Managing Quality Customer Service

This practical, self-study book was developed to help you establish and manage a quality service operation.

Even today with quality improvement the battle cry of American industry, the quality programs in most companies are limited to "conformance to technical standards," according to quality expert Bradley Gale. While some have ventured a step farther to measure customer satisfaction, few of them, Gale demonstrates, have attempted to track market-perceived "quality" -- how buyers select among competing suppliers, why orders are won or lost, and which competitors are succeeding in which market segments. Using cases including Milliken & Company; AT&T, United Van Lines, and Gillette, Gale shows how leading-edge companies have gone beyond the minimal achievements of conformance quality and customer satisfaction to focus on the third, higher stage, "market-perceived quality versus competitors" and aspire to an emerging fourth stage, "true strategic management." Drawing on his extensive research at AT&T, Johnson & Johnson, Parke-Davis, and other world-class companies, Gale provides new metrics for market-perceived quality that are straightforward and easy to interpret. His set of seven integrative tools for customer value analysis makes up the heart of the "war room wall" to help guide business-unit teams in their effort to outperform competitors in satisfying customers. The great value of these tools is that they are derived from a future-oriented strategic navigation system that tracks competitive information and market-perceived quality. Learning to master this system accelerates customer satisfaction from a slogan to a science and leads ultimately to true strategic management -- the fourth stage of Total Quality Management. The processes described in this book provide an insider's perspective on the criteria of the Baldrige Award. Bradley Gale's insights and innovative methods for defining, measuring, and improving market-perceived quality will create an entirely new thrust for the worldwide quality movement.

An essential quality management resource for students and practitioners alike—now in its sixth edition This popular and highly successful text on Quality Management has been fully revised and updated to reflect recent developments in the field. New to the Sixth Edition is timely coverage of agile development, emerging markets, product research, evidence based decision-making, and quality control. Some of the material has been re-ordered and changes to terminology have been made to bring the book completely up to date. Contributions from new co-author David Bamford offer insights from a veteran teacher and practitioner. A popular resource for students, academics, and business practitioners alike Combines the latest information on quality management system series standards with up-to-date tools, techniques and quality systems Includes insights on quality, operations management, and strategic process improvement Highly relevant for professionals, particularly those involved with reacting to rapid developments in the global market The word "quality" has many definitions, dependent on context and situation. It is often over-used but always in-demand, and it can make or break a business. Quality management is becoming an increasingly vital factor in the success of a product or service, and it requires constant attention and a continuous drive to do better. Managing Quality is a comprehensive resource that helps you ensure – and sustain – high quality standards.

Providing clear guidance for anyone servicing internal or external customers, this book offers a framework for analyzing and managing quality using a comprehensive closed-loop approach. This book cuts through the complexities of the mantra ‘better, cheaper, faster’ (BCF) and offers procedures for the evaluation of customer needs, the determination of performance metrics, and the design of effective customer satisfaction surveys. It details basic statistical techniques and packages the framework, procedures, and methods into a management construct that includes external quality certification systems and internal performance management systems. Importantly, the book also describes how these systems can be implemented in a virtual workplace. This quality management book will be essential to service-oriented firms (financial, government, healthcare, hospitality, etc.), as well as any firm with internal customer service processes such as human resource management, purchasing, and accounting. Professionals at all levels, corporate trainers, and students will welcome this book’s common set of principles and tools, accompanied by many case studies that illustrate how they are applied in various environments.

As a facility manager, you're concerned with building quality into your operation but possibly unsure about how to go about it in a systematic way. Perhaps it's because a Total Quality Management program seems too imposing and costly for your department to undertake. Or maybe you're leery of certain aspects of such a concerted effort, like measuring quality or marketing facility services, because they've never been adequately explained to you. Possessing considerable backgrounds in facility management, Stormy Friday and Dave Cotts understand these uncertainties. In Quality Facility Management, they have pooled their knowledge and experience to develop a comprehensive resource that demystifies the quality movement and shows you how to apply the old-fashioned but enduring commonsense principles of quality management often overshadowed by TQM. Flecked with humor and written as if the authors were simply talking to you, this refreshing new book identifies the five major elements underpinning any effective quality facility management program and takes you step by step through each one in a detailed yet accessible way. Gradually, you learn how to put these elements all together and—by incorporating selected modern techniques—devise a program to meet your specific situation. With the help of real-world examples, checklists, and other how-to aids, Quality Facility Management reveals: Why customers must be the driving force behind your quality effort, how you can exceed customers' performance expectations, and how you can effectively recover from service mistakes How quality facility management has its roots in TQM, what constitutes the major aspects of a TQM program, and how you can implement quality facility management without a full-blown TQM program Which aspects of your operation need to be measured and evaluated, which measuring tools should be used, and how to get your customers involved in the measurement process How to develop a facility marketing plan that increases awareness of your services, improves your image as a provider, and acts as an "insurance policy" in retaining the support of senior management in the face of organizational upheaval How to engineer a program of continuous quality improvement by assuming a specific leadership role, empowering frontline staff, instituting effective customer service training, and partnering with vendors The final chapter provides a bounty of practical case histories of companies that are realizing quality facility management right now, including major organizations like Celestica, Bell Atlantic, Hewlett-Packard, and Lockheed. Here, you'll find ample evidence of quality tools and strategies at work—from interior preventive maintenance crews to staff productivity improvements, infrastructure planning teams to customer satisfaction programs. Indeed, whether you're in the public or private sector, in a large or small facility, part of an in-house organization or a contracted firm, Quality Facility Management enables you to plan, organize, staff, direct, and evaluate for quality, so that you maximize your department's responsiveness to customers and your value to top management. Quality facility management is the only way to do business. Here's the only way to do quality facility management. Facility managers want to answer the call for quality but many feel they don't have the resources or guidance to make it an essential feature of their operation. Total Quality Management programs require too much of them and various aspects of the quality effort, whether it's quality measurement or facility marketing, seem hard to carry out or even beside the point. Finally there's a sensible guide that enables you to build quality into your department simply by applying basic, old-fashioned quality principles and selected modern techniques—Quality Facility Management With the assistance of examples, checklists, and other handy tools, this invigorating resource reveals the five key aspects of quality facility management and shows you how to bring them all together to develop a program that fits your particular circumstances. Emphasizing why your customers are the driving force behind your quality efforts, Quality Facility Management helps you: Surpass customers' performance expectations and recover effectively from even the most damaging mistakes Provide quality facility management without implementing a formal TQM program Accurately measure critical aspects of your operation and act effectively on that feedback Devise a facility marketing plan that enhances your department's image with customers and top management Put a program of continuous quality improvement into effect through leadership, staff training and empowerment, vendor collaborations, and other proven means Packed with case studies of facility managers who are building quality into their operation, Friday and Cotts's Quality Facility Management illustrates how your quest for quality can dramatically upgrade customer and senior management satisfaction—without draining department resources.