How can you use design of experiments to increase customer satisfaction?

Customer satisfaction is a key metric for any business that wants to retain and attract customers, improve its reputation, and increase its profitability. But how can you measure and improve customer satisfaction in a systematic and efficient way? One powerful tool that industrial engineers use is design of experiments (DOE), a method that allows you to test different factors and levels that affect your product or service quality and performance. In this article, you will learn how to use DOE to increase customer satisfaction by following these steps:

1 Define your objective

The first step in any DOE is to define your objective, or what you want to achieve with your experiment. For example, you might want to increase customer satisfaction by reducing defects, increasing speed, or enhancing features. You should also define your response variable, or how you will measure customer satisfaction, such as ratings, reviews, feedback, or retention. Your objective and response variable should be clear, specific, and measurable.

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Ragib Spahic

|| Manager at IFFCO || Founder o.d. Sigma ||
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Through meticulous preparation, selecting a problem of paramount importance to the customer, and carefully choosing the most significant variables, we lay the groundwork for every subsequent step. From determining the levels of variation to planning, executing experiments, measuring, and analyzing results, our focus remains steadfast on delivering value to our customers.

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Esteban Mendoza

| Ingeniero Eléctrico | Estudiante de Ingeniería Industrial | Auditor BPM | Técnico de Calidad | Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt-LSSYB |
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Design of Experiments is one of the most effective statistical tools to analyze, understand and optimize processes, products or services in the industry. It is a work method used by companies and sectors to understand how a process works, study the variables that affect it and, through statistics, obtain the necessary information for its improvement. What can we improve? Among other things, we can improve the performance of a process. How does the client benefit? When we improve a process the client receives: • Less variability • The cost of production decreases. • Increase in the quality of products or services. And when variability is reduced, quality increases, leading to customer satisfaction. Simple!!

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Autumn S.

Human Factors Engineer | Ergonomist | Industrial Engineer | “Bringing the human back to human factors”
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In my experience Design of Experiments (DOE) should pivot around the key objectives of the research or the study as controlled variables. The research study should be designed as to tease out the most influential factors in customer experience (CX) such as response time and defect identification. Use of DOE provides a statistical perspective to clarify some of the contributing factors to the CX and may identify variables that the study designer may not have anticipated.

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2 Identify your factors and levels

The next step is to identify your factors and levels, or the variables that you can control and change in your experiment. Factors are the aspects of your product or service that might influence customer satisfaction, such as materials, design, process, or price. Levels are the different values or settings that each factor can have. For example, if your factor is material, your levels might be plastic, metal, or wood. You should choose factors and levels that are relevant, feasible, and meaningful for your objective.

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3 Choose your design and run your experiment

The third step is to choose your design and run your experiment, or the plan that determines how you will combine and test your factors and levels. There are different types of designs, such as factorial, fractional factorial, or response surface, that vary in the number of runs, the amount of information, and the complexity of analysis. You should choose a design that suits your objective, resources, and constraints. Then, you should run your experiment by applying your factors and levels to your product or service and collecting data on your response variable.

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Kolappan S (Kols)

Product Management at Microsoft Corporation | Microsoft 365 and Copilot Data Platform | Mentor |
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In my experience, the software experiments would need to be done in a controlled way to derive an insightful outcome with real data. Identifying control group (who will NOT see a new experience) and treatment group ( those who will see the experience) are critical here. This will determine how effectively are we going to compare the two cohorts. Need to be clear on what is the overall opportunity size for doing an experiment. One must think about this carefully, it’s also important to note that NOT every scenarios need to go through experiments. Good audience size is essential for capturing the right response data for analyzing STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE whether users in treatment groups performed better than the control group.

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4 Analyze your results and draw conclusions

The final step is to analyze your results and draw conclusions, or the process of using statistical methods to interpret your data and find the optimal combination of factors and levels that maximize customer satisfaction. You can use software tools, such as Minitab or R, to perform analysis, such as ANOVA, regression, or optimization. You should look for significant effects, interactions, and trends that reveal how your factors and levels affect customer satisfaction. You should also validate your conclusions by conducting confirmation runs or tests.

By using DOE, you can increase customer satisfaction by finding the best way to deliver your product or service quality and performance. DOE can help you optimize your resources, reduce your costs, and enhance your innovation. You can apply DOE to any industry or domain that involves customer satisfaction, such as manufacturing, engineering, marketing, or health care.

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5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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How can you use design of experiments to increase customer satisfaction?

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1 Define your objective

2 Identify your factors and levels

3 Choose your design and run your experiment

4 Analyze your results and draw conclusions

5 Here’s what else to consider

Industrial Engineering

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How can you use design of experiments to increase customer satisfaction?

1

2

3

4

5

1 Define your objective

2 Identify your factors and levels

3 Choose your design and run your experiment

4 Analyze your results and draw conclusions

5 Here’s what else to consider

Industrial Engineering

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