Not much I can say on customer focus.
7.2.1 - Identification of customer requirements -- depends on product & company but typically prints, the Request for Quote its self, input to your Sales department -- are all sources of customer requirements.
7.2.3 Customer communication -- have documented communication channels. For example, your company's Sales department may be 'elected' to interface with the customer on certain issues while your engineering department is the channel for others. It's an extension of your organizational chart in a way.
Clause 8.2.1 Customer Satisfaction -- The '94 version of the standard stated that the requirements that it entailed were specified primarily to achieve customer satisfaction. Well, now the standard is taking a different tone to that goal and specifically states that we must monitor customer satisfaction as a requirement of the ISO 9000:2000 standard.
Do a lot of us currently do this now? Well, hopefully so, but it may not be likely. The primary method of monitoring customer satisfaction: "Hey John, did we get the order?", many organizations can be falsely drawn into the conclusion that the customer is completely satisfied merely because they receive repeat business, but this may not be the case...
How many of you have continued shopping at a store which has poor service because it is convenient? Maybe it is close by to your work/home, maybe the store carries a product that you cannot find elsewhere, maybe they are cheap. Whatever the reason, you go back because of some reason other than you are happy with their service, and if given another option you would be more than willing to try it.
Though an exaggeration, this is an example of how repeat business may be false security.
Element 8.2.1 of the ISO 9000:2000 standard is in place to NOT allow this to happen. The standard requires that you define ways of obtaining and using information pertinent to your customer's satisfaction and monitoring this information as a minimum form of measuring quality management system performance. Being proactive and finding out issues before they arise is the idea, how you do it is up to you.
The new ISO 9000:2000 standard helps clarify whose opinion is most important in regards to your Quality System, Your Customer's. The new standard requires the "monitoring" of customer satisfaction information, it does not require the implementation of an entirely new measurement system. The extent that you want to take this is up to you.
