Committed to Quality
Quality Story
We continually measure, review and improve our customer delivery - based on what our customers tell us about how well we are doing, not on how well we think we are doing.
Understanding our customers' needs
We have developed models to help us better understand what drives customer satisfaction. We use our understanding of these drivers to improve the way we work and continually measure our performance against them.
We survey our customers in a variety of ways, from contacting them after we have provided a service or product through to ad hoc, face to face and telephone interviews. We also routinely compare our performance with that of our nearest competitors so we can see how well our customers feel we are doing relative to our rivals.
One of the key drivers for customer satisfaction is quality of service. To systematically improve service quality, we have identified the things that really matter to customers and how much each one counts. Armed with this insight, we undertake a detailed weekly survey of business and residential customers which tells us how we are doing based on service provision, repairs and complaints.
Improving our performance through processes
BT introduced lean sigma DMAIC (Define Measure Analyse Improve Control) in 2004 underpinning the new Enterprise process defining the customer experience end to end. The introduction of lean sigma is a further demonstration of BT's commitment to the continual and accelerated improvement of customer service processes.
We have introduced greater focus on working with data, and are using systematic approaches to our management of performance to help us achieve both incremental and step change improvements in quality.
We also place great emphasis on continually raising the standards of performance of our people at all levels and across all sections of BT Retail. We make sure that the way we assess the performance of our people is at all times fair, objective and consistent. To this end, managers have to base discussions about performance on clear evidence and facts.
Building quality into the system
Our commitment to delivering excellent quality to our customers is demonstrated by the certification of all our activities to the internationally recognised quality management systems standard, ISO9001.
BT Group first achieved ISO9001 certification for all of its activities worldwide in 1995 and we have maintained our certification since then. The scope of our certification is: 'The provision of BT Retail Products and Services'. All elements of ISO9001 are addressed within our organisation and our certification is assured through regular visits by our accredited certification body. Our Certificate Number is 0963976.
Necessary documented procedures and a description of how our processes interact to meet our customers needs can be accessed by our people at our Intranet site.
Alongside ISO9001 certification, our quality approach has been recognised in other ways too. Over the years, BT Group and BT business units have won various quality awards and prizes.
Day to day improvements
Quality operates at all levels through the BT organisation on a day to day basis. Quality Functional Deployment is used in the planning process to prioritise the key transformational programmes, there are audits of the management system and actions to improve, quality through teamwork is increasing in numbers every year in the Challenge Cup (link to Challenge Cup part of site) lean sigma is delivering improved customer service, cost reduction and revenue growth and there are management reviews of all parts of the business including progress against scorecard goals, and day to day P&L sales and service activities.
PDCA - Plan, Do, Check, Act - basic framework for Quality. Pareto - sorting the big problems first. Asking the 5 Why's - getting to the real root of the problem. Brainstorming - generating ideas for positive and negative brainstorming. Cause and Effect - to support the brainstorming exercise. Understanding Processes. 5 S's - Sort, Straighten, Scrub, Systemise, Standardise.These tools are designed to help everyone in BT Retail to work in a quality way.
Major improvements
To support our major change projects we have developed a robust, structured and data driven 10 Step process called the 10 Quality Steps. Based on the best elements of well known excellence models of business excellence it:
Focuses on business processes and aligns action to strategic objectives. Ensures clarity of purpose and focus on all stakeholders. Uses proven quality tools and techniques. Emphasises the importance of identifying the root cause of performance gaps. Provides a platform for effective transformation.Each of the 10 steps has clear outcomes that support successive steps. Together they form a closed loop process - feedback from each step allows us to continue to learn and improve.
10 Quality Steps has demonstrated its power in delivering transformational change. It is a key component of our capability to deliver future success through major improvements in quality.
