The Goal of Measuring Customer Satisfaction in the Precast Industry

Introduction

The goal of measuring customer satisfaction in the precast industry is one that manufacturers have struggled with over the years. Many of the precast companies, including Stonecast Products (Precaster), have used Voice of the Customer surveys to try and gain information to use for company strategic planning, determining customer wants and needs and to determine project specific performance. The practice is inconsistent, has a poor response rate and the information is not disseminated thru the company to use it to improve or measure customer satisfaction. Many of the problems with getting the Voice of the Customer information is which entity do you solicit the information from? The Contractor? The Architect/Engineer? The Owner or End User? In all cases, each customer has criteria that they need to have met and thus creating different wants and needs. There are Expected Quality, Actual Quality and Perceived Quality factors with each customer. (Managing, 2011) To be able to interpret and effectively utilize customer satisfaction ratings, it is necessary to understand what determines them as well as know what variables and/or factors relate to them. (Peterson, Wilson 1992)

Measuring Customer Satisfaction in the Precast Industry

Precast, whether architectural or structural, is a unique item in the construction industry. It is held to an industry standard as established by the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI) but also a specification as provided by the bidding documents. PCI defines Quality as the appearance, strength and durability which is appropriate for the specific product, it particular application and its expected performance requirements. The totality of features and characteristics of a product that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs. (Manual, 1996)

In most instances there are three customers to be concerned with on each and every project. First is the Architect/Engineer (AE) who designed the structure, set the specification criteria and is the entity responsible for the structure. They are the ones that determine whether or not the product has met the criteria specified and the standards set forth by PCI.

The Architect/Engineer's main concern is compliance with their contract documents and specifications. This would be best described as the Expected Quality as described in the text. (Managing, 2011) They are concerned that the product meets the intended design use and criteria set forth by the specification for performance.

Since the Architect is the entity that does the programming for the structure, they often have several different material options to construct the building or structure with. In many instances if the Precaster would spend time getting the Voice of the Customer information from the AE, they would find better opportunities to sell their products in the early stages of the design. Specifications written by the A/E can affect the contractors ability to make cost effective precast.

The second part of the equation in the Precaster's customer relationship is the Contractor. The Contractor usually holds the Precaster's contract and is the primary client contact during production and construction. The Contractor is typically concerned with cost and schedule impact. They are less concerned with the previously listed items that the A/E are concerned with though they have a responsibility to ensure that those requirements are met. Provided that there is oversight by the A/E, this becomes secondary.

When working for the Contractor customer, the Precaster needs to be concerned with the Actual Quality of the product once delivered