RE: REQUEST: Measuring service quality in social service

["Thomas, Doug" <THOMASD@gt-corp.com>]

Loren,

I find your characterization of "rather than those valued by the
customer" to be right to the point, and it has so much underlying
meaning.

Then, you go on to describe the outcome of the "community tenure"
criteria, and propose measuring one provider against another to arrive
at some reasonable ranking of service providing ( I know I am
summarizing wildly, but that is how I read your post).

Trouble is, when I read that part, I was struck by how much that
described what we do in the contract manufacturing sector. We never know
what will come in the door next - it is kind of like running a
restaurant where the cook never knows what he will be asked to make for
the next customer.  It's kind of exciting, but you can't plan very well
for it.  In contrast, cellular phone companies like Motorola just
produce one model many times over for a given period of time, and the
system is highly automated. 

Once I listened to a presentation on how Motorola Ceramic Products made
their components, and though highly technical, I couldn't help feeling
bored at the sameness the people who operate the machines must
experience.

Anyway, how can the medical profession rate a system where every patient
exhibits different characteristics and symptoms, frequently representing
more than one ailment?

I would have to fall back on the phone answering, responding to customer
inquiries, and other areas where one can reasonably control the input
and output.

This is not to say your post was not informative, quite the contrary.  I
just wonder how you are going to really be able to measure what, on its
face, is relatively unmeasurable.

Doug Thomas