Hello everybody
Not posted for a while as have been on holiday

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I am in a service based industry so there is no product to supply
This would mean any non-conformance relates to the service to the customer.

This seems to replicate exactly the type of issue which would already be recorded as a customer complaint.

Is it OK to have the customer complaint procedure and the control of non-conformance procedure so similar?

Debbie

Hello, again, Debbie!

I hope you're keeping your head above water! My old house in Gloucester is probably flooded right now!

Non-conformance controls are a little different to customer complaint handling. You might have situations that your organization would see as non-conformance, that the customer might not and may not concern them sufficiently to make a complaint. However, your processes should detect these situations, record them and use the data for trend analysis. These situations are an indicator of how effective the processes are.

Non-conformance might affect your suppliers, too. Not just things you do for customers. Having staff turn up at the wrong customer location etc. might be correctable, may not cause a customer complaint, but should still be recorded and tracked for trends. etc.

Hello everybody
Not posted for a while as have been on holiday

next question
I am in a service based industry so there is no product to supply
This would mean any non-conformance relates to the service to the customer.

This seems to replicate exactly the type of issue which would already be recorded as a customer complaint.

Is it OK to have the customer complaint procedure and the control of non-conformance procedure so similar?

Debbie

Customer complaints may or may not be related to nonconforming conditions. In order to qualify as nonconforming, there must be a standard or explicit requirement to which conformance is necessary. It might happen that a customer complaint creates a new requirement, but that's more in the area of continuous improvement than nonconformance, per se. And of course, there will always be customers who just like to complain, whether anything is really wrong or not.

Hi Debbie,

Do you purchase any goods or services? If yes, an anomaly with the purchased goods could result in an nonconformance.

You could definitely embed the customer complaint process within the nonconforming product procedure.

Danny

I am in a service based industry so there is no product to supply...Is it OK to have the customer complaint procedure and the control of non-conformance procedure so similar?Debbie, certainly you have a product to supply. Even though, it might be combination of a qualified human being and non-tangible services. Without a product your employer would not exist.

In order to qualify as nonconforming, there must be a standard or explicit requirement to which conformance is necessary.Being somewhat pedantic {so forgive me in advance}, the ISO 9000 definition of requirement does not limit itself to explicit requirements; (implied) expectations also fall in the definition of requirements. So, in Debbie's case, if she sends a temporary employee to a client and that individual has excessive B.O. (body odor), creating a problem for the co-workers, Debbie's customer might be dissatisfied and might generate a customer complaint, even though he might not have originally specified an "odorless electrical engineer with 5 years of experience in designing high voltage circuitry".
Actually, in the Service Sector, one of the challenges for the quality professionals is to anticipate many of these unwritten expectations those "pesky customers" tend to come with.

Jim's post should be read in conjunction with Sidney's. In other words, when you set your service standards, you should consider the following:
1. Customer requirements or expectation
2. Requirements set up by trade associations, standards, etc
3. Company requirements and expectations
4. Others - requirements not stated anywhere but is necessary ( such as the example quoted by Sidney). In this case, a customer of the customer.

Failure to meet any of these is a non conformance.

Being somewhat pedantic {so forgive me in advance}, the ISO 9000 definition of requirement does not limit itself to explicit requirements; (implied) expectations also fall in the definition of requirements. So, in Debbie's case, if she sends a temporary employee to a client and that individual has excessive B.O. (body odor), creating a problem for the co-workers, Debbie's customer might be dissatisfied and might generate a customer complaint, even though he might not have originally specified an "odorless electrical engineer with 5 years of experience in designing high voltage circuitry".
Actually, in the Service Sector, one of the challenges for the quality professionals is to anticipate many of these unwritten expectations those "pesky customers" tend to come with.

Good point. :agree1:

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Hi

Does anyone have a non conformance SOP specifically for the gas utility market?

Many thanks

Debbie, certainly you have a product to supply. Even though, it might be combination of a qualified human being and non-tangible services. Without a product your employer would not exist.

Being somewhat pedantic {so forgive me in advance}, the ISO 9000 definition of requirement does not limit itself to explicit requirements; (implied) expectations also fall in the definition of requirements. So, in Debbie's case, if she sends a temporary employee to a client and that individual has excessive B.O. (body odor), creating a problem for the co-workers, Debbie's customer might be dissatisfied and might generate a customer complaint, even though he might not have originally specified an "odorless electrical engineer with 5 years of experience in designing high voltage circuitry".
Actually, in the Service Sector, one of the challenges for the quality professionals is to anticipate many of these unwritten expectations those "pesky customers" tend to come with.

Being able to anticipate customer requirements is difficult enough, but to anticipate unspoken requirements is even harder.

There is a 6 sigma tool called Kano, this basically helps you in a brainstorming session

essentially you plot out expectations in 3 categories

Basic needs, these are expected in the example above it would be that you send clients who have good personal hygiene, or it could be that that you will only send suitably qualified clients or that you will send them to the right address... unspoken accepted givens.

Performance needs, these are things that you advertise e.g. will provide client within 24hours, you phone client/company post delivery to ensure ewverything is OK etc etc

Excitement needs, these are things that differentiate you from the competition, can be advertised or unspoken e.g. you will answer phone within 5 rings even at lunchtime, you provide clients with a bus pass that sort of thing

as an example to put in perspective... if you provided a car that did 100mpg it would well exceed the performance needs, if it had fingerprint recognition for door opening engine starting it would hit the excitement needs.... but if the car doors were poorly designed and everytime they opened they hit the curb/sidewalk (too low) it would disapoint in the basic needs.

have attached link that might help more

http://cqmextra.cqm.org/cqmjournal.nsf/2fff9754b9deecf5852566340064a8e6/489c0fea64a3f1838525684700552126/$FILE/RP02700.pdf

Thanks for some good points about NC in service based industry.
I am also from service Industry.
Anyone here to share NC procedure for Service Industry to share ?

Thanks in advance