Chapter 2
The Customer's Point of View

I was in one of the big Sears stores during the time the company was trying to offer financial services along with retail. I overheard a lady interrupting a Dean Witter representative who was in the middle of a discussion with a customer. She asked, "Where is the boys' underwear department?" The expression on the broker's face revealed the problem. Everyone within earshot realized suddenly what the problem was: People were uncomfortable with a single outlet offering everything. The joke about Sears became "It is the store where you can buy stocks, socks, and jocks."

Is it enough to provide excellent service to your customer? Can exceptional service or too much attention become irritating? If "service" exceeds what a customer wants, perhaps we need to go back to the drawing board and look at our definitions once again.

Six Sigma is intended not only to continually improve quality. Of course, that is going to be a primary aim, but we cannot always use the manufacturing model of units of production and degrees of defects, to identify what changes need to be made. At times, Six Sigma processes may reveal that in addition to needing to improve what we do provide, we may also have to arrive at a deeper understanding of the customer's expectations-and in some cases, back away.

STARTING WITH THE CUSTOMER: DEFINITIONS

A lot of quality control systems jump right into the aspect of improving quality-without first defining the customer. Is this such a difficult task? The previous chapter demonstrates that customers can be defined in many ways and that everyone serves a customer in some way. The Accounting Department issues payroll checks for its fellow employee customer; the receptionist serves not only the customer calling in to speak with someone, but also the person receiving calls; the mail room clerk receives and ships packages for its customers throughout the building. All of these people perform functions that, while "support routines" by nature, also fit into the definition of "customer service."

If we attempt to separate different types of service and then treat them differently, what value do we achieve? For example, we may define "customers" as people who give us money in exchange for products or services; and we may view everyone else as supporting that effort. So customer service and the level of quality by which it is executed would be separate and apart from the support service quality we expect from the accountant, receptionist, or mail room clerk. But why? Isn't it possible, in fact practical, to view these employees with the same care and attention we devote to customer service for the cash customer?

Key Point If customer service and support service are approached with different standards, the whole system fails. It's all customer service, no matter what titles are used.

Six Sigma is designed to operate throughout the entire corporation and, in fact, to alter the entire corporate culture. Customer service, to all intents and purposes, then becomes universal in its nature and application. We may interpret this to mean that anyone providing support services should recognize that their work affects customer service, although indirectly. This is a remote expectation and is not likely to work. After all, if you are only an accountant, and you never see a customer, how can you be motivated to improve your customer service attitude? As an alternative, Six Sigma is designed to treat everyone as a frontline customer service employee; that is only practical if and when we recognize that customers are to be found everywhere. Even if they are expressed only in terms of profitability, we cannot distinguish between customercontact employees and everyone else. The key to bridging this gap is to make customer service a universal concept, and to expect everyone to accept that premise. Putting it another way, "Customer satisfaction is key to long-term profitability and keeping the customer happy is everybody's business."1

Corporate employees often hear the expression of this idea, but without any real meaning behind it. If we are told, "Everyone has to be concerned with customer service," that is a fine idea; but how do we help the nonmarketing employee to improve quality if, at the same time, we tell that employee, "You never see a customer"?

Six Sigma enables all corporate employees to play a role in direct customer service, because that service mentality should be a part of the very philosophy of how to conduct business. The program-unlike Total Quality Management (TQM)-is based on a few sound principles that encourage corporate-wide customer service attitudes. These include:

• ? Integration of quality, rather than treatment as a separate routine. Quality systems of the past were designed as functions on the manufacturing floor, far from management's view or involvement. The programs were isolated, separate not only from management but even from the normal functions of the department. This is a mistake, because in order for any quality program to work, it needs to be integrated, to become part of the way that the department and the company approach all of its work process.
• ? Requirement that Six Sigma be applied throughout the organization. Traditional quality programs also were generally viewed as working on the floor where units of production were turned out. Management saw quality control issues as problems for supervisors and foremen and gave them the task of fixing the problem, usually expressed in terms of defect rates. Successful quality control programs were those in which defects were reduced on a particular shift or due to specific quality control changes. Because management was not involved directly within the program, it ultimately fizzled out. Lack of support by management meant that the programs could not be sustained. Any improvements in quality under such a system were only temporary.
• ? Creation of management support and participation. It is a vast improvement when management supports a quality control program, as opposed to being apathetic or hostile toward it. In many instances, management viewed such programs as a means for cutting costs only. The all-important bottom line was made the responsibility of the department. With Six Sigma, management is encouraged not only to support the system, but to become an active participant within it. This universal customer service, applied to everyone, changes the way that the task at hand is viewed, whether by a mail room clerk or by a CEO.
• ? Specific, focused philosophy aimed at achieving specific results. So many quality control programs expressed ideals but offered no practical means for permanent improvement. The reduction of defects, for example, was the end in itself, and not part of a larger system of doing things. Six Sigma is a quality control program based on a focused philosophy that is meant to change the very outlook of all employees.
• ? Goals-based strategies in quality-related projects. Among the failures of traditional quality control programs was the lack of actual goals. "Reducing defects" is not truly a goal in the permanent sense, because it does not address the real problems within a production department. These problems include, among others, boredom coming from repetitive work, low morale or poor attitude, and lack of adequate training. When we move beyond the manufacturing and production model into the service industries, we run into problems if we do not understand how to develop and implement goals. We run into even greater problems when a majority of employees have no end-user customer contact. Developing specific goals related to improving quality helps to focus people and mold them into a customer support point of view.

Key Point In defining solutions to problems, we need to make sure we know not only what we would like to see by way of improved output; we also need to make sure we understand the full range of problems.

We may also be operating with an overly narrow definition of "customer service." We tend to think of defects in terms of failure to meet minimum expectations; but in practice, meeting the customer's requirements or expectations could mean doing less in some respects. The definition of a customer's requirements depends on the circumstances. We cannot merely assume that meeting or beating expectations is going to be acceptable.

Example: A bakery supplied pastries and breads to several local stores. One store required delivery by 6 A.M. every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. Initially, the bakery recognized only one form of defect worth avoiding: missing the 6 A.M. deadline. As part of its effort to maintain the highest level of customer service, it was able to make on-time deliveries without fail. The system went too far, however, when the bakery began delivering its perishable goods one to two days early. Because the store was unable to sell the excess, the goods went stale and could not be sold at all. The customer was dissatisfied with the bakery's level of service. No late delivery, as the sole definition of defect-free service, had to be modified. Excessively early delivery was defective as well.

Example: A car dealership followed up on its sale of every vehicle with a telephone call to the...