Bridging the Quality-Satisfaction Gap

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Abstract
Increasing customer satisfaction requires that organizations bridge the gap between internal process quality and external perceptions of quality and satisfaction. Although both engineering-based and market-based approaches to quality offer tools and methods to bridge this gap, hidden problems remain. This article introduces a framework for linking quality—using quality function deployment (QFD), and customer satisfaction—using customer satisfaction modeling (CSM). An empirical example is used to illustrate the framework, the problems inherent in translating satisfaction into quality, and proposed solutions to these problems.