Voice of the Customer:
Project instructions:
Voice of the Customer
“All business is the same, it just looks different” is a favorite quote of T. D. Hughes, CEO of LaRosa’s, Inc. LaRosa’s is a privately held chain of neighborhood pizzerias with 54 locations in Cincinnati, Ohio, northern Kentucky, and southeast Indiana, that offers full-service dine-in, carryout, and home delivery. LaRosa’s competes against such national chains as Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, Uno’s, and other local restaurants, yet holds a 45 to 50 percent share in its market area. LaRosa’s has been a leader among local businesses in adopting and promoting total quality principles. Hughes’ quote provides a foundation for learning from other organizations and adopting high-performance practices that have proven successful, no matter what business they come from. One of these is the Voice of the Customer process.
In 1997, as part of a new strategic planning process, LaRosa’s identified growth as a key strategic goal. Because the local market was essentially saturated, however, the executive management team worked on strategies for growing the company for three years and produced no tangible results. One of the reasons for the impasse was the lack of sound, factual data. The executive management team had developed three growth strategies, but could not agree on which one to follow because of a lack of a fact-based foundation for the decision.
In 2000, a project team was formed to tackle this issue, and was given complete latitude to make any recommendation for an Italian/pizzeria concept based on customer needs and expectations. The team consisted of the marketing director (team leader), two executive vice presidents, the director of operations, two franchise owners, an external strategic business partner, and the CEO, who was the team sponsor. The key tool that successfully led to an understanding of their customers and to a new and innovative restaurant design was Voice of the Customer (VOC). VOC is a structured methodology for listening to customers that is promoted by the Center for Quality of Management (CQM), an industrial consortium based in Boston (https://www.cqm.org). The basis for VOC is asking customers to express their needs and expectations through their experiences. LaRosa’s completed 16 in-depth, one-on-one interviews with current and potential customers both inside and outside of their current market area to provide examples of dining incidents these individuals had experienced, seeking “the good, the bad, and the ugly.” Here are some responses from customers of current competitors and potential competitors in other markets.
For In the “Understanding the Voice of the Customer at LaRosa’s Pizzerias” case , LaRosa’s Pizzerias implemented the Voice of the Customer process to design its restaurants to address customer needs and expectations and ultimately allowed the restaurant chain to gain significant market share.
1. Develop a customer satisfaction survey of eight questions. The questions must be relevant to the case study that the project team would use to solicit appropriate responses on the restaurant design concept from current and potential customers both inside and outside the restaurant’s current market area. Explain your rationale for each question selected.
2. For each of these survey questions, identify two critical to quality (CTQ) performance characteristics for each survey question and discuss why they are important to customer satisfaction.
3. Based on the customer requirements that LaRosa’s has identified and considering the design concept the company has adopted, examine the customer profile (based on age, lifestyle, etc.) the restaurant is targeting.
The Paper:
1. Must be three to four double-spaced pages in length and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the approved APA style guide.
2. Must include a cover page that includes:
a. Title of paper
b. Student’s name
c. Course name and number
d. Instructor’s name
e. Date submitted
3. Must include an introductory paragraph with a succinct thesis statement.
4. Must address the topic of the paper with critical thought.
5. Must end with a conclusion that reaffirms your thesis.
6. Must use at least two scholarly resources.
7. Must document all sources in APA style.
8. Must include, on the final page, a Reference Page that is completed according to APA s