Tag Archives: Satisfaction

4th Sigma: Project Charters, Part 1 – Do We Need Charters?

Posted on June 7, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

If you were to take everything in the very large Six Sigma toolkit and try to identify the top ten most important tools, the Project Charter is near the top. A charter is just a very good description of what you … Continue reading →

Posted in 4th Sigma, Best Practices, Decision Making, Improvement, Continuous or Not | Tagged 4th Sigma, Improve, Projects, Quality, Satisfaction, Six Sigma, transform | Leave a comment

The Regulators: Round 2 – Are Your Costs In Line With The Market… Which Market?

Posted on June 3, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

Yesterday we spoke a bit about the rise of “Regulators” in Fortune 500 Firms. In the past service managers would periodically see directives for firm-wide budget controls, freezes for new hires, or (during especially difficult economic times) special committees that … Continue reading →

Posted in Best Practices, Common Sense Contracting, Decision Making, Delivering Services, Improvement, Continuous or Not | Tagged Build vs. Buy, change, Costs, Improve, Measure, outsource, Quality, Quantify, Satisfaction, Six Sigma, Track, transform | 1 Comment

The 4th Sigma: The Paradox of Customer Service

Posted on May 28, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

You’ve probably heard about it elsewhere, and if you haven’t in these Blogs we’ve discussed how the Six Sigma framework defines waste as any activity that doesn’t contribute value. For example, in “Is Quality Control A Waste of Time?“ we … Continue reading →

Posted in 4th Sigma, Best Practices, Continuous or Not, Delivering Services, Improvement | Tagged change, corporations, Customer Service, Improve, Measure, Metrics, Projects, Quality, Quantify, Satisfaction, transform | 6 Comments

The 4th Sigma: Analysis Paralysis… More Options Don’t Always Help

Posted on May 25, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

Any good management book or management system provides you with more than a few tools or the steps for a process. The best books remind that you are applying these systems to people, people with preferences and limitations. Some people … Continue reading →

Posted in 4th Sigma, Best Practices, Decision Making, Improvement, Continuous or Not, Learning and Development, Unique Ideas | Tagged 4th Sigma, change, Improve, Measure, Metrics, Projects, Quantify, Satisfaction, Six Sigma, Track, transform | Leave a comment

The 4th Sigma: Is It Time to Rethink Six Sigma?

Posted on May 22, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

Over the past few months, I have been using this blog to collect information from different operational managers, especially IT managers because of the wide range of services they run. The subject has been, “How are you dealing with the … Continue reading →

Posted in 4th Sigma, Best Practices, Decision Making, Delivering Services, Improvement, Continuous or Not, Unique Ideas | Tagged change, Hiring, Improve, IT, Measure, Metrics, outsource, Projects, Quality, Quantify, Reporting, Satisfaction, Six Sigma, tips, Track, transform | 5 Comments

100%, Guaranteed On-Time… Sort Of!

Posted on May 19, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

When I have discussions with my peers about the metrics they collect to run their operations, or at least measure how well their operations perform, the most confused and controversial metric is… On-Time-Delivery (OTD). Many operations feel that they have … Continue reading →

Posted in Best Practices, Decision Making, Delivering Services, Improvement, Continuous or Not | Tagged change, Improve, Measure, Metrics, On Time Delivery, Projects, Quantify, Reporting, Satisfaction, Track, transform | Leave a comment

The Customer Is Always Right… Sometimes

Posted on May 17, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

Yesterday we talked about the Baldridge Award and how one firm won the award, but shortly afterwards went bankrupt. This case raised questions about the value of quality control, or at least of the Baldridge award. My contention is that … Continue reading →

Posted in Best Practices, Delivering Services, Expectations and Rewards | Tagged Clients, Improve, Satisfaction | 2 Comments

Pipe Dreams: Pursuit Of The Right Quality Metric

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

Quality can mean different things, often many things, to any individual. The term “quality”, by itself doesn’t necessarily clearly spell out what you mean. Identifying what quality means (in the context of a specific project) is vital to any improvement … Continue reading →

Posted in Best Practices, Decision Making, Delivering Services, Improvement, Continuous or Not, Learning and Development | Tagged change, Improve, Measure, Metrics, Quality, Satisfaction, Six Sigma, transform, Voice of the Client | Leave a comment

Psychics Are Standing By To Install Your Laptop!

Posted on May 9, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

What do your clients really want from you? Sometimes a client will instruct you to do something, such as editing a document. When you fail to follow their instructions (because it violates a rule, such as English grammar) you can … Continue reading →

Posted in Best Practices, Decision Making, Delivering Services, Improvement, Continuous or Not, Unique Ideas | Tagged Improve, Measure, Metrics, outsource, Predict, Quality, Satisfaction, secretary, Service Levels, Staffing | Leave a comment

Good News, We Have A Customer Complaint!

Posted on May 3, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

We’ve all had it hammered into us… improve services, eliminate complaints, make the customer happy. We all want to provide a service that makes our clients happy, and never receives a client complaint. If customer satisfaction has been your big … Continue reading →

Posted in Best Practices, Decision Making, Delivering Services, Improvement, Continuous or Not, Unique Ideas | Tagged complaints, corporations, Improve, Measure, Metrics, Problem Resolution, Reporting, Satisfaction, Story Telling, Track | Leave a comment