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Customer focused. That's what AT&T Universal Card Services (UCS) believes it must continue to be if it is 10 maintain the rapid ascent that, in 30 months, made its Universal Card the second largest in the credit card industry. Indeed, the young business was designed around the use of quality principles to "delight the customer."
A comprehensive data and tracking system helps the AT&T subsidiary chart a well-marked course for continuous improvement in its customer relationships, internal operations, supplier partnerships, and business performance. For example, determinants of customer satisfaction the starting point for all quality planning -- are studied in layers of detail.
UCS's eight broad categories of "satisfiers," including price and customer service, are used to define the company's quality focus. In turn, these prioritized determinants of how customers perceive the value of credit-card services are underpinned by 125 "satisfiers," each one also weighted to reflect its relative importance.
One practical product of this increasing specificity is an exhaustive set of concrete performance measures linking internal operations and customer satisfaction. Another is a clear picture of what UCS must do to better its services, performance, and market share. Management knows what improvements are likely to yield the greatest gains in quality. Each part of the business, from UCS as a whole to individual work units, has a list of "10 most wanted" quality improvements.
Through its benchmarking program, UCS has determined what constitutes world-class performance and service, and it has set its quality goals accordingly. Now, other companies are using UCS as their benchmark. UCS reports that it leads the credit card industry in such areas as speed and accuracy of application processing, and customer satisfaction....