ISO 9004-2 Guidelines Translated into Plain English

Guidelines for Managing the Quality of All Types of Service Activities

American Systems Registrar	WorldFoodNet

This section summarizes ISO 9004-2. It highlights the main points. It does not present detail. If you need a detailed and complete interpretation of the ISO 9004-2 standard, please consider purchasing our hardcopy version.

ISO prepared section 9004-2 to show organizations how to set up a quality service system. Because all organizations are service oriented to some extent, even manufacturers can benefit from the ideas discussed here. As a result, you should consider setting up a quality service system even if your organization is not in the service industry.

• A quality service system is one that:
  • Ensures that customer needs are met.
  • Receives regular feedback from customers.
  • Considers the social aspects of service delivery.
  • Respects customer perceptions and opinions.
  • Pays attention to the culture of the organization.
  • Supports personnel training and development.
  • Controls costs and improves efficiency.

• Quality service systems serve the needs of all kinds of customers.
  • A quality service system should be set up to serve the needs of both external and internal customers (internal customers are people inside your own organization).
  • A quality service system should be set up if you provide intangible services to customers or sell products to them. Either way the quality principles are the same.

• A quality service system can improve almost any function.
  It can improve the quality of the following types of functions: hospitality, health, communications, maintenance, merchandising, utilities, financial, sales, professional, educational, governmental, administrative, technical, purchasing, and scientific.

• Definitions. Remember the following definitions as you study 9004-2:
  • A characteristic is a quality.
  • Service is a result. This result is produced when people carry out activities that are oriented towards meeting customer needs.
  • Service delivery is an activity. Service delivery activities are carried out by people who are oriented towards meeting customer needs.

• Define service and service delivery characteristics. When you do so, consider the following general types:
  • Service accessibility and availability.
  • Service safety, security, and reliability.
  • Comfort and attractiveness of facilities.
  • Service delay, duration, and delivery times.
  • Service capacity and size of service facilities.
  • Number of service providers and service tools.
  • Service hygiene and service provider cleanliness.
  • Competence and knowledge of service providers.
  • Courtesy, attentiveness, and communication skills.
  • Quantity and types of service supplies and materials.

• Control service and service delivery characteristics.
  • Develop procedures to control the characteristics (qualities) that define the service and service delivery process.
  • Develop procedures to measure the characteristics (qualities) that define the service and service delivery process.

• Define a quality service policy. This policy should:
  • Discuss your image and reputation.
  • Describe your attitude towards service quality.
  • Define the level of service you want to achieve.
  • Make the customer the focal point of your policy.
  • Emphasize the importance of customer satisfaction.
  • Explain that everyone is expected to apply this policy.
  • Emphasize that senior managers are committed to the policy.

• Define your quality objectives and list the steps you will take to achieve these objectives. Consider the following general types of objectives:
  • To prevent customer dissatisfaction.
  • To respect social and environmental needs.
  • To foster a collective commitment to quality.
  • To clearly define customer needs and expectations.
  • To look for opportunities to improve service quality.

• Define responsibility and authority. Define service quality responsibilities and give people the authority to carry them out.

• Review quality service system. Your managers, or their representatives, must carry out a regular review of your quality service system to evaluate its effectiveness and to look for ways of improving it.

• Provide human resources. Provide the human resources that will be needed to implement and run your quality service system.

• Raise awareness. Develop a quality service awareness program for both new and experienced personnel.

• Motivate people. Create a corporate environment that motivates people to provide quality service.

• Deliver training programs that cover the following topics:
  • Process monitoring and control.
  • Data collection and analysis.
  • Problem solving and causal analysis.
  • Quality improvement and corrective actions.
  • Teamwork, interaction, and communications.

• Develop a system of communication to encourage teamwork and support service delivery. Your communication system may include briefings, meetings, memos, email, reports, forums, and telephone conversations.

• Provide the material resources that people will need to implement, manage, and operate your quality service system.

• Develop a quality service information system made up of:
  • Quality manuals that describe your quality service system.
  • Quality plans which specify how the requirements for
    quality will be met for each particular service.
  • Quality procedures which define how quality service activities
    are to be carried out, documented, monitored, and controlled.
  • Quality records which document the operation and functioning
    of your quality service system.

• Carry out internal quality audits to verify that your quality service system has been implemented and to measure its effectiveness.

• Communicate with customers. Help service delivery personnel to develop effective patterns of communication and interaction with customers. Encourage your service delivery personnel to:
  • Listen carefully to customer expectations and comments.
  • Keep customers informed about your organization and its services.

• Develop market research procedures. Develop and document procedures to plan and control your market research process. Your market research procedures should ensure that your marketing people:
  • Determine if there is a demand for the service that you plan to offer.
  • Clarify what customers expect from the service you intend to offer.
  • Evaluate the service and performance of the competition.
  • Review all governmental and industrial regulations, standards, and codes that govern the service that you intend to develop.
  • Confirm that your organization can, in fact, deliver and support the services that you intend to develop.
  • Monitor market trends and technological changes.

• Set up service design teams. Select a design team and define its responsibilities. Your team should:
  • Plan, prepare, validate, maintain, control, and update your service, service delivery, and quality control specifications, and ensure that all service brief requirements will be met.
  • Identify the materials, supplies, and services that will be needed to support the service delivery process.
  • Carry out formal service design reviews and evaluations.
  • Develop contingency plans to deal with potential service failures.

• Develop design review procedures. These procedures must ensure that:
  • Service design results are compared with the initial service brief at every stage of the design process.
  • Service design results are compared with service, service delivery, and quality control specifications.
  • Service delivery interests are represented at review meetings.
  • Customer needs, wants, expectations, and requirements are met.
  • Service quality will be measured, monitored, and controlled.

• Prepare service briefs. Once you've made the decision to offer a service, prepare a service brief. This document describes the service, the needs that it must fulfil, and the obligations and requirements that must be met.

• Prepare specifications. Convert your service brief into specifications. Convert your service brief into:
  • Service specifications which describe the service.
  • Service delivery specifications which explain how the service
    will be delivered to your customers.
  • Quality control specifications which define how both the service and the service delivery process will be evaluated and controlled.

• Your service design is officially complete when you have defined your service, service delivery, and quality control specifications.

• Develop service design validation procedures. These procedures should ensure that your service and service delivery processes:
  • Are fully designed and developed.
  • Have all the resources they need.
  • Will meet customer needs and expectations.
  • Work properly under all real world conditions.
  • Conform to all relevant codes and standards.

• Perform revalidations. Carry out periodic revalidations of your services to ensure that customer needs are still being met, and to identify possible service and service delivery improvements.

• Control changes in specifications. Develop procedures to manage and control changes in your specifications (service design documents).

• Develop launch procedures to control the introduction of new services.

• Develop an advertising policy. Make sure that it encourages accuracy.

• Develop purchasing procedures. Develop procedures to control the purchase of goods and services that will be used during service delivery.

• Evaluate subcontractors. Before you hire a subcontractor, evaluate:
  • His service procedures and facilities.
  • Samples of his products and services.
  • The experience other companies have had with the subcontractor.

• Track subcontractors. Develop procedures to track and record the identity and use of products and services provided by subcontractors and used in the delivery of your services.

• Protect customer property. Develop procedures to control and protect customer property during the service delivery process.

• Control the service delivery process. Develop service delivery procedures to control your service delivery process. These procedures should ensure that:
  • Your services conform to service specifications.
  • Service delivery conforms to your specifications.
  • Service and service delivery deviations are handled.

• Develop service quality assessment methods. Develop methods
  which ensure that your organization:
  • Measures key process activities to identify undesirable
    trends and prevent customer dissatisfaction.
  • Encourages service delivery personnel to monitor and
    inspect their own service delivery activities.
  • Evaluates the quality of the interaction and communication
    between your personnel and your customers.

• Develop assessment methods your customers can use. Develop service quality assessment methods that your customers can use to routinely evaluate the quality of your services and service delivery activities. These methods should allow you to measure customer satisfaction.

• Control measurement methods. Develop procedures to control your service measurement methods. Such procedures should ensure that all methods are valid and that personnel know how to use them.

• Control service and service delivery nonconformities.
  • Make all service personnel responsible for identifying and
    reporting service and service delivery nonconformities.
  • Allocate responsibility for correcting service nonconformities.
  • Develop corrective action procedures which ensure that customer complaints and nonconformities are handled immediately and that causes are thoroughly investigated.

• Develop a record keeping system. Develop a service delivery record keeping system that documents your service delivery activities.

• Develop an information system. Develop a service quality information system to allow you to evaluate service performance and to provide a basis for generating service quality improvements.

• Develop a service quality improvement program which:
  • Identifies and monitors customer service characteristics, market trends, service nonconformities, and inefficiencies.
  • Generates ideas for improving service quality and efficiency.

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