Deutsche Allgemeinversicherung (DAV) was a global leader in the insurance industry, its strengths being its breadth of products and its exceptional group of risk managers. As the insurance market was evolving, DAV's management became aware that in order to maintain their dominant position, they would need to compete on the quality of the service they provided. A strategic decision was made to concentrate on providing fast and effective customer service. .
Why is DAV Attempting to use SPC .
As insurance was progressively becoming a commodity, Deutsche Allgemeinversicherung (DAV) was faced with the task of distinguishing itself from its competitors. Quality in customer service was acknowledged as the key element in DAV's strategy to differentiate itself. Frank Schoeck, the head of operations at DAV Customer Service Group identified delivering "hassle-free" customer service as a key element of meeting or exceeding customer expectations for quality of service. An important part of delivering this quality of service was their ability to process and retrieve information without mistakes and in a timely manner. .
Quality has always been important at DAV, and many efforts had been administered to continuously improve their processes. Although they were acknowledged as leaders of delivered accuracy within their industry, DAV's management questioned the integrity of their performance data. They needed to get accuracy in their data before they could proceed with their improvement strategies. DAV's management team decided to use the strategies of Statistical Process Control to measure and ultimately improve their process performance. .
SPC Challenges in Improving a Service Industry .
Although Statistical Process Control is usually understood to operate in a manufacturing context, it can also apply to service oriented activities such as customer service. Inconsistencies in service quality require systematic monitoring to see if they are random, regular, or indicative of a problem.