CTQs, short for Critical-To-Quality, are key quantifiable requirements of a service or product which are critical to meet customer expectations and often defined by customer expectations. It’s what the customer expects of our product or service. Customer expectations and comments which are gathered from surveys or comment forms for a particular area of service are translated (Diagram 1) into meaning groupings using affinity diagramming. The critical requirement (CTQs) for the issues is identified thereon from the translation table.
Diagram 1: VOC translation
|
Customer Comment |
Issue |
Critical requirement |
|
 Slow room service  |
Responsiveness Attentiveness Shift scheduling  |
Deliver food to room in 20 minutes. |
Subsequently, use the SIPOC (Diagram 2) to scope the project and identify the main key measures in the inputs & outputs; and the process itself. The key measures should relate to CTQs and able to quantify CTQs.
Diagram 2: SIPOC
|
Supplier |
Input |
Process |
Output |
Customer |
|
Hotel employee    |
Food order |
Pick up order Send order to kitchen Prepare food Deliver food |
Food |
Hotel guest  |
Key Measures
|
Input |
Process |
Output |
|
Number of errors |
Number of minutes |
Number of minutes |
In the hotel industry, expect changing expectations even from the same guest. Customer expectations may vary through the day and through different moods. Imagine this scenario related to the example above- if I am having a hectic day ahead, I’ll want my room service breakfast to be delivered to the room within 10 minutes; but in the evening, I wouldn’t care if dinner is delivered in 25 minutes because it’s the time I’d take for a hot dip in the jacuzzi.
