All over the world, customer satisfaction has been recognised as an important subject to increase customer loyalty and retention. In each country or culture with freedom of decision customer satisfaction is closely connected with customer loyalty and retention. Methods and procedures are becoming more and more similar. The results of various customer satisfaction measurements demonstrate that there is still a lot to do. Most customers still see a need for further improvements. The achievement of customer satisfaction is an ongoing process, which should be monitored regularly as customer expectations continuously change and the performance standards of the competitors may also change. The following ten issues have proved to be important success factors in improving the efficiency of customer satisfaction monitoring: 1. Full support of top management; 2. Involvement of all relevant people in the planning process; 3. Collecting or benchmarking data; 4. Combination of qualitative and quantitative component; 5. Comprehension of results; 6. Clarity of reporting; 7. Concentration on a few, especially important activities for improvement; 8. Clear determination of actions and responsibilities; 9. Decentral organisation of surveys for international projects. 10. Adjustment to market / country specific peculiarities.
This paper describes the motivating factors of a large and a small sized research firm in becoming ISO 9000 certified. It provides a short introduction of the basic aim, requirements and misunderstandings about the ISO 9000 standard. Different ways of implementation of such a system are illustrated by the example of Infratest Burke. But what are the benefits of an ISO 9000 certification? Is it really worthwhile to spend a lot of money just to become certified? Meanwhile, the quality systems of both companies have been implemented for some years. The authors illustrate and discuss the experience they have made with their ISO 9000 quality system after certification. The paper gives an insight into different impacts of the quality system on the internal organization and the workflow. These examples show how ISO 9000 assists a continuous improvement and optimization process. They demonstrate that the ISO 9000 standard can be an important vehicle for a quality focused management.