OVERCOMING PROBLEMS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A QUALITY AWARENESS PROGRAM
The researcher is employed by the Dean Witter/Discover organization. Dean Witter/Discover is a financial services firm. Recently, the firm initiated a quality awareness program. Implementation of the program has not been smooth and the time goals for some program objectives have been missed. This research examines the implementation of quality awareness programs at other firms with a view towards the development of recommendations that will get the implementation of the Dean Witter/Discover quality awareness program back on track.
The development of a total quality improvement program within an organization is facilitated by first developing quality awareness within the firm (Roach, 1990, pp. 14 17). As is true in the control of marketing performance with respect to goods, quality is also important in the marketing of services (Brown, 1990, p. 11). The control of quality in services is especially dependent upon the interaction between customers and employees (Murray, 1991, p. 10).
While only 10 percent of service companies had quality improvement programs in place at the beginning of the 1990s, the estimate is that 70 percent of service companies employing 500 or more persons will have formal quality control programs by the year 2000 (Armstrong and Symonds, 1991, p. 101). The most aggressive pursuit of quality in the service industries is expected in financial services.
In the production of services, "the hard part of improving quality . . . is the fleeting nature of the product" (Armstrong and Symonds, 1991, p. 101). The service product cannot be inspected before it is delivered, and it cannot be brought back for repair later. Employees "create" the product, "and then it disappears" (Armstrong and Symonds, 1991, pp. 100 103). It is, thus, important for services providers to understand that it is the employees, not the managers, who are in ch...