Handbook of Management Scales/Customer focus

Description
Through a detailed analysis of the literature, twelve constructs of integrated quality management strategies were identified: top management commitment, customer focus, supplier quality management, design quality management, benchmarking, SPC usage, internal quality information usage, employee empowerment, employee involvement, employee training, product quality, and supplier performance. Using a survey of 371 manufacturing firms, the constructs were then empirically tested and validated. For this purpose a confirmatory factor analysis approach was used.

Items

 * Manufacturing managers are aware of the results of customer satisfaction surveys.
 * A summary of customer complaints is given to manufacturing managers regularly.
 * To achieve greater customer satisfaction, our company actively seeks ways to improve our primary product.
 * Our company has been customer focused for the past two years.

Source

 * Ahire et al. (1996): Development and Validation of TQM Implementation Constructs. Decision Sciences, Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 23-56.

Related Scales

 * Customer involvement

Description
The authors identify key constructs related to supply chain management. Based on a systematic instrument develop process, they develop a set of reliable, valid, and unidimensional measurement scales.

Items

 * We anticipate and respond to customers’ evolving needs and wants. (0.57)
 * We emphasize the evaluation of formal and informal customer complaints. (0.75)
 * We follow up with customers for quality/service feedback. (0.76)
 * We interact with customers to set reliability, responsiveness, and other standards. (0.78)
 * Satisfying customer needs is the central purpose of our business. (0.67)
 * Customer focus is reflected in our business planning. (0.74)

Source

 * Chen/Paulraj (2004): Towards a theory of supply chain management: the constructs and measurements. Journal of Operations Management, Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 119–150

Description
Eight quality management practices were identiﬁed by the authors: customer focus, employee relations, management leadership, process management, product/service design, quality data and reporting, supplier quality management, and training.

Items

 * Extent to which customers are involved in product or service design. (0.58)
 * Extent to which customer satisfaction surveys are used in determining/identifying customers’ requirements. (0.62)
 * Extent to which managers are aware of the results of customer satisfaction surveys. (0.67)
 * Extent to which managers have access to a summary of customer complaints. (0.66)
 * Extent to which the organization actively seeks ways to improve the primary product/service in order to achieve greater satisfaction. (0.84)
 * Degree of employees’ understanding of who their customers are. (0.72)

Item 1 was adopted from Powell (1995); item 2 was created based on literature review; items 3–5 were adopted from Ahire et al. (1996); item 6 was adopted from Morrow (1997).

Source

 * Kaynak/Hartley (2008): A replication and extension of quality management into the supply chain. Journal of Operations Management, Vol. 26, No. 4, pp. 468–489.

Related Scales

 * Customer interaction