Strengthening the weakest link of TQM – from customer focus to customer understanding

Contains a discussion of how the TQM concept can be further developed so as to give more room for innovations grounded in a profound understanding of the customers and their situation. A typology of different quality configurations, based on the three basic themes of customer understanding, aligning processes and supporting people, is presented. It is suggested that, although customer focus is revered, methods for developing a deeper understanding of the customers’ situation are not sufficiently integrated into TQM. Contributions from consumer behaviour theories, qualitative marketing research and inductive methods of analysis are proposed as amendments to this deficiency.