Customer Satisfaction Process Item 5: Initiate Projects

Project Management

After selecting "leverage points" (item 4), the satisfaction satisfaction process must lead to action or it will short-circuit and fail. PROJECTS keep the customer satisfaction process flowing rather than short-circuiting. Learn more about project management at Project Management Institute (PMI) website.

Example

For example, if "customer service - problem resolution" is a low-satisfaction area revealed as one of the leverage points, an organized improvement effort is initiated around this point. The customer satisfaction team now works toward establishing PROJECTS that address this strategic item.

The first step is an overview of root cause considerations. In this example, low satisfaction scores might be caused by poorly trained customer service reps, a lack of technology or information in customer service, under-empowered customer service reps, a faulty underlying product that creates too many customer complaints, or under-trained customers. After finding root cause(s) the satisfaction team establishes improvement projects. For example, the root causes may be training of service reps and improving the underlying product. The satisfaction team then arranges for projects teams that address these two types of solutions.

Connect With Existing Customer-Oriented Programs

The company may have an existing customer oriented system that engages at this point. For example, a quality program may utilize the leverage point "customer service - problem resolution" as a catalyst that sets in motion a quality team who will find the root cause and pursue corrective actions.

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