.
