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Identifying customer needs and Critical to Quality (CTQ) requirements

Understanding what your customers truly value

Process improvement initiatives achieve the best results when they are laser-focused on what truly matters to your customers. Before you can improve a process to better serve them, you first need to deeply understand their needs, expectations, and perceptions of value. This involves capturing the Voice of the Customer (VOC) and translating it into measurable Critical to Quality (CTQ) requirements.

Capturing the Voice of the Customer (VOC)

The Voice of the Customer refers to the collective needs, wants, expectations, and feedback (both positive and negative) that your customers express about your products, services, or processes. Effectively capturing the VOC is the foundation for customer-centric improvement. Here are some common ways to listen in an office or service environment:

  • Surveys: Systematically collect feedback on satisfaction, specific process touchpoints, or overall experience.
  • Interviews: Conduct one-on-one discussions with a representative sample of customers to gain deep insights into their perspectives and pain points.
  • Feedback Forms: Embed simple feedback mechanisms within your Tallyfy processes or at the end of service delivery.
  • Support Tickets & Complaints: Analyze patterns in customer issues and complaints – they often point directly to process deficiencies.
  • Social Media & Review Sites: Monitor what customers are saying about you publicly.
  • Sales & Account Management Teams: These teams are often on the frontline and have valuable insights into customer sentiment and needs.

Understanding different types of customer needs: The Kano Model

Not all customer needs are created equal, and understanding their different types can help prioritize improvements. The Kano Model provides a useful framework:

  • Must-bes (Basic Expectations): These are unspoken requirements that customers absolutely expect. If not met, they cause extreme dissatisfaction. If met, they don’t necessarily increase satisfaction – they are just the baseline. Example: For a Tallyfy-managed client onboarding process, a Must-be is that all required legal documents are correctly processed.
  • One-dimensionals (Performance Needs): With these, the more you provide, the more satisfied the customer becomes (and vice-versa). Customers are usually vocal about these. Example: The faster the onboarding process is completed in Tallyfy, the happier the client.
  • Delighters (Excitement Needs): These are unexpected positive features or service aspects that can create a “wow” effect and significantly boost satisfaction. Customers don’t usually ask for these. Example: Proactively sending a personalized welcome kit with helpful resources halfway through the Tallyfy onboarding process could be a Delighter.

Understanding where your process features and outcomes fall on the Kano model helps you focus improvements on maintaining Must-bes, excelling at One-dimensionals, and strategically adding Delighters.

Defining Critical to Quality (CTQ) requirements

Once you’ve gathered the Voice of the Customer, the next step is to translate those often qualitative needs into specific, measurable process characteristics. These are your Critical to Quality (CTQ) requirements. CTQs bridge the gap between what customers say they want and what your processes actually need to deliver.

Good CTQs are SMART:

  • Specific: Clearly defined and unambiguous.
  • Measurable: You can quantify performance against them.
  • Achievable: It’s possible to meet the requirement.
  • Relevant: Directly linked to a customer need and business goal.
  • Time-bound: Has a timeframe or frequency associated with it (if applicable).

For example:

  • VOC: “I need my support query resolved quickly.”
  • CTQ: “Resolve 95% of urgent support tickets within 4 business hours.”

A CTQ Tree can be a helpful visual tool to break down broad customer needs into more granular, measurable CTQs. Start with a general need, then ask “what does that mean?” or “how would we measure that?” to identify specific characteristics.

Designing Tallyfy processes around CTQs

Tallyfy Pro enables you to build and manage processes with your customers’ CTQs at the forefront:

  • Set Deadlines: Define task and process deadlines in Tallyfy based on customer-driven CTQs for speed and timeliness.
  • Use Form Fields: Capture precise customer requirements or critical data points directly within Tallyfy tasks using form fields.
  • Embed Clear Instructions: Ensure steps are performed correctly to meet quality-related CTQs by providing detailed instructions, checklists, or even video guides within Tallyfy tasks.
  • Track Performance: Use Tallyfy’s real-time tracking and analytics to monitor if your processes are consistently meeting the targets set by your CTQs (e.g., on-time completion, error rates if captured).

By actively listening to your customers and translating their needs into measurable CTQs, you can ensure your process improvement efforts are focused on what truly creates value, leading to more impactful results and stronger customer relationships.

How To > Improve processes effectively

Organizations can continuously enhance their operations by gathering team feedback analyzing customer input identifying bottlenecks through data and implementing changes systematically while maintaining focus on delivering customer value through standardized yet flexible processes.
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