Focusing on Customers 21
22. A customer survey for a pharmacy asks customers to rate the pharmacy according to the
following:
• Friendly pharmacist
They use a 1-5 Likert scale ranging from Disappointed to Excellent. Comment on how
actionable this survey is to measure performance and enable the pharmacy to improve.
Are there any other things you can suggest to improve the survey?
As it stands, the survey questions do not appear to be actionable, since they aren’t tied
directly to key business processes, so that what needs to be improved is clear; and
The first four items seem to focus on only one of the five service characteristics of
quality: assurance. In addition, “friendliness” can sometimes also mean “empathy” in a
pharmacy setting, where the pharmacist knows the customer’s names, and takes time to
explain the technical features of a medicine. The context is unclear. Quick checkout is an
indicator of reliability, but how “quick” is “quick”?
To improve the survey, questions should be asked about tangibles, such as legibility of
Problems
1. Ski magazine conducts and annual survey of readers to rate ski resorts. They used the
following attributes as the basis for the survey: snow, grooming, terrain variety,
challenge, value, lifts, service, weather, access, on-mountain food, lodging, dining, après-
ski, off-hill activities, family programs, scenery, terrain parks, overall satisfaction.
Classify each of these attributes using the eight dimensions of quality (that is,
performance, features, etc.)
Focusing on Customers 22
Answer
The ski attributes may be classified as:
Snow – performance
Grooming – durability
2. Classify the following customer requirements for a hotel using the five key dimensions of
service quality—reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy, or responsiveness.
• Hotel equipment is always functioning
• Hotel staff is knowledgeable to answer guest’s questions
• Hotel has comfortable beds, furniture, and fittings
• Guests feel safe as services are delivered to their rooms
• Hotel services are provided as promised
• Hotel has well-dressed staff
• Hotel staff is always willing to help guests
• Hotel furnishings appear to be clean and shiny
• Guests receive individual attention
• Guests feel that hotel services are provided at a competitive and affordable price
Answer
Using the five key dimensions of service quality the following customer requirements for
a hotel, the following are classified as:
Focusing on Customers 23
3. Consider the following customer expectations for a fast-food (quick-service) restaurant.
Classify them as dissatisfiers, satisfiers, or exciters/delighters. Justify your reasoning.
a. Special prices on certain days
b. Food is safe to eat
c. Hot food is served hot
d. Service is friendly
e. Background music
f. Playland for children
g. Restaurant is clean inside
h. Food is fresh
i. A “one–bite” money-back guarantee
j. Orders can be phoned in for pickup at a separate window
Answer
Several of these customer expectations items for a fast-food (quick-service) restaurant are
open to variations in individual opinion. For example, as more and more fast food
restaurants have play areas for children, it may become merely a satisfier, rather than an
exciter/delighter. Using Kano’s model, the following may be seen for items a through j:
a. Special prices on certain days – satisfier
4. Table 3.6 is a hypothetical list of customer requirements as determined through a focus
group conducted by an airline. Develop an affinity diagram, classify these requirements
into appropriate categories, and design a questionnaire to survey customers. Be sure to
address any other pertinent issues/questions as well as customer information that would
be appropriate to include in the questionnaire.
Table 3.6 Airline Customer Requirements
• Quality food
• Ability to solve problems and answer questions during flight
• Efficient boarding procedures
• Appealing interior appearance
• Well-maintained seats
Focusing on Customers 24
• Reservation calls answered promptly
• Timely and accurate communication of information prior to boarding
• Good selection of magazines and newspapers
• Efficient and attentive flight attendants
• Good beverage selection
• Clean lavatories
• Efficient ticket line and waiting procedures
• Convenient ground transportation
• Courteous reservations personnel
• Good-quality audio/visual system
• Sufficient quantity of food
• Interesting in-flight magazine
• Courteous and efficient gate personnel
• In-flight telephone access
• Good variety of audio/visual programming
• Flight attendants knowledgeable of airline programs and policies
• Correct explanation of fares and schedules
• Efficient seat-selection process
• Courteous and efficient sky cap
• Timely and accurate communication of flight information (in-flight)
• Convenient baggage check-in
• Timely baggage check-in
• Comfortable seating and leg room
• Assistance for passengers with special needs
• Courteous ticket counter personnel
• Convenient parking close to terminal
• Ability to solve baggage claim problems
• Ability of reservation agents to answer questions
Answer
Airline customer requirements
a. An affinity diagram could be constructed by putting each of the customer service
requirements on a 3″ x 5″ card and clustering items that were similar to each other
b. Once the Affinity Diagram has been developed, the design of a customer survey
Focusing on Customers 25
Very Poor Outstanding
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Convenience of baggage check-in +—–+—–+—–+—–+—–+—–+
Focusing on Customers 26
AFFINITY DIAGRAM FOR AIRLINE
Reservations
courteous reserva-
tion personnel
reservation calls
answered promptly
correct explanation
of fares and
schedules
ability of
reservation agents
to answer questions
Baggage handling
convenient baggage
check-in
timely baggage
claim upon arrival
ability to solve
baggage claim
problems
Facilities and
Preflight Service
timely & accurate
communication of
pre- boarding
information
efficient ticket line
& waiting
procedures
convenient ground
transportation
courteous, efficient
gate personnel
efficient seat
selection process
courteous, efficient
sky cap
provide assistance
for passengers with
special needs
courtesy of ticket
counter personnel
convenient parking
close to terminal
Food Service
quality food
good beverage
selection
sufficient quant-
ity of food
Amenities
good selection
magazines and
newspapers
interesting
Western American
in-flight
magazine
good variety of
audio/visual
programming
Aircraft
appealing interior
appearance
seats in good
condition
clean lavatories
Aircraft
(Continued)
good quality audio
/visual system
in-flight telephone
access
comfortable seating
and leg room
quality public
address system in–
flight
Inflight Service
ability to solve
problems, answer
questions in flight
efficient, attentive
attendants
flight attendants
with good attitudes
flight attendants
know airline
programs &
policies
timely, accurate
flight information
(in-flight)
5. A local franchise of a national car rental firm conducted a survey of customers to
determine their perceptions of the importance of key product and service attributes as
well as their perceptions of the company’s performance. The results are given in Tables
3.4 and 3.5. In Table 3.4, importance was measured on a four-point scale ranging from
“not at all important” to “very important.” Note that Table 3.5 is segmented by personal
and business use, and that two different scales were used (the percentage values are based
on the percentage of “yes” responses; all others are on a 5-point scale from “poor” to
“excellent”). What conclusions might you make from these data? What possible
improvements can you suggest?
Table 3.4 Importance Ratings of Product/Service Attributes
Mechanical condition of car
4.50
Focusing on Customers 27
Check-out speed/efficiency
Cleanliness of vehicle
Getting reserved car or better
Friendliness of staff
Check-in speed/efficiency
Cleanliness of facility
Employee appearance
Getting nonsmoking car
Speed of coach service
4.35
3.98
3.85
3.80
3.75
3.60
3.52
3.50
3.29
Personal use
Business use
Mechanical condition of car
Check-out speed/efficiency
Cleanliness of vehicle
Getting reserved car or better
Friendliness of staff
Check-in speed/efficiency
Cleanliness of facility
Employee appearance
Getting nonsmoking car
Speed of coach service
4.515
4.853
4.929
4.259
96%
4.315
4.193
100%
86%
90%
4.710
4.163
4.688
4.888
91%
4.105
3.500
100%
100%
85%
Answer
On the importance ratings, it appears that the three top items are mechanical condition,
checkout speed, and car cleanliness. Getting reserved car or better, friendliness of staff
Focusing on Customers 28
6. Versele Sporting Goods is a family-owned regional sporting goods store located in a small
Midwestern town, and competes with a larger national sporting goods chain in a larger city
about 40 miles away, as well as major national retail “superstore” with generally lower
prices. Versele’s specializes is athletic equipment, accessories, and clothing and it seeks to
create a competitive advantage through high-quality customer service. Their vision is to be
the “best–run sporting goods store in America.” They hire people who are passionate about
sports, engage in sporting activities so that they can better relate to the products and
customers, and cross-train associates so that they are a good knowledge of all product lines,
no matter what their personal interests are.
To better understand what customers value and how they perform relative to their
competition, they conducted a survey to rate customers’ perceptions for their store and their
two main competitors on the following attributes (using a 1-7 Likert scale):
1. Friendliness of employees
2. Knowledge of products
3. Helpfulness in selecting the right product
4. Store layout
5. Product availability
6. Product quality
7. Ease of checkout
8. Overall customer satisfaction
9. Willingness to recommend to others
a. Results from the survey, taken from a random sample of 50 customers per month for 12
months, can be found in the Excel file C03Data.xlsx in the Bonus Materials Folder in the
Student Companion Site. From your analysis, what might Versele’s do to create
“exciters/delighters” that would help them compete with the larger national chain and
local superstore?
b. Using the five dimensions of service quality, what other attributes might the store
include in the survey?
Answer
Focusing on Customers 29
stable, between 5.7 and 6.9, except for a 2 month slump in the first half of the year. The
friendliness and helpfulness ratings mirrored each other with three-month declines in
The product and store characteristics of store layout, product availability, product quality,
and ease of checkout show a great deal of variability, except for product quality. Perhaps
the greatest variability is shown by the “ease of checkout.” This might be due to
0.0
7.0
8.0
12345678910 11 12
Months
Employee Atributes
right product
8.0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Product and Store Attributes
Months
Product and Store Characteristics
Focusing on Customers 30
b. Using the five dimensions of service quality, reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy,
and responsiveness, it appears that the dimensions of reliability (product quality, product
7. Ramsey’s Radical Reservations (RRR.com) takes and processes reservations on land, sea,
air, and even space travel and prides itself in being a “one–stop” service for adventure
travel. Data in spreadsheet C03Data.xlsx in the Student Companion Site shows results
from 200 customers who were sampled during one representative week. Count the
number of responses at each level (10 through1), determine the number and percentage of
customers at the promoter, passive, and detractor levels. Then calculate net promoter
score (NPS). Is it at a high, medium or low level? What should Ramsey do, considering
that this is a typical week’s score?
Answer
The promoter percentage is not extremely high, but the passive percentage is fairly high,
and the detractor percentage is almost as high. Consequently, the “point score” of the
5.0
6.0
7.0
Customer Satisfaction and Referrals
Focusing on Customers 31
NPS is rather low at 32.5%. Ramsey should first focus on ways to convert passives to
being promoters. Since Ramsey’s niche is adventure travel, it is likely that his customers
8. Angelina’s Beauty Emporium started out with a mission of providing hair care, beauty
treatment and spa services to middle income women. Angelina would like to move to a
more upscale clientele, if possible. She has collected weekly data for the past two years
(104 weeks) by asking over 200 clients per week to answer the question: “What is the
likelihood that you would recommend us?” evaluated on a scale from 0 to 10. Data can be
found in C03-Data.xlsx in the Student Companion Site. Compute the percentage of
respondents who are promoters, passives, and detractors, and then compute the NPS score.
a) Plot these scores on several graphs and give an explanation for possible causes of any
trends that you see in the data. b) Angelina tried a promotion for upscale clients during 8
weeks (from week 41 to 49) and four weeks (between weeks 92 and 95). What do the
results show?
Answer
As the charts of Promoters, Passives, and Detractors Scores (see spreadsheet Prob03-
08.xlsx for details) show, the Promoters scores actually began climbing prior to the
beginning of the promotion in week 41. This could have been due to training or other
Focusing on Customers 32
0.0%
100.0%
1
6
11
16
21
26
31
36
41
46
51
56
61
66
71
76
81
86
91
96
101
Promoters Percentages
Weeks
Angelina’s Beauty Emporium – Promoters Scores
0.0%
5.0%
35.0%
40.0%
1
6
11
16
21
26
31
36
41
46
51
56
61
66
71
76
81
86
91
96
101
Passives Percentages
Weeks
Angelina’s Beauty Emporium – Passives Scores
0.0%
25.0%
30.0%
1
6
11
16
21
26
31
36
41
46
51
56
61
66
71
76
81
86
91
96
101
Detractors Percentages
Weeks
Angelina’s Beauty Emporium – Detractors Scores
Focusing on Customers 33
9. Premier Computer Designs is trying to design a powerful, portable computer targeted
toward quality managers. They have surveyed a panel of quality managers and have
found that the characteristics that are important to such managers are: speed, active
memory, portability, reliability, and price. Premier has two different models that they had
the panel to rate. The relative importance percentages and ratings are shown in the table
in spreadsheet C03-Data.xlsx in the Student Companion Site. Calculate the relative
performance and weighted customer perceived value (CPV) of each pilot computer
product. Which one should Premier scale up for full production? If they wanted to
produce the other design as a “backup,” which one characteristic of the second best
computer should they try to enhance?
Answer
The results (see spreadsheet Prob03-09.xlsx for details) are shown in the table, below.
Computer A should be chosen for production, based on comparison of CPV-A versus
0.0%
10.0%
80.0%
1
6
11
16
21
26
31
36
41
46
51
56
61
66
71
76
81
86
91
96
101
Weeks
Angelina’s Beauty Emporium – NPS Scores