WORKSHOP SYNOPSIS:

Understanding and reacting to the voice of the customer are critical elements of effective quality management. In fact, many organizations are incorporating customer data as part of individual performance appraisal and merit pay systems. Unfortunately, in many organizations, standard analysis procedures for managing data related to customer satisfaction do not exist. All too often, two issues lead to the implementation of arbitrary rules and guidelines. First, it is difficult to create mechanisms for quantifying the level of a customer’s satisfaction regarding the numerous dimensions of performance. Second, most organizations do not have standardized analysis procedures to distinguish between normal statistical variation and real changes in consumer satisfaction.

This workshop describes a simple but comprehensive system for obtaining and then reacting to consumer satisfaction data. The system incorporates current thinking on customer satisfaction, the Deming philosophy of management, and the methods of statistical process control (SPC), which is oriented towards understanding the system that generates data. The focus is on time-oriented graphical displays that focus on the variability of data over time, and are applied on a frequent basis with small data sets. Excel templates will be provided.

TOPICS:
Components of an effective consumer satisfaction data collection system
Overview of performance dimensions and their identification
Concepts related to the development of satisfaction surveys
The importance of a process-oriented approach to evaluating consumer data
Important graphical displays, including run charts and Pareto charts
The development and interpretation of a statistical control chart
Description of a comprehensive system for using control charts to manage consumer data
The use of MS-Excel and/or other software to implement a consumer feedback system