Customers
BT finds it difficult to assign directly cause and effect between TQM and business benefits, as it feels it “ Pulls everything together”. The BEM has enabled BT to get the best out of all the other things that were going on - best practice became better known, e.g. how o deal best with a customer on an enquiry desk. Self-assessment caused the exchange of ideas regarding satisfying and delighting customers.
Customer satisfaction results in BT are impressive and the BEM has provide both a mirror and a window through which to improve results. For example, customer loyalty was not high and, therefore, work was done to “delight” customers. The BEM and self-assessment were very instrumental in this change from satisfied to very satisfied to loyal customers, including gaining an understanding of the drivers of customer satisfaction.
The difference in perception and other measures is interesting. For example,99.5% of all telephone services are delivered on the agreed date, but the perception can be much lower than this. This company has, therefore ,moved over from internal measures to external perception measures.