Category: VOC/Customer Focus

To generate a valuable customer survey, practitioners should follow nine steps. Part One of this series discussed the first three steps: establishing a goal, determining the sample and choosing the methodology. Part Two covered the fourth, fifth and sixth steps, which related to what types of questions to ask and how they should be asked. […]

Telephone operators help establish a company’s image with the outside world. An operator with a clear, courteous voice who is capable of connecting the call to the right person can be a delighter for the caller, as well as the receiver. Recently, a voice of the customer (VOC) survey revealed that operator response at a […]

Many organizations use surveys to gather information and data in order to learn more about their customers. While it is important to ensure that surveys are targeted to the right audience, confidence in the development and implementation of a survey is even more vital. To prepare a successful survey, practitioners should follow nine basic steps; […]

A significant part of business success can come from the speed and quality of decision-making. Such good decision-making leads to performance improvements by reducing rework and driving benefits to the bottom line faster. Six Sigma, especially Design for Six Sigma (DFSS), has tools that improve the speed and quality of decisions. A morphological matrix will […]

An enhanced voice of the customer (VOC) data collection process can improve Lean Six Sigma project execution and make the project leader’s job easier. During many Black Belt training sessions, the instructor teaches the class that it needs to develop statements on critical-to-quality elements (CTQs) that summarized the customer requirements in specific and measurable terms. […]

Many companies launch product or service design efforts based on whatever knowledge they already have about customer needs from questionnaires, focus groups, the opinions of marketing staff and senior engineers…and sometimes the CEO. Often this information is more opinion than data. Teams read through this existing customer information, whether it is relevant to the current […]

In an inbound contact center environment, delivery of customer service and the end-customer satisfaction index cannot be always accurately determined by service level metrics. A customer service center may be performing at consistent service levels, but the end-customer retention rate and the overall customer satisfaction index may be relatively low. Direct measurement of customers’ perceptions […]

The link between individual Six Sigma projects and the ultimate customer is sometimes difficult because of the separation between the two, and sometimes because of the vagueness of statements at the strategic level. It was interesting and relevant to see the results earlier this year from the annual Edelman Trust Barometer, a survey of nearly […]

A project manager responsible for the design of financial services website to market a new product or service must consider numerous factors that can influence the effectiveness of that website. Traditional methods often focus more on the art of aesthetics, rather than the science of usability. The use of conjoint analysis in website design can […]

Help desk organizations inevitably have waste in their processes that leads to customer complaints. Overcome those obstacles through value stream analysis – an efficient, effective process to review and improve help desk functions.

Six Sigma has been adopted by some of the world’s leading companies as a mechanism to improve bottom line results and delight customers. But though the companies have made spectacular gains in some areas – millions of dollars in increased revenue or reduced costs – success has not been uniform. Deploying Six Sigma in areas of […]

Part 2 of this article focuses on helping practitioners understand the tools used for processing language data in Six Sigma work.Part 1 – Nature of Language Data is about the role language data plays in Six Sigma, how to understand it, including the types and refinement of the data, as well as how to gather it […]

A Series of Articles on VOC Advances This article is one of a series on advances in obtaining and applying voice of the customer (VOC) information. The other articles in the series are VOC Advances: New Paths to Understanding Customers and VOC Advances: Helping Make Better Design Decisions. The series was written by Anthony E. […]

Read any Six Sigma article, attend any Six Sigma conference or talk to any Black Belt and the message is clear – the voice of the customer is a core value of Six Sigma. When Six Sigma is applied with a strategic perspective, the voice of the customer is indeed the necessary starting point. Six Sigma […]

Surveys surround us. The questions come via the mail, face to face in shopping malls, on the telephone, and increasingly over the Internet – a multitude of surveys, but many of them fail to achieve their goals. The fault often lies with those who design and administer the surveys with good intentions, but without the […]

Once you decide what you want to know, from whom you want to know it, and what you will do with the data, you must carefully consider what method is best suited for gathering customer information for your Six Sigma project. Among the factors to consider when deciding on a research method are the length […]

“The more I learn about customer satisfaction, the less I know,” the CEO of a Fortune 500 company recently lamented. Many CEOs can empathize – for even the most customer-centered companies fall short on truly understanding their customers’ wants and needs and often don’t realize it until it’s too late. How does this happen? Many CEOs […]

Part 1 of this article focuses on helping practitioners understand the role language data plays in Six Sigma work and how they can benefit from understanding its nature, including the types and refinement of the data as well as how to gather it in the most effective way. Part 2 – Using Language Data is […]

Most people would agree that customers are the most important part of a business – no customers, no business. In order to be successful, a business must know who its customers are and what the expectations of those customers are for the product or service the business sells. In Six Sigma, that process is known […]

While traveling on an international flight earlier this year, I was asked to fill out forms for customs. After filling out the forms I proceeded to wait in line where fellow travelers in front of me delayed processing time because of a simple data entry error on their customs card. Apparently 1/11/07 is read as […]