ISO 9001 Principles of Quality Management: #1 Customer Focus

ISO 9001 is an industry-agnostic standard of requirements for quality management, based on seven principles. As such, it can be applied across many industries, with the expectation of improving the customer experience no matter what type of industry, employees, or customers your business might be serving.

There are seven layers to the ISO 9001 system—principles that build upon one another to improve workflow, streamline process management, and enhance the customer service experience. In this series, we’ll be discussing all seven layers and how they apply to our industry. 

The International Standard for Organization defines the seven quality management principles as:

1. Customer Focus
2. Leadership
3. Engagement of People
4. Process approach
5. Improvement
6. Evidence-based decision making
7. Relationship management

So, starting at the top level, what does “Customer Focus” actually mean?

According to the ISO, “the primary focus of quality management is to meet customer requirements and to strive to exceed customer expectations.” The first half seems simple enough. Meeting customer requirements is the basic principle of doing business—an enterprise that does not meet customer requirements finds itself out of business very quickly.

But the second half deserves some specific attention. To “strive to exceed customer expectations” can mean many things. It can mean delivering a pleasant experience. It can mean delivering well before a promised deadline. In all cases, it should create a desire in the customer to return to the business in the future.

The truth is, customers tell others about the value they received. This “word of mouth advertising” is considered by most marketing experts to be the #1 type of advertising. Happy customers become more than just returning clients—they can actually become “cheerleaders” for a business, inviting others to share their positive experiences.

At Cypress Technologies, we strive to make our customers “cheerleaders.” We want you to come out of doing business with us feeling like you would never want to have your manufacturing needs met by any other company. Come visit us today, and find out what our customer focus means for you and your job requirements.