For this assignment, you will work again with Meghan Willoughby, Chief Purser aboard the Friendly Seas I You know the assignment has something to do with quality, but you aren't quite sure what You meet Meghan aboard the Friendly Seas I She greets you and says, Let me tell you a bit about what you'll be doing for us We've been working on quality measures for several years and now must focus on quality even more as our industry becomes more and more competitive We need to make sure that our guests receive quality service from beginning to end We need your help in bringing ideas together on how to measure quality in a service organization To me, TQM represents a companywide initiative that seeks nothing short of excellence at all times for our customers In the cruise industry, quality really is customer driven It is important for us to define quality and develop methods for measuring the level of quality we are providing The entire staff onboard, from the Captain and the Cruise Director to the restaurant and housekeeping staff, must be committed to providing a quality service Our TQM approach recognizes that our customers define quality, and that the customers' needs are paramount We use guest surveys, travel agent surveys, focus groups, interviews and other techniques to integrate the customers' inputs about quality into our organization's decisionmaking process With top management leadership, our service delivery systems are designed and continuously monitored to meet or exceed what the customers identify as value, as well as what the staff consider desirable guest outcomes We use interdisciplinary teams for problem solving and to achieve consensus We take advantage of employee involvement, group thinking, and brainstorming and maintain a spirit of cooperation and shared values among staff Everybody in the organization is trained in the techniques of TQM We recognize the role of supervisors in implementing TQM When quality problems are identified, supervisory management works with the necessary people to correct and improve the process At CII you find some excellent supervisors and directors who truly understand these issues and who really empower their employees Teamwork is essential At CII, we have had a degree of success with quality improvement teams Some of the keys to their success include a formal mechanism such as a Quality Council that I head to focus teams right from the start The Council sets definite time limits for project completion and helps reduce the time for quality improvement solutions to be implemented These teams have the help of outside consultants like you to help gather data and do the analysis This prevents team burnout when the data collection is a major burden to the team on top of their other normal shipboard responsibilities Assignment Questions for Chapter 5 Describe why quality is so important in the cruise industry Describe why it is important to have guests assess the quality of their cruise experience How would you respond to critics suggesting that guests do not always have the necessary expertise to correctly judge the quality of the service Describe how you think CII should measure quality Be very specific in your recommendations Describe external methods, other than guest surveys, that could be used to measure quality. Describe internal ways to measure quality at CII Evaluate the Guest's Survey Form used to solicit customer comments concerning their cruise experience.