The Impact Of Total Quality Management On Customer Satisfaction Within Malian Firms

In the proposed study we seek to examine the impact of total quality management on customer satisfaction within Malian firms, using customer satisfaction as the measure of quality, to identify the problem and opportunities areas using customer feedback(customer needs, customer wants, customer expectations), to focus the efforts on these areas that the customers require improvements, and to give the necessary recommendations to obtain customer retention, customer loyalty and delight for business success. It means to translate customer requirements to product and service quality that could meet or to surpass customer expectations.Malian firms are faces several problems with regard to quality. The Malian managers have a short-term view on the business, which leads to a quantity oriented management culture. Business leaders rely on a few key members of personnel. The need for an overall coordination of activities is overlooked. Quality is generally regarded as a technical issue only, managed by technicians.The biggest challenge facing companies today is linking measurement of how well they meet customer needs to the actual behavior of the customers.Increasingly, Mali businesses have begun to realize that competitiveness is the key to staying in today's rapidly changing market place. Many of them have embarked on formal programs such as TQM to improve quality in order to enhance their responsiveness in serving customers. These activities reflect their conscious attempts to improve quality and to develop and maintain a market orientation within the organizations.The purpose of this study is to highlight the benefit of TQM implementation in Malian firms, the impact of TQM implementation on customer satisfaction combining different sources of customer satisfaction information and provide a single measure to represent the satisfaction levels to compare TQM implementation firms to non TQM implementation firms. The information gained from all these different feedback types should be used to improve the quality of the products and services. This study is focused on the current impact of TQM implementation on customer satisfaction within Malian firms. It has following objectives: 1. To obtain the effects of TQM implementation on customer satisfaction in Malian firms;2. To obtain a TQM implementation model for Malian firms;3. Develop and test predictions of a conceptual framework integrating TQM and customer satisfaction;4. Specify and test hypotheses from the research model of TQM and customer satisfaction which is derived from their theoretical foundations,5. Explore TQM/customer satisfaction interface and the factors affecting the TQM/customer satisfaction relationships.6. To obtain TQM knowledge with specific characteristics of Malian firms generated new knowledge.Chapter 1- Introduction: gives a brief description of the research, provides the background. Chapter 2 gives literature review of the research. I gives Total Quality Management concept; definitions, principles and factors, and gives the concept of customer satisfaction; types of customers, customer behavior concepts.Chapter3 explains the relationships among the key constructs studied, develops and describes the conceptual framework and identities the hypothesized relationships among the key constructs in the study. In that chapter aspects of TQM/customer satisfaction in organization are discussed. The relationships of TQM and customer satisfaction are articulated. Is presented in that chapter the development of conceptual model linking.Chapter4 describes the methodology used in the study. It details the research measurement of the research constructs, sampling characteristics data collection procedures, methods of data analysis and the results of the survey questionnaire pretest.Chapter 5 Case Study.Chapter6 Data analysis.Chapter7 Presents, the limitations, the research implications, Conclusions and contributions of the study. In conclusion, the main purpose of this research study was to investigate the relationships between TQM practices and Customer Satisfaction as perceived by customers in Mali.A number of conclusions have been obtained from this research. Thus, a quality management theory related to Malian firms has been developed. First, the instruments for measuring TQM implementation and customer satisfaction are reliable and valid, and can be used by other researchers to test the effects of TQM implementation on customer satisfaction. Second, several conclusions have been obtained from testing the theoretical model: (1) TQM implementation has positive effects on customer satisfaction,(2) national policy has positive, revenue of customers have positive effects on TQM and customer satisfaction (3) Customer wants, customer needs and customer expectations are useful information for TQM implementation effort. Third the TQM implementation model developed in this study is applicable in practice. This model can be used by Malian firms to improve their TQM implementation efforts. This TQM implementation model can be used to self-assess firms'quality improvement efforts and measure their progress over time.Through using this model, firms can quickly identify which areas urgently need improvement. Thus, the resources can be allocated more wisely and more effective improvement plans can be formulated. Based on the evaluation, the strengths and weaknesses of the firm's TQM implementation and customer satisfaction were identified. The firm's current TQM implementation practices showed that it did not implement the full package of the TQM implementation model.Using the TQM implementation model, firms should understand their TQM implementation and customer satisfaction. Otherwise, weaknesses in these areas cannot be identified and effective improvement plans cannot be formulated. After improvement plans have been formulated, firms should implement them in practice, observe and check results, investigate and analyze the results, formulate new improvement plans again, and restart implementing new plans. In fact, implementing TQM is a continuous improvement process. It is a never-ending journey. Implementing this model does require patience, tenacity, and commitment from people at every level in firms. It is worth noting that there are no quick fixes. It will take some time to see the effects of implementing this model.