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ISO and the happy customer

ISO 9001:2000 has made customers the focal point of a process-based QMS: 'This international standard promotes the adoption of a process approach when developing, implementing and improving the effectiveness of a QMS, to enhance customer satisfaction by meeting customer requirements.' Nigel Hill, from the Leadership Factor, explains how customer satisfaction measurement (CSM) and your QMS can add up to success.

The standard makes it clear that the customer, not management, is the starting point of the QMS (see figure 1). The role of management is 'to ensure that customer requirements are determined and met with the aim of enhancing customer satisfaction.' Management is also responsible for providing adequate resources to enable the organisation to develop and deliver a product (the standard's term for both products and/or service), which will meet those customer requirements. To judge the organisation's success in achieving this core objective, customer satisfaction must be measured and the results used as a key factor in the QMS's continual improvement; this 'plan-do-check-act' process is ongoing, creating a need to identify customer requirements and measure customer satisfaction regularly.

Figure 1. Model of a process-based quality management system (BSI, December 2000)

CSM requirements

There are many references to customers in the new standard (see table 1), starting at the beginning, where the scope is defined in terms of meeting customers' requirements and using the QMS to enhance customer satisfaction.

Scope and management responsibility

The first section on the scope of the standard makes it clear that the central purpose of the QMS is to ensure that the organisation meets the needs of its customers and continually strives to enhance customer satisfaction. Section five places this responsibility firmly with senior management, which must also ensure that adequate and appropriate resources are provided to achieve this objective.

Customer requirements

Despite the importance of customer satisfaction, the standard offers virtually no advice on how it should be monitored. Section seven stipulates that customers' requirements must be determined, 'including requirements for delivery and post delivery activities', but its implication is that all aspects of the augmented product, as well as the core product itself, must be covered.

ISO 9000 (fundamentals and vocabulary) provides some additional evidence. In the 'terms and definitions' section, 'requirement' is defined as a 'need or expectation that is stated, generally implied or obligatory'. Though this loose usage of the words 'requirement', 'need' and 'expectation' (as though they are interchangeable) is not conducive to good CSM practice, in general terms, the implication that customer requirements are all-embracing is helpful. As we will see next month, 'customer requirement' can include any factor on which customers base their judgement of an organisation.

Customer satisfaction

Until the latter stages of the development of the revised standard, it seemed that organisations were required to do no more than monitor 'customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction'. This weak wording could have been addressed by monitoring customer complaints, leaving the situation little changed from the old standard. Happily, this avoidance of any real obligation to satisfy customers was rectified in the standard's final version; indeed, clause 8.2.1 of the standard offers a commendable definition of customer satisfaction -'customer perception as to whether the organisation has met customer requirements' - which aligns it firmly with Tom Peters' view that 'perception is reality'.

Customers have long memories when it comes to negative experiences and it may take several good ones to eradicate negative views. This definition implies monitoring customer satisfaction can only be achieved by asking customers about their level of satisfaction. Since the standard also stipulates the use of recognised analytical and statistical techniques, it will be necessary to survey customers formally, rather than consulting them informally, during the course of business. Articles three and four will take a look at this.

The transition to ISO 9001:2000

ISO 9001:2000 is now a live standard. Developing a QMS based on the old standard would not be sensible; organisations whose systems conform to ISO 900 1:1994 or ISO 9002:1994 have a transition period, during which they can continue to be assessed on their existing QMS. The International Accreditation Forum has established a set of guidelines for certification bodies, including a maximum transition period of three years, from publication of the new standard (December 2000); however, registered companies would be well-advised to contact their own certification body to agree a suitable transition time. Measuring customer satisfaction will be one of the more challenging requirements of the new standard, for organisations that have not previously done so. You should use 2001 to develop and introduce a professional and reliable CSM process prior to incorporating it into the QMS, but it is important that a transition plan is agreed with the certification body.

Biography

Nigel Hill has been involved in customer satisfaction measurement for 15 yars, forming the Leadership Factor in 1996 to specialise in the subject. He is the author of the Handbook of Customer Satisfaction Measurement and How to Measure Customer Satisfaction, both published by Gower. Nigel presents seminars and workshops around the world on customer satisfaction and loyalty measurement