CQIA Customer Satisfaction 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: When mapping the Voice of the Customer (VOC), which tool is most commonly used to translate customer needs into technical requirements?
- Cause-and-effect diagram
- Quality Function Deployment (QFD) / House of Quality (Correct answer)
- Control chart
- Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
Correct answer: Quality Function Deployment (QFD) / House of Quality
QFD, particularly the House of Quality matrix, systematically converts VOC inputs into measurable engineering or process specifications.
Question 2: A company finds that customers who contact support multiple times for the same issue are far less satisfied. This insight most directly supports reducing:
- First contact resolution rate
- Customer Effort Score
- Repeat contacts / failure demand (Correct answer)
- Promotional spending
Correct answer: Repeat contacts / failure demand
Repeat contacts represent failure demand — work generated by not resolving issues correctly the first time — which is a primary driver of dissatisfaction.
Question 3: Which action best closes the loop with a customer after a complaint has been resolved?
- Sending a discount coupon automatically
- Following up to confirm the solution met the customer's expectations (Correct answer)
- Closing the ticket and archiving the record
- Escalating the case to management
Correct answer: Following up to confirm the solution met the customer's expectations
Closing the loop means verifying with the customer that the resolution was satisfactory, ensuring the gap between expectation and reality is fully closed.
Question 4: An internal audit reveals that customer feedback is collected but rarely reviewed by process owners. This represents a failure in which phase of the improvement cycle?
- Plan
- Do
- Check (Correct answer)
- Act
Correct answer: Check
The 'Check' phase requires analyzing collected data; failing to review feedback means the organization skips verification of performance against goals.
Question 5: Stratifying customer satisfaction data by product line, region, and customer segment is most useful for:
- Reducing the sample size needed
- Identifying which specific groups are most dissatisfied (Correct answer)
- Simplifying the survey instrument
- Calculating overall company NPS
Correct answer: Identifying which specific groups are most dissatisfied
Stratification reveals variation hidden in aggregate data, pointing to specific subgroups or processes needing targeted improvement.
Question 6: A service firm's customer satisfaction scores drop after a process change intended to cut costs. The BEST next step is to:
- Ignore the scores since cost savings were achieved
- Conduct root-cause analysis linking the change to the score decline (Correct answer)
- Survey only satisfied customers going forward
- Immediately revert the process change without analysis
Correct answer: Conduct root-cause analysis linking the change to the score decline
Root-cause analysis connects the process change to the outcome change, enabling an informed decision about whether to modify, revert, or add safeguards.
Question 7: Which of the following is an example of an 'implied' customer requirement?
- A customer requests next-day delivery in the contract
- A customer expects a restaurant meal to be free of foreign objects (Correct answer)
- A customer specifies a preferred product color
- A customer asks for a volume discount
Correct answer: A customer expects a restaurant meal to be free of foreign objects
Implied requirements are unstated but assumed — customers do not explicitly request food safety because they take it for granted.
CQIA Customer Satisfaction 3
When mapping the Voice of the Customer (VOC), which tool is most commonly used to translate customer needs into technical requirements?