Goal of a procedure

[sneekparty]

Well it's probably not the most difficult question you ever had..but I have some trouble with identifing the goal for certain processes within our company...for example...

We have an process to deal with customer complaints..the old goal was "to document the way how compaints and/or problems of clients are being handled" I transformed this to "To handle the complaints and/ or problems in such a way that customersatisfaction is garanteed and that repetition of those complaints and/or problems are being prevented"

I'm not sure that this is the right way to discribe the goal of a process...so if anyone want to give any pointers...please do...

Grtz,
Martin

 

[energy]

sneekparty said:

Well it's probably not the most difficult question you ever had..but I have some trouble with identifing the goal for certain processes within our company...for example...

I transformed this to "To handle the complaints and/ or problems in such a way that customersatisfaction is garanteed and that repetition of those complaints and/or problems are being prevented"

I'm not sure that this is the right way to discribe the goal of a process...so if anyone want to give any pointers...please do...

Grtz,
Martin

Martin,

My opinion, just mine, is that statement sounds vague. "in such a way" begs for further definition. The old school was "Scope" and "Purpose". However, if the procedure follows your statement, it probably wouldn't cause anybody heartburn.
But, IMHO, how do you "guarantee" customer satisfaction? This is a word I would avoid. Working the word "Increasing Customer Satisfaction" into your statement would be my choice. And, "repetition -complaints/problems are being prevented asks "Really?" How so? No complaints or problems, say for the last month or last week? You have? Well, how can you say that they are being prevented? I wouldn't do that to you, but their are some very strange auditors who would love the opportunity to pounce on something like this. That's why I'm gunshy. There are some here in the Cove! Incoming!!

 

[sneekparty]

Well..

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the quick response...first to Jim...I see some procedures even working instructions as processes and some or not...

Energy you have made some good points...a remark on my side...to guarantee customer satisfaction is indeed almost impossible i'll redifine this...but on your comment on prevention of complaints...we do try to prevent that a certain complaint will come back in the near future...by setting corrective actions...it isn't that we can prevent all complaints because we get new ones every week....

Hope to hear your remarks..an other question..do you have pointers on how to formulate my goals in such a way that the auditor won't kill me ,

Thanks in advance,
Grtz,
Martin

 

[energy]

sneekparty said:

that repetition of those complaints and/or problems are being prevented"

I'm not sure that this is the right way to discribe the goal of a process...so if anyone want to give any pointers...please do...

Grtz,
Martin

martin,

I'm assuming that you are using the goal statement to precede the actual written procedure. This is an example of a purpose statement we use for our Customer Complaint/Feedback written procedure:

PURPOSE

To provide for a consistent method and instructions, and to assign responsibilities for receiving and processing customer feedback and complaints. Customer feedback and complaints
become an integral part of Jim's Widget's Management Review meetings as one method for measuring the effectiveness of the Quality Management System.

It explains the reason for, who is responsible, records, etc..and doesn't leave much to nit pick at, regarding the intitial statement, no matter what you call it. IMHO, keep them short, to point, factual.

As to the problems/complaints "being prevented", that's your call. You just have to be careful with how you catagorize the problems being reported. If I say I'm preventing, say, Packaging Complaints from this particular Customer and you show no recent packaging complaints from this Customer, you're golden. But, if you have Packaging Complaints from other Customers, it can get sticky. If you said that the goal is to standardize your XYZ's Packaging Procedure to eliminate all Customer packaging Complaints, at least that's open ended and allows for improvement.

Don't mind me, I get a little paranoid about "creative" ideas that I wouldn't be able to answer with facts. Good Luck.