Who Are The External Customers?
The expression "The customer is always right" is not always true; however, one right of the customer is always true: "The customer has the right to purchase from whomever he wants."
With this in mind, we should make every attempt to make sure the customer wants to buy from us. To assess the needs of your customers, utilize input from all customer contact personnel.
In an organization that follows TQM principles, input can come from the sales representative, your marketing group, the quality department, manufacturing, customer service, and engineering. The method in which the input is provided can be reactive or proactive. Both sources should be looked upon as opportunities for satisfying your customers' needs.
Reactive input is in the form of customer complaints or from interpreting customer purchase orders or sales inquiries. When customer complaints are received, either as written complaints or in the form of returned goods, most organizations react as fire fighters and focus on the hot spot.
We sometimes ignore the system that created the problem in the first place. When a purchase order or sales inquiry is received, most organizations interpret their customer's requirements through the mirror of their own paradigms.
Proactive input is solicited through visits to the customer's place of business, visits to your facility by your customer, customer satisfaction surveys, and by cross-functional teams consisting of employees from customer and supplier facilities.
All these activities should be part of management's strategic business plan.
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