Customer Driven Master Plan
TQM presents a business character of caring and competence. A TQM business recognizes that the customer’s wants and needs are the market, and therefore the only trophy worth seeking.
An organization’s customers include those who buy and use the organization’s products and services, and the organization’s employees, suppliers, stockholders, and communities in which they operate.
For too many years, some public and private sector leaders and managers have considered their customers as simply the original source of their revenue and profits. If they could get them to let go of some of the contents of their wallets, they have been successful. Fortunately, the impact of that shortsighted philosophy is becoming more apparent in terms of the impact on customers -- people, planet, and profits. An increasing awareness of the need to truly serve one’s customers needs to become more of an American tradition.
TQM training promotes, throughout an organization, the reality of producing customer satisfaction. From research and development through sales and service, every employee orients his or her efforts toward understanding and pleasing the customer. Customer input is sought at every level. No change is made unless it can be illustrated as a move toward increased customer satisfaction. A clear documentation of customer dissatisfaction results in a careful evaluation of business processes, followed by a decisive and deliberate modification of those processes to better meet, and then exceeds the customer’s quality requirements.
There is no aspect of customer satisfaction that isn’t part of TQM. Virtually any business improvement program is nothing more than some aspect of Total Quality Management.