A quality function deployment application to measure and improve service quality for a paging company.

Service Quality is a central issue for the paging industry. It is the single most critical challenge facing the industry today that is presently undergoing a dizzying pace of growth. Paging companies compete with the same product and services at basically the same price. That leaves only one possible differentiator to create competitive advantage - and that is service excellence. This study aims to integrate the quality level perceived by customers and the internal standards set by management to come up with excellent service. The company under study, Co. A, evolving from being a profit-oriented company to being a customer-driven paging company. A Customer Satisfaction and Quality of Service Enhancement Survey was conducted to determine customers\u27 importance weights for various quality attributes and to assess their present level of satisfaction with the services being provided. Survey results showed that performance, or the ability of Co. A to perform paging services accurately and dependably was rated as the most important quality attribute, followed by timeliness, accessibility and assurance. The survey conducted covered the top three paging companies (covering 96 percent of the market). Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was performed to test the significance of the differences between averages for each service variables to the three paging companies. Factor analysis was performed using Statistica software to test the interrelationships of the different variables and determine its significance when evaluating paging services. Application of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) enabled the proponent to prioritize and integrate customer requirements into the service process. QFD analysis showed that Co. A should improve on the current level of service it provides most especially with regard to message accuracy and ease of contact. The proponent developed a Customer Service Scheduling System (CSSS) using manual heuristics to address the issue of ease of contact . The results obtained showed that the present number of Customer Service Assistants (CSAs) should be 23 instead of the present 20. There is a problem with regard to shift and break assignments since most CSAs are out during peak periods. The proposed schedule addressed this and came up with improvements on the existing schedule. To address the critical issues contributing to customer dissatisfaction, the proponent developed a Service Quality System (SQS) to monitor the company\u27s service quality level. The cost-benefit analysis suggest that investing in the system is worthwhile to the company with benefits exceeding costs by an average of P21.6 annually for the next five years. Many facets of quality need to be measured to ensure a comprehensive and accurate assessment of service quality. As such, patience and attention to detail and full commitment and support to achieving quality are minimum requirements to ensure that the system will be successful and contribute to the company\u27s goal of total customer satisfaction through excellent paging services