We gather surveys and complaints and record the negatives and suggestions for improvement. Over a period of time, usually 90 days to coincide with our quarterly quality management review meetings, we look at all the comments to discover any repeats or "trends"(as used in the quality management world) and record them on an action request. An action request is a controlled document that is used to document a problem and get the responsible departments or persons to develope a fix for the problem. The actions request cannot be thrown away and forgotten about. Since this is a recorded document and we are UL listed to the ISO9001 standards, we have outside auditors come into our office and go through the records to ensure that they were acted upon. Negligence of the ISO standards as well as our own policies toward customer satisfaction and continual improvement is grounds for dismissal of our UL registration. Also as important is that the fix is not a one time fix. A root cause of the problem is given as it relates to the principles of our quality management system. The ISO standard is referenced and the problem is associated with one of the parts of the requirements of the standard. For example, a trend is identified that suggests our service personnel are not showing up on time. The reason cannot not be stated that someone made a mistake, but the root cause must be found. A departmental meeting may be necessary to determine the cause. It may be that calls are not recorded, or that the dispatcher is not properly trained on procedure for dispatch, or that our provisions for service do not provide enough trained technicians. All of these causes have a basis in the standard. A new procedure, new policy, or additional training on the violated exisitng procedure or management intervention with regards to human resources may be in order. The truth must be discovered, appropriate actions implemented, and follow up must take place; otherwise, this whole customer satisfaction thing is bogus and a waste of your time. And believe me, our family values your time as we value your continued relatiionship.

Sincerely,
Glenn McCullough, President