Page 76 - Design for Six Sigma for Service (Six SIGMA Operational Methods)

Chapter
4

Customer Survey Design,
Administration, and Analysis

4.1 Introduction

One of the most important success factors in designing superior service
products is to know your customers. For a Six Sigma company, the design
decision should be driven by the voices of customers. For the service
industry, obtaining detailed customer data is even more important because
maintaining customers’ loyalty is extremely vital for the survival of a
service institution. The customer survey is an essential tool that can yield
information about customer expectations and customer satisfactions and
assist in creating strategies for improvement.

Commercial enterprises use customer survey findings to formulate
marketing strategies and design their products. Television and radio
programs are evaluated and scheduled largely based on the results of
consumer surveys. Libraries, restaurants, financial institutions, and recre-
ational facilities use customer surveys to gather information about customer
composition and customer desires.

Customer surveys of only a sample of customers are taken to learn about the
whole population of a customer base. The sample may contain as few as 30
(a small sample) to as many as 30,000 or more (a very large sample) people.
The data obtained on the survey are then analyzed. The survey method is
based on sound statistical principles, and over 70 years of modern survey
practices show that the predictions based on information from a survey of a
relatively small sample are usually quite accurate.

4.1.1 Customer Survey Types
There are three types of customer survey methods: mail out, telephone, and
in-person.

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