Customer satisfaction: the cornerstone of qi Chris Bujak, Continual Impact, LLC Beth Pierson, Franklin County Department of Public Health

Customers Who Are They? What Do They Want? How Do I Add More Value For Them Than Ever Before? © 2012 Continual Impact LLC

For This Workshop, You Are The Customer What are your expectations? © 2012 Continual Impact LLC

How About This For An Objective? TO: Explore the ways organizations can improve focus on their Customers. FOR: You, your teams and the Customers you serve BY: Discussing the key elements and methods that create a stronger customer focus in your organization Seeing an example of an organization trying to improve A quick workshop to self diagnose your organization, find gaps and consider improvements SO THAT: You are more successful in your Vision of serving them © 2012 Continual Impact LLC

Customers: Why Do You Care? “The customer is the most important part of the production line. Without someone to purchase our product, we might as well shut down the whole plant.” W Edwards Deming Why does your organization exist? Do Customers want your product or service? Is it at the optimum performance and price? A quality delivery each and every time? More so every year? Do you “delight” them? © 2012 Continual Impact LLC

Customers and High Performing Organizations High performing organizations use a deep understanding of Customer values* to drive all decision making Organization improvement plans Improvement projects and events Daily interactions with Customers Identifying products, services and features to add They create a culture where everyone understands the Customers’ values and acts accordingly in their daily activities *Values- an experience a customer seeks to have or avoid © 2012 Continual Impact LLC

Do not detract from the primary responsibility Who Is My Customer? Customer: Uses the offering; whose success your offering is to enable immediately Stakeholder: Have requirements that you must satisfy if you are to succeed in your purpose Getting a flu shot Child getting the shot? Parent? Medical professional? Funding source or Society? Do not detract from the primary responsibility © 2012 Continual Impact LLC

Inside the Organization: Are We Each Others Customers? Thinking of each other as a “customer” can be positive Requires we consider their needs Taken to an extreme, it can detract from satisfying the recipient of the offering—the real Customer Internal requirements can add time and cost that reduce the true Customers’ satisfaction © 2012 Continual Impact LLC

Customers Can Have Different Values Customers for the same offering can have different sets of preferences, expectations and requirements They can differ depending on a number of factors (E.g. age, sex, ethnic background, location) Differences may exist between Customers and their Customers It is important to understand all of the above and react to them © 2012 Continual Impact LLC

Characteristics of Values They are often more than simple requirements Include essentials and features that must be there …and features that they may not expect however would delight them and win greater response Do not have the same importance Prioritization may be necessary Have limits with regard to price Value=f(performance/price) from the perspective of the Customer © 2012 Continual Impact LLC

Some values are expected, some delight Car door handle Car noise Heated door handle MUST BE’s: If absent, rejection of offering; no additional satisfaction SATISFIERS: the more present, the greater the satisfaction DELIGHTERS: When absent, a neutral reaction; when present, excites the Customer © 2012 Continual Impact LLC

Characteristics of Values Have Two Categories What do Customers care about in the offering? Products: Physical or intellectual objects Function, Form, Fit, Finish Services: What they alter or create and how it is done Activities, Setting, Provider What do Customers care about in the buying- benefitting experience? How are the features of your offering experienced by the Customer (I,e, access, acquire, prepare to use, and use)? The “drive by” flu clinic; 4 hr ER wait times © 2012 Continual Impact LLC

How Do You Find Out What Customers Value? There are many “listening posts” Surveys Complaint systems Walk in their shoes Focus groups Published information As you listen, search for 3 items: What is important How well you are doing Are there insights into “delighters” © 2012 Continual Impact LLC

Basic Steps in Survey Use Set the Focus; Goal, Understanding desired Identify members of target audience Plan the survey; Establish sampling strategy, method of distribution Build survey; questions and response options Pilot the survey; extract learning Administer the survey and monitor Analyze and Interpret Uncover areas of strength and improvement © 2012 Continual Impact LLC

Survey Analysis: Uncover Areas of Strength and For Improvement Simple statistics (eg highest mean levels) More advanced statistics Evaluation Matrix (eg Quality Function Deployment (QFD)) Paired Comparisons Satisfied Opportunity Dissatisfied Low Importance High Importance © 2012 Continual Impact LLC

Use Your Knowledge of Customer Values Yearly planning for improvement Use the opportunities as targets for improvement Identify which components of the organization or major processes have the greatest impact on the target Guiding improvement projects and events Make improvements in work processes by eliminating wastes that impact Customer satisfaction Drive quality into every operation Convert the values to measureable requirements Educate team members to detect gaps Cause and Effect analysis of problems Evaluate proposed features against Customer values (eg an evaluation matrix such as QFD) © 2012 Continual Impact LLC

Takeaways The importance of the Customer Know who they are Find what they value; the basics and delights Identify your strengths and areas of opportunity Use the knowledge to improve; what features of your offering and processes have the greatest impact on Customer satisfaction? What needs to change? Make focus on the Customer part of the culture! © 2012 Continual Impact LLC

Beth Pierson and Franklin counties’ Journey to improving customer focus © 2010 Continual Impact LLC

Building the Foundation

Cornerstones

Building

Pickles

Working Session Let’s try a self evaluation of your current state Brief “Customer Focus” diagnostic Group discussion Common gaps and issues What kinds of actions can be undertaken to close the gaps? What kinds of actions do you have underway or planned? © 2010 Continual Impact LLC

Plus Delta Did we achieve our goal for today? What was valuable? What was not? What additional information would you like? © 2010 Continual Impact LLC