Customer representative - Defining responsibility and authority
Hi Andrews
I have seen your concern. The problem (if it can be called so) is very simple to handle. Steps to be taken are as follows :
1. Appoint someone senior enough to enact the role of Customer Representative. Someone who has adequate authority to question things going wrong.
2. Draw out a
SIPOC for customer representative. The SIPOC will give you what are all inputs needed to perform this function and what outputs are expected from him with requisite resources
3. After this, Prepare a Plan-cum-Record for fulfilling the responsibility of CUstomer Representative. Areas where a customer reporesentative will be expected to poke his/her nose are (some of them) as follows ;;
(a) Capturing the Voice of Customer
(b) Production feasibility study
(c) Contract Review
(d) All signoff stages of the New Product Development (
APQP)
(e) Problem solving for Customer Complaints
(f) Layout Inspections
(g) Internal Audits
(h) Sample of Product and Process Audits
(i) Management Reviews to ensure that customer interest areas are discussed during this meeting.
(j) Related training to meet the customer requirements ie. whether or not the persons working on the processes are competent to deliver the customer requirements.
Balance you can use your imagination and develop the documents. An organisation may more than one Customer Rep if handling more than one customers. A batch of customers may be looked after by one of the CR.
Should you want the format, you may contact the undersigned on my mail id.
HS ANAND
MD