‘Customers’: A Multidimensional Term We in Process Improvement Use Which Requires Listening to All

      Listen to your customer.  That is a core concept of any quality, six sigma, or other process improvement initiatives.  You need to get their input.  Reach out to them and they’ll tell you.  This is all well and good but any organization has many types of customers who occasionally have conflicting needs, wants and desires.

      Let’s start with end of the process chain, the consumer of the product or service.  He or she ‘uses’ what you produce.  But does that person pay for the product or service?  In a business to consumer (B2C) situation, the answer is usually yes.  In a business to business (B2B), that’s not always the case.  For example an organization which outsources its IT functions, the consumer could be the user but the customer (or client) is the IT organization.

      And that is where you need to be carefully listen to the customer. The consumer in this situation is going to tell you ‘when my PC or printer breaks, I want a technician to come to fix it right away.’  If you speak to the client in management of the IT organization they will tell you ‘there is no way the organization can afford to have that many technicians sitting on the bench ready for an emergency like that.’

      So you need to listen to all of the ‘customers’ and get their input.  The above is an example of just two but depending upon your product or service this can also include wholesalers, retailers, resellers, and many other external customers.  Internal customers can include your sales, marketing, finance, legal and others again depending upon your product or service.  You need to listen to them all and then make decisions on those which are your projects critical to quality (CTQs).