Voice of the Customer: Make Sure You Get Input from ALL Before You Determine Critical to Quality Criteria

Voice of the Customer (VOC) is a key tool in the process improvement toolkit.  The consumer is the ultimate customer and pays for the product or service your firm provides.  But there are a number of other customers in the product or service delivery chain, frequently with competing expectations.

      For example, take a manufactured product which goes through a number of steps in a supply chain before it reaches the consumer.  A consumer seeks to maximize value for their hard-earned dollar, will frequently seek a low price, and may switch to a competitor.  In this instance, a low price could be a VOC.

A distributor of your product will seek to stock and sell a product which provides maximum profit to their firm.  If the distributor’s profit is from a percentage of their selling price to a retailer, they will seek to maintain (or increase) the price, if commission is their only form of compensation.

This is an example of potential conflicts with various external customers.  There can just as easily be internal examples also.  So it is important to gather, review, classify and prioritize VOC information from every customer involved with the processes that deliver your product or service. (January 1, 2014)