See the organisation how the customer sees it

Citation

(2001), "See the organisation how the customer sees it", Measuring Business Excellence, Vol. 5 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/mbe.2001.26705aaa.003

See the organisation how the customer sees it

Customers don't read internal policy manuals, or attend training courses. They don't know how much the organisation is investing in quality improvement consultancy. They don't read the mission statement or hear the chairman's Christmas message to the staff. They don't (usually) see posters on office walls with messages about zero defects or that the customer is king. They don't get invited to internal quality awards, or read the company newsletter.

Customers usually see the organisation at the end of the product or service they buy, when they receive a bill, when they telephone for some information or to chase a missing order. They see the adverts you place, the letters you write, the envelopes you mail them in. These places where customers and the organisation touch were called "moments of truth" by Scandinavian Air Services boss Jan Carlzon (1989). If you get nothing else right, says Carlzon, get your moments of truth right. They are how the customer really perceives your organisation – and really, therefore, govern whether you are a "quality" organisation. Carlzon defines a moment of truth as that moment when an employee has a choice, and depending on that choice the customer will be either delighted or disgusted with the service. Quality is a created state – in a service transaction it only exists if the receiver feels it. You aren't a quality organisation if you say you are – you are if someone else says you are.

The quality manager should aim to step outside of his or her knowledge of the organisation and see it as the customer sees it, testing out any likely scenario (complaint, repeat purchase, first time purchase, change of address, asking for help, leaving messages, etc). A quality organisation is one which is designed to make transactions with it easy and pleasurable. If things go wrong, which they will, it should be designed to put them right easily and pleasurably. If it is not, the design has to be changed if at all possible. No amount of customer service training is going to put it right.

Automated telephone systems are a fine example in many cases of services designed without moments of truth in mind. Because everyone connected with the organization knows how to use the "cheats" and shortcuts (Press *23 and you get to speak to the switchboard) no-one gets to experience the tedium of toiling through the system like customers do. Whatever they are about, it is little to do with service quality as customers see it.

The customer's experience of quality is one involving all the organisation. That means, it involves all the departments and functions of the organisation. If a customer's main ways of touching the organisation include seeing its promotional materials and receiving its bills, where are the briefings for quality managers on how to sell the message to marketing, sales and finance managers? What does service quality mean for an accounts clerk? Or should we miss that part out because it's too hard?

Reference

Carlzon, J. (1989), Moments of Truth, Reprint edition, February, HarperCollins, New York, NY.