1. Dr. Adel Younis
Quality consultant
Quality Tip
The main concern: Quality Definition
Q. what is the meaning of the
term, “meeting Customer
expectations”?
Ans. Recently and after the wide spread of the QMS, implementation in many and
wide ranged organizations, all over the world, it has become familiar to find a lot of
organizations putting in their policy statements the term, meeting Customer
expectations, or in some other ones, putting the term exceeding the customer
expectations, but, actually the issue is to define accurately, what is the customer
expectations , in order to judge is you “ the organization” can exceed, or even meet
it,
And in order to understand what is the customer expectations, let me give the
following example to make it easy to understand, imagine a customer ordering a
cup of strong tea in a coffee shop, and the waiter bring to him the order with the
exact amount of sugar , with the required concentration / flavor, in timely manner ,
however the cup was not hot ! , in such case , we can for sure indicate the
customer will not be happy , right he gets his order with almost all in-advance
ordered specifications, however , and as the parameter of getting the cup hot is a
default requirement , it was not ordered, because it is logic to serve a cup of tea
hot enough to be drank with enjoy ,,,
Meeting customer expectations is to keep in mind all default requirements may be
needed by the customer, even it was not demanded / ordered from the beginning,,,
For an organization to exceed the customer expectations, means that it should had
in place a plan of market studies, reflecting the portfolio of the market in their field,
and to judge / expect the needs of the market to be put in place in their plans for
further, and future implementation, which is a more sophisticated, high level of
quality commitment from the producer / service provider.
Customer expectations can be summarized in the following points:
-
Utility value
- affordable cost
Longer life
- reliable performance
Product look
- ease of maintenance.
Prompt after-sales services.