Quality In Customer Perspective

ABSTRACT

Purpose - In the modern era, the customer needs and wants have become a critical factor for business. Quality is one of the most significant factor that customer emphasize. The purpose of this study is to define the concept of quality in customer view.

Methodology - The proposed model is based on a current conceptualization of quality, which suggests that customer perspective is a critical factor in concept of quality.

Findings -

Originality/value - The paper has a value for business seeking to improve the quality provided by them based on customer perspective.

Keywords: Quality, Customer perspective

Paper type: Conceptual paper

1. Introduction

In nowadays globalization and liberalization international business environment, quality

Thus, this paper aim to study the concept of quality in customer perspective.

2. Literature review

2.1 Quality According to Oxford American Dictionary defined that quality is a degree or level of excellence. However, different people will have different definition about it. Another definition found was is the American Society for Quality stated that quality is “totality of features and characteristics that satisfy needs without deficiency”. Obviously, quality can be defined in many ways which depend on who is defining it and the products or services it refers to.

Crosby(1979) point out that “Conformance to requirements. Measurements are taken continually to determine conformance to those requirements. The nonconformance detected is the absence of quality”.

“The difficulty in defining quality is to translate future needs of the user into measurable characteristics, so that a product can be designed and turned out to give satisfaction at a price that the user will pay” (Deming, 1986, p.

Is your bank or credit card statement correct every month?

Time and timeliness How long a customer must wait for service, and is it completed on time? For example, is an overnight package delivered overnight?

Consistency

Is the same level of service provided to each customer each time? Is your newspaper delivered on time every morning?

Courtesy and are their voices pleasant? How customers are treated by employees. For example, are catalog phone operators at L.L. Bean nice and are their voices pleasant?

Accessibility and convenience How easy it is to obtain the service. For example, when you call Lands' End or L. L. Bean does the service representative answer quickly?

Responsiveness How well the company reacts to unusual situations, which can happen frequently in a service company? For example, how well a telephone operator at L.L. Bean is able to respond to a customer's questions about a catalog item not fully described in the catalog?

¹ Adapted from D. A. Garvin, "What Does Quality Really Mean?" Sloan Management Review 26, no. 1 (1984): 25-43.

² J. R. Evans and W. M. Lindsay, The Management and Control of Quality, 3d ed. (St. Paul, Minn.: West,