Total Quality Management (TQM) having made its mark in the manufacturing measures of many businesses has had a lasting effect: products have never been of a better quality than they are today. This fact is aided by effective management and is covered on good leadership training courses.

However, suppliers continue to leave the quality of services to chance or to the level of commitment and care of the individual salespeople.

The following example of a garage illustrates how you can introduce Total Quality Management in the service sector.

The arrival of the client

The correct order acceptance begins a day before the agreed deadline: contact the client and confirm they have not forgotten the service date or make certain that nothing has arisen to put a stop to this taking place.

The actual service within the company itself begins by you showing the way that will eventually lead the client to placing the service order. Within many service companies it is here where the first obstacles tend to arise.

You must make sure that your sales people are aware of any service order the client has placed. This is of particular importance for the duration of low staffing periods as your sales people are busy with other matters and are therefore, not, necessarily ready to receive the service order.

During particularly busy times you need also to ensure that clients are dealt with ‘properly’. There is nothing more annoying for clients than to see someone who came after they did be served first.

Taking the order

You have to find out what it is the client wants. If you have not established a sensible line of communication between your salespeople and your clients, this may well lead to expensive mistakes for both sides. Instruct your salespeople to repeat the client’s wishes in order to avoid misunderstandings. Communication is a key factor and it is also a core subject leadership training courses.

The best solution is often for the client and service staff to carry out a joint inspection of the subject of the service. It is often a lack of clarity on the part of the client that creates difficulties in the service. “There’s something wrong at the back on the right hand side”, “It’s not gripping properly”, etc. are typical examples of this.

In this situation, your service staff need to have both technical and communication skills: they have to identify the problem correctly and explain what the problem is to the client in plain English! They must also be able to estimate the time it will take to service and the cost of repair. Make sure that your service staff receive regular training in these skills.

The last step involved in taking an order is the concrete client contract. Making certain that the client is confident of the necessity of every repair and does not feel cheated is the way to maintain good customer relations.

When possible, work with written orders which list all the agreed service repairs.

No matter how a client rejects your opinion of what work is necessary, always explain the potential consequences of their choice. Whatever their opinion, never use a threatening tone of voice (“Just you wait…!”). What is needed is professionally objective advice.

Coordinate with the client whether you are to contact them when the work is complete or if they will be calling by in person. If they decide to call in person make sure that a competent service representative is available.

The repairs

This is where the client and their car part company: the client leaves the garage and the car goes to the repair workshop. Always sustain contact with the client for the duration of the service. If your mechanics discover further problems with the car during this time, make sure that a member of your service personnel contact the client and discuss the situation with them. If the car is ready sooner than expected the client must be informed of this.

Collection

The first thing the client receives when they arrive to pick up the car is the invoice. This should be clear, comprehensible and detailed. A competent service employee should be on hand to answer any questions the client may have concerning the invoice.

Make sure that the client gets their car back in a neat and tidy condition. It is customary to give the client a ‘free’ car wash following a main service. Clients appreciate such a gesture.

The client will only know in a few days’ time whether they are satisfied with the repair work.

Tip: Leave a client satisfaction questionnaire in the car and ask the client to hand in the completed questionnaire the next time the car needs servicing. Alternatively call the client two to three days following collection to verify that they are pleased with the repair work that has been completed. This way you will give the client the impression that they are important and that you are taking their opinion seriously. You will also find out about the quality of your service work. This hard work by staff should be supported from the top as taught on all good leadership training courses.

By: Richard A Stone

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Since the rapid development of quality standards – ISO 9000, one problem has arisen as companies have had many difficulties in applying these standards, especially in a matter of cost.

Telare – The leading quality Certification Agency in New Zealand, after researching the market, has presented a Quality Management System (QMS) that still uses basic standards of ISO9000, but in a simpler and easier way to apply. This system includes all the basic requirements that an enterprise needs to maintain a good relationship with customers and to keep their faith in the product or service. This system is shortly called Q.Base.

For some matters, Q.Base not clarify like in ISO9000 but requires company to build up some basic standards. A company may start from Q.Base system and develop its standards in accordance with ISO9000. Q.Base is very flexible and each company may apply this system pursuant to the real business condition. This system is a very necessary tool to manage small and middle enterprises, not only in quality management work.

Q.Base system is a collection of quality management experiences in New Zealand and some other countries such as Denmark, Canada, Australia and Sweden. Q.Base focuses on main aspects in quality management work and policies; in examining contract with customers and chain suppliers; in managing resources, process, and complete products; in auditing, maintaining documents and training and improving the quality.

Q.Base is not such an international standard as ISO9000, but it is more and more widely applied as a standard in certificating a system to meet quality requirements or not. Q.Base uses the very principles that ISO9000 uses, but in an easier and more applicable way, especially to small and middle enterprises who have just developed their QMS.

Q.Base fully consists of the basic factors of a quality system, which help an enterprise to control the main business activities in its operation. It focuses on the division of responsibilities and delegation, which makes employees to be responsible for their deeds.

After satisfying all the requirements of Q.Base, the enterprise may apply new quality standards and gradually come to satisfy all the requirements of ISO9000 (include ISO 9001).

Q.Base is very flexible and not contradictory to ISO9000 or TQM and it is also useful for the suppliers to larger companies that have had ISO9000 certification.

In conclusion, Q.Base is applied in the following conditions:

o Introduction to quality management in the company in order to improve its competitive status and follow the product quality management in the most economical way.
o Pursuant to the contract between the company and customers (party A and B), when customers have a request, the company should applied Q.Base in quality management to assure the product quality for the supply.
o Third party certification: the Quality management system of the company is examined and officially certificated by the certification agency.

By: Ngo Vinet

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In just about every field of work, there are quality measures in place to ensure customer satisfaction and product/service effectiveness. Manufacturing companies rely on quality control processes to minimize defects and reworks. Consultants measure the quality of their services to ensure repeat business. Journalist rely on quality information and leads to maintain integrity and credibility. But when it comes to corporate data, many organizations fail to understand the significance and drawbacks of unreliable or inconsistent data. This article discusses five quality challenges many organizations face and ways they can be more proactive in managing data.

Among the primary reasons for inconsistent or unusable data are:

bad data from human data-entry error poorly-structured process lack of data standards across functional units or divisions

Ensuring the quality of data can become extremely difficult when you attempt to integrate data from across multiple sources. Before your organization begins a data-driven initiative it is important that you address issues of data quality within your existing data sources. Aside from the complexity of the actual process of ensuring the quality of your data, below are five challenges you may face when beginning this initiative:

Data ownership Non standard data requirements Choosing the Right Data Management Tools Placing Responsibility for the Quality of Data on the IT Department Reactive vs. Proactive Mentality
Data Ownership

Data ownership, especially on the enterprise level, is a very complicated transition, and can contribute to significant pushback within an organization. Often the business unit managers or technicians entrusted with the implementation of an application assume ownership of the information used within that system. This introduces potential conflicts when these individuals must participate in enterprise-wide data initiatives and expose the internals of their information management to data quality audits and reviews.

Non Standard Data Requirements

Traditionally data management is structured where the business unit’s management chain has authority over the information used within the business unit, and each business unit has its own requirements for quality of data. Once data management progresses toward an enterprise-wide set of standards, there is often push back or hesitation by the business unit managers to invest time and resources in addressing issues that were not relevant at the business unit level.

Choosing the Right Data Management Tools

A frequent response by organizations with respect to building a data quality management program is to immediately begin to research the purchase of automated data cleansing or profiling tools. While some data quality tools do provide some benefit right out of the box, without a well-defined understanding of the types and scope of specific quality problems, and without a management plan for addressing discovered problems, buying a tool will not have a significant return on investment in achieving long-term strategic goals.

Placing Responsibility for the Quality of Data on the IT Department

Business units often assume that any issues regarding the quality of data are IT issues, and should be addressed by the technical teams. However, the business rules associated with running the business is best managed by the business client?

Reactive vs. Proactive Mentality

Most data quality programs are designed to react to data quality events instead of determining how to prevent problems from occurring in the first place. A mature data quality program determines where the risks are, what the objective metrics are for determining levels and impact of data quality compliance, and approaches to ensure high levels of quality.

Ways your organization can be more proactive towards data quality management:

Ask for data quality performance measures as part of your business requirements gathering and prioritizing process. Determine, along with the business, how you are going to handle data quality issues both during the development process and when your processes are operational. Monitor data quality at every stage where data is touched Create a data quality management dashboard to monitor the agreed upon data quality performance measures.

By: Victor Holman

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