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Focusing on Customers 34
Relative
Relative
Attribute
Importance
Computer A
Computer B
Performance
CPV-
A
CPV-
B
Speed
20%
7.5
7.8
-0.3
1.50
1.56
SUGGESTIONS FOR PROJECTS, ETC.
1. The ACSI uses a proprietary survey technique, where fee-paying subscribers provide data
about themselves and their industry to surveyors and receive comparative information
2. This project can provide some interesting insight into student’s perceptions of how
customer satisfaction may be measured beyond traditional course evaluations. Some
3. Some characteristics that are brainstormed may include location of the store, store hours,
layout of the store, knowledge of sales staff, friendliness of personnel, variety of
4. Answers will vary, depending on the sophistication of the business in complaint handling.
Many small businesses will ensure that making restitution, or providing “perks” satisfies
5. Answers will vary, depending on the type of business and the web sites involved. There
are sites that have won “awards” that may be looked at for some ideas on best practices
Active memory
25%
8.5
8.0
2.13
2.00
Portability
15%
6.5
5.3
0.98
0.80
Reliability
30%
9.1
8.8
2.73
2.64
Price
10%
3.1
5.2
-2.1
0.31
0.52
7.64
7.52
Focusing on Customers 35
Examples include customer service representatives (CSR’s) in retail clothing
stores, such as Banana Republic, Gap, and Old Navy responding in the promised
8. This is a “hands–on” exercise to provide practice in developing an affinity diagram.
ANSWERS TO CASE QUESTIONS
I. Rosie’s Pizzeria
Focusing on Customers 36
1. The in-depth interviews required by the VOC methodology have strengths and
limitations, just as any consumer research technique does. It is a form of focus group. As
pointed out in the chapter, a focus group is a panel of individuals (customers or non–
II. Pauli’s Restaurant and Microbrewery
This is an actual author experience. One of the authors had sent the email to the restaurant’s
corporate office in another city, and the next day received this reply from the general manager of
the restaurant:
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your comments regarding your
unacceptable experience at [our restaurant] on Saturday. I cannot begin to apologize
enough or to express how disappointed I am that we failed to deliver you the exceptional
Focusing on Customers 37
Most students will probably create a similar response. Good service recovery is prompt,
empathetic, and provides some way to entice the customer to return and make up for the upset.
Needless to say, this restaurant made a customer for life.
III. First Internet Reliable Bank
1. The closed-ended and open-ended questions provided different perspectives on customer
needs for FIR’s leadership team. The closed ended responses, when matched with
customer demographics, confirmed that FIR customers were generally “typical” of
Internet banking customers, as suggested by the Pew survey. Most had high-speed
2. FIR is targeting customer segments that include both individual and commercial
accounts. On individual accounts, bill-paying and various types of loans, such as
mortgage and home equity credit lines seemed to be the most important services.
3. FIR might consider some specific activities and practices to address these issues, such as:
• Partnering with another bank to provide ATM access. If this partner could also handle
IV. Gold Star Chili: Customer and Market Knowledge
1. Some moments of truth in Gold Star’s environment start with the corporate – franchisee
relationship, where: corporate managers have signed a pledge guaranteeing to return calls
within 24 hours. The moment of truth is whether those calls are consistently received
within that time frame. Another moment of truth opportunity relates to franchisees
Focusing on Customers 38
2. Gold Star Chili defines two key customer groups: direct customers who use Gold Star
products and services, and indirect customers with whom Gold Star has other
relationships. Direct customers are divided into six customer segments, determined by
3. Gold Star could collect direct data from franchisees, retailers and wholesalers on
complaints, product movement, and what works well, or not so well, through frequent
4. For franchisees, wholesalers and retailers effective listening and learning could take place
using formal surveys and focus groups, as well as informal determination of product and
5. It would seem that customer loyalty is an important requirement for success in Gold
Star’s competitive retail business environment. Thus questions relating to loyalty would
be desirable, such as measures of:
• Overall satisfaction.
• Likelihood of a first-time purchaser to return to the restaurant.
Focusing on Customers 39
For franchisees (who are customers of the corporation), survey questions relating to
franchise service to the franchisee would need to be asked. For example, franchisee
satisfaction with:
– Geo-demographic analysis of locations prior to building
INSTRUCTOR RESERVE MATERIALS
Quality in Practice – Customer Focus at Amazon.com
1. Amazon’s CRM software helps in multiple ways to gain market share and maintain
competitive advantage over their rivals. The list of the characteristics that make up their
vision of customer service points to numerous features that are hard to duplicate in
conventional websites or store chains. For instance, Amazon:
• has deep selection that is unconstrained by shelf space.
• turns their inventory 19 times in a year.
Thus, the firm demonstrates the advantages of their CRM approach through exploiting
technology, as characterized in the text:
• Segmenting markets based on demographic and behavioral characteristics,
Focusing on Customers 40
2. Amazon.com’s operating efficiencies in order fulfillment activities are almost bound to
3. Customer privacy risks, besides the ones mentioned in the case, that Amazon.com must
guard against include an increasing number of threats in order to continue to grow its
business. These include the growing sophistication of computer “hackers,” the
Quality in Practice – Improving Customer Satisfaction at a Software Support Call Center
1. The case suggests that it is often difficult to understand customers’ true needs and
expectations. The study required an iterative process to get past the “obvious”
2. The transparency principle is a 3-stage process that involves:
• Immediate establishment of the engineer as a problem solver and expert
• Initiating the troubleshooting
• Open admission of a wrong hypothesis (if required)
These three steps appear to be extremely simple and almost intuitive. However, it took
Focusing on Customers 41
3. The learning from this case could be applied to similar technical situation, but might
extend even further than the high tech applications in which it was first developed. In
Case – The Case of the Missing Reservation
1. Although it is difficult to speculate on the amount of “empowerment” that a restaurant
hostess/manager might have, it is apparent that she did not attempt to “move heaven and
earth to satisfy a customer” as employees are empowered to do at Ritz-Carlton. As one
2. Different people have a higher and lower tolerance for poor service. Most people would
not have taken the time to write and send a letter as Mark did. The complaint should have
Measurement
Perceived Performance
Reliability
(-) Customer had made reservation and rightly expected guaranteed and timely
restaurant seating.
Assurance
(-) Although not unpleasant, manager was not accommodating and did not
exude confidence that customers would be seated ASAP.
Tangibles
n.a.
Empathy
(-) No sign of caring or individual attention; not empathetic or sympathetic.
Responsiveness
(-) Not at all responsive; no sense of urgency to provide prompt service to
customers.
Case – Cincinnati Veteran’s Administration Medical Center
1. The CVAMC offers a wide range of services to veterans, who comprise their major
patient category. They include primary and internal medical care, with several sub-
Focusing on Customers 42
specialties; general surgery, with several sub-specialties; mental health, with psychiatric
and psychological support care including several disorders; neurology, and physical
medicine and rehabilitation services. In addition they support trainee education and
pursuit of new knowledge through research. Other customers include the families of
To achieve its vision of being truly customer focused, the CVAMC should develop a
number of approaches to understand customer expectations, deploy short-term and long-
term requirements, ensure relevance of current products/services, and develop new
opportunities.
• It should determine which of its services are the strongest in meeting current
customer needs, which have opportunities for improvement, and what factors
contribute to each. For example, how could it build on its strength in having ties to a
2. The VA Survey appears to have broad coverage, but has some opportunities for
improvement, as well. The following is a brief case analysis according to the dimensions
of service quality developed earlier in the chapter.
Analysis
Introduction
The focus of a customer satisfaction survey, such as developed by the CVAMC, should
be to obtain actionable information from customers. To be actionable, an organization
Focusing on Customers 43
should be able to tie the information to key business processes, and should be able to
determine cost/revenue implications for improvement priority setting.
CVAMC’s vision is to “… shape our future by breaking the traditional VA mold,
building on our strengths, and emerging as the health care center of choice for all
Veterans. As pioneers of change we will:
A. Establish the patient at the core of all processes with the focus on continuity of
Information for Analysis
The following classifies the questions in the questionnaire according to characteristics of
service quality.
Measurement
Perceived Performance
Reliability
Questions 2, 21, 24, 34
Assurance
Questions 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 16, 18, 23, 26, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43
Tangibles
Empathy
Questions 8, 9, 11, 14, 15, 17, 20, 22, 28, 35, 36, 37
Responsiveness
Questions 4, 13, 19, 25, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32
A few questions were too general or global to classify into one of the above
characteristics of service quality, such as Questions 1, 44, 45, 46, 47.
Note also that there were no questions relating to tangibles, such as facilities and
Actionable information for improvement
Although a number of the questions addressed areas related to key business processes and
key patient needs and expectations, few would be considered actionable for improvement
Focusing on Customers 44
The background information provided by hospital management indicated that patients
have the following needs and expectations:
1. Veteran patients require accessibility to care. This includes the need to be seen at
a location convenient to them, as much as possible.
2. They must be able to get an appointment with their clinicians within a reasonable
period of time. A thirty-day limit for specialty clinic consultation has been
targeted as a key customer service standard.
Needs indicated in items 1, 2, 4, 6, and 7 were not specifically addressed in the survey.
Others were touched on, but not fully addressed, such as 3, 5, 8, and 9.
Address satisfaction and loyalty
General questions were asked in order to ascertain an overall quality rating, determine
whether a person would choose free care at another hospital if available, and assess
Conclusions and recommendations
The patient survey can be one of several tools that the CVAMC uses to assess whether it
is meeting or exceeding the goals listed in its vision statement. The survey should be
Focusing on Customers 45
