Abstract:

To ensure quality at all levels requires comprehensive and continuous surveys and feedback between customers, dealers and the manufacturer. This allows strategy and action to be integrated at all levels in the meeting of customer needs. The needed benchmarking of how customer expectations are being formed is provided by parallel surveys of competitor performance. In addition, a means is provided for implementing the results. IBM Personal Systems implemented their "Customer First" programme in 14 countries in Europe in 1991 to help maintain its market leadership in personal computing systems. Though only in its first full year of operation, there are already substantial dividends for IBM and its Business Partners, the dealerships. Findings are still coming in but already they have allowed IBM to identify the key factors that drive satisfaction measure and track satisfaction identify areas of key strategic significance improve these through education and training Illustrative findings from the programme are presented to show the operation of Customer First and give a measure of its impact on IBM Personal Systems operations. A particular feature of the programme is that the means of implementing the results was designed into the project from the beginning. Customer Satisfaction consultants have been appointed in 8 countries to help interpret the customer satisfaction results for the dealers and to provide the requisite training.