Define Quality By Asking Your Customers

By Jim Peduto Jim Peduto is the president of Matrix Integrated Facility Management and the co-founder of the American Institute for Cleaning Sciences, an independent third-party accreditation organization that establishes standards to improve the professional performance of the cleaning industry.

• Obtain key requirements: Quality often is defined simply as “meeting or exceeding customer requirements.” Therefore, defining the requirements is an essential first step.
  For each customer, you should have a site-specific written scope of work or performance outcome that defines the customer’s expectations for the facility. The document should include tasks and frequencies and a description of how the customer defines clean. It might be necessary to meet with other stakeholders within the organization to better define expectations.
• Write a quality plan: Once you know what customers expect, you then can start building a quality plan. This plan will help determine whether cleaning service requirements are met. It will also help identify improvement opportunities. The quality plan accurately describes the level of service defined by the customer, scope of work, implementation plan and performance outcomes. In short, it describes how to get from Point A to Point B.
• Measure performance and gather feedback: The next step is measuring what is spelled out in the plan. The measurement system does not need to be complex. It can include surveys, inspections, records of complaints and customer evaluations. Maintaining a constant cycle of customer feedback helps consistently gather and track positive and negative results. It should also help you proactively identify opportunities for and drive continuous improvement.
• Evaluate progress and commit to improvement: Analyzing performance results and determining whether your organization is delivering the service that the customer expects is fundamental to the delivery of quality service. Upon review of results, put together a written corrective action plan that describes how your organization will measure, report and implement improvements.
• Redefine quality: The customer is at the center of every component within a quality system. The customer provides key requirements, drives the quality plan, supplies relevant feedback and determines areas for improvement. It is the customer that ensures that your business is positioned to deliver quality services.

Next time you mention the word “quality,” you better be asking your customers, “What does quality mean to you?”