Voice of the customer

On the current globalized business world, communication has taking a very important (and perhaps) and critical role on the quality perception of our products, especially on the manufacturing world.

 Normally I translate communication as the VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER

A hypothetical example would be:

A product has been on the market (mass production) for 1 year now, and until now everything seems to be running smoothly, but suddenly someone from customer side reports a very strange/rare condition on the product, this condition was never considered before, and was never reported as an issue, And based on our experience it  may be a misinterpretation of a characteristic on the drawing; but the customer is raising a complaint about it. On this example, the condition reported, is not clear defined on the drawing, and the customer actually approved the PPAP based on the current drawing, and customer has been using the product as the way it is for the past year, with no complaints.

 General perception could be: someone is misreading the drawing, there is not a defect in the parts, correct? but this may lead to a wrong perception of the quality of the product, and if the communication issue is not solved immediately, it may become in one of our biggest headaches on quality, because problems like this, hits directly on the confidence and reputation of the supplier.

Here is important to listen carefully to the voice of the customer, and if the customer is complaining for something, we better take some time, to evaluate, and understand exactly the customer expectation.

“Listen to the voice of the customer” This is something that we all know, right? But the question is: are we using the correct tools to “hear” the voice of the customer?

Sometimes, conference calls may not be so much efficient, because even when the teams are talking about the issue, they are not interacting at the same time with the product and with the condition reported, even when pictures or "defective" samples have been shared with the team, communication may take the wrong way, ending up on a never ending discussion, were everybody is trying to defend his point of view, whit out creating any value to the customer.

What I recommend here, is to immediately organize an excursion to the customer site, in order to really “listen to the customer voice” and make sure that all the relevant stakeholders are present during the visit, to clarify face to face the condition reported, evaluate the Form/Fit/Function of the part, and determine if the condition reported is a minor deviation on the part caused by variation on the supplier production process, or may be generated also during the handling at the customer production process, the worst scenario would be if the problem is related to a design condition which will have to be addressed and eventually corrected by the supplier.

Other option would be to have a trustable business partner, (normally known as a Quality Representative company), that can be able to do the visit on your behalf, in order to represent you, and carry on the initial analysis of the situation, and based on the outcome of your Quality Representative, you will decide if is necessary to move to second base, or stay where you are.

This type of services are becoming more common, due the need to maintain a close and agile communication with your customer, and is understandable that not always is feasible to move your resources immediately (especially if your customer is locate on a different country or very far from your location).

In any case I will assure you that your customer will feel supported by the supplier, and customer will be receptive to support and cooperate with the supplier during the correction period (if that is the case), or the customer will be in agreement that the product is only presenting a minor deviation, and maybe the part can be used as the way it is.

But now this is the happy ending side of the history, now imagine, that you never visited the customer, never send any quality representative on your behalf, and never paid the necessary attention to the situation, and you end up trying to fix the issue just by conference calls and e-mails, creating a bigger and bigger miscommunication hole, between both parties.

What would be the customer perception? You will end up paying a lot of money because of third party sorting, or customer rejections, and maybe you will end up with a much damaged reputation in front of your customer.

It will be your choice, which route you want to take, at the end of the day, you may be recovering the money, but not the confidence of your customer.