7.1 Product and Service Outcomes

Purpose

This Item examines your organization’s key product and service outcomes, with the aim of delivering product and service quality that leads to customer satisfaction, loyalty, and positive referral.

 

Comments

- This Item places emphasis on measures of product and service performance that serve as indicators of customers’ views and decisions relative to future purchases and relationships. These measures of product and service performance are derived from customer-related information gathered in Item 3.1 and Item 3.2.

- Product and service measures appropriate for inclusion might be based upon the following: internal quality measurements, field performance of products, defect levels, response times, data collected from your customers by other organizations on ease of use or other attributes, and customer surveys on product and service performance.

- The correlation between product and service performance and customer indicators is a critical management tool with multiple uses: (1) defining and focusing on key quality and customer requirements; (2) identifying product and service differentiators in the marketplace; and (3) determining cause-effect relationships between your product and service attributes and evidence of customer satisfaction and loyalty, as well as positive referrals. The correlation might reveal emerging or changing market segments, the changing importance of requirements, or even the potential obsolescence of product or service offerings.