Re: Customer satisfaction, 2 questions)

[Bob Adsett <bob.adsett@lineone.net>]

On 3/5/01 19:57, "John" <jsdwd@ksc.th.com> wrote:

> I don't recall
> Deming being a strong advocate for letting the customer define quality.  He
> frequently said that , " ...the customer cannot define quality."   " Do you
> think anyone asked for pneumatic tires?", he would say as an example.

John

I think maybe there is a confusion between innovation or the development of
delighters (features) as Kano might put it, and what we might like to define
as quality. The customer may not be able to define what delighters they want
(by definition, they could not know) but they will certainly appreciate if
the product or service they receive in their eyes delivers quality.

We may be able to control the processes of production or service and define
the features that are delivered, but we cannot determine how it will be
received and whether it has 'quality' in the eyes of the customer. That is
in their domain to decide and how they view the service or product should be
what matters to us in deciding how to design and redesign our processes to
better fit their needs.

bob