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2023/2024  KAN-CCMVI2092U  Quality Management and Customer Experience (CX)

English Title
Quality Management and Customer Experience (CX)

Course information

Language English
Course ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Elective
Level Full Degree Master
Duration Summer
Start time of the course Summer
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Min. participants 30
Max. participants 60
Study board
Study Board for cand.merc. and GMA (CM)
Course coordinator
  • Torsten Ringberg - Department of Marketing (Marketing)
For academic questions related to the course, please contact instructor Fernando Amigo-Quintana at fma.msc@cbs.dk or course responsible Torsten Ringberg (tri.marktg@cbs.dk).
Main academic disciplines
  • Customer behaviour
  • Experience economy
  • Service management
Teaching methods
  • Face-to-face teaching
Last updated on 10-01-2024

Relevant links

Learning objectives
To achieve the grade 12, students should meet the following learning objectives with no or only minor mistakes or errors:
  • Be able to apply the main principles of business excellence and customer experience
  • Know and explain how to use different models, methods and tools to deliver a quality customer experience
  • Relate quality management tools to the process of achieving the goals of the organization in the current business environment characterized by a profound transformation, where customers and their experiences have become the center of the business-customer relationship.
  • Reflect on the concept of ‘quality management’ and its implications for a better customer experience.
  • Reflect further on what we customers and providers are used to take for granted/issues demanding action and the potential effect on larger ethical, social, and sustainable consideration
Course prerequisites
Completed Bachelor degree or equivalent. Knowledge of service management and operations and consumer insight might be of help.
Examination
Quality Management and Customer Experience (CX):
Exam ECTS 7,5
Examination form Home assignment - written product
Individual or group exam Individual exam
Size of written product Max. 10 pages
Written in parallel with the course
Assignment type Project
Release of assignment The Assignment is released in Digital Exam (DE) at exam start
Duration Written product to be submitted on specified date and time.
Grading scale 7-point grading scale
Examiner(s) One internal examiner
Exam period Summer
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
Retake exam: 72-hour home project assignment, max. 10 pages, new exam question.
If the number of registered candidates for the make-up examination/re-take examination warrants that it may most appropriately be held as an oral examination, the programme office will inform the students that the make-up examination/re-take examination will be held as an oral examination instead.
Course content, structure and pedagogical approach
This course is conceived as a reflection on how traditional and commonly used quality management models can be applied in the current business environment characterized by both globalization and digitalization and considering the growing importance of customer-centricity in the way relationships between organizations and customers are evolving and being handled.
 
Customer experience as the focus of business strategy is in historical terms a recent development and is at the center of a number of practices that are being adopted by a growing number of organizations to compete successfully in a changing business environment.
 
Quality management is a philosophy, methodology and system of tools aimed to create and maintain the appropriate mechanisms within organizations for continuous improvement. It involves all departments and employees and helps to reduce costs and exceed customers and other stakeholders’ expectations. Appropriate quality management is a basic need for the survival and competitive development of any organization in the global market. It ensures that an organization, product or service is consistent with customer´s expectations. It encompasses the concept of business excellence and sustainability as a means for competitiveness, efficiency improvement, and leadership. Quality management focuses on product/service quality but also on the means to achieve it.
 
The process of quality management encompasses four main components: quality planning, quality assurance, quality control and quality improvement. In this respect, the development of quality models to help organizations instill in all their strategies, processes and employees the idea of quality as well as the design of systems and tools that assure the best quality for their products and services through the appropriate control frameworks, accurate metrics and measurements and feedback mechanisms, becomes a mandate for leadership and competitiveness.
 
In this regard, the course aligns and emphasizes most of the Nordic Nine principles of education by focusing on providing context for knowledge, identifying challenges, considering potential ethical dilemmas and values needed and think ahead for future generations and sustainability.
 
Preliminary assignment:
 
Readings:
Meyer, Christopher and André Schwager (2007). “Understanding Customer Experience,” Harvard Business Review, February
 
Activity:
Watch the following video about a situation concerning United Airlines  and the mistreatment of a passenger
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrDWY6C1178
 
Why did this happen?
Did internal processes back the way United took control of the situation?
What was the reaction from customers?
How did this affect United Airlines? What were the consequences

Class 1: Introduction: course overview, basic concepts, Nordic Nine principles
Class 2: Customer Experience management and principles
Class 3: Quality Management: concept, context and theories
Class 4: The principles of quality management
Class 5: The quality management function
Class 6: Quality management models and standards I
 
Feedback activity:
 
Presentation of project ideas to the class for discussion/feedback.
Home Project Assignments/mini projects are based on a research question (problem formulation) formulated by the students individually. Approval deadline will be defined by the instructor. Hand-in of the problem formulation directly to the instructor by the 3rd teaching week.
 
Class 7: Quality management models and standards II
Class 8: Quality management methods and tools
Class 9: Quality Customer Experience models
Class 10: Succesful customer experience and CX metrics
Class 11: Overview, review, Q&A
Description of the teaching methods
Presentation of your project ideas to the class for discussion/feedback after three weeks. Ongoing active participation during the course. Case studies and other activities.
Feedback during the teaching period
Presentation of project ideas to the professor/class for discussion/feedback.
Home Project Assignments/mini projects are based on a research question (problem formulation) formulated by the students individually. Approval deadline will be defined by the instructor. Hand-in of the problem formulation directly to the instructor by the 3rd teaching week.
Student workload
Preliminary assignment 20 hours
Classroom attendance 30 hours
Preparation 129 hours
Feedback activity 7 hours
Examination 20 hours
Further Information
6-week course.
 
Preliminary Assignment: The course coordinator uploads Preliminary Assignment on Canvas at the end of May. It is expected that students participate as it will be included in the final exam, but the assignment is without independent assessment and grading.
 
Expected literature

Mandatory readings:

 

- Class presentations and related materials (case studies)

 

- Franco Santos, Mónica, and Pietro Michelli (2017). “Towards a Definition of a Business Performance Measurement System,” International Journal of Operations & Production Management, July, 784-801.

 

- Klaus, Phil, and Stan Maklan (2013). "Towards a Better Measure of Customer Experience." International Journal of Market Research, Vol. 55, N. 2, 227-242


- Maklan, Stan (2011). "Customer experience: Are we measuring the right things?," International Journal of Market Research, Vol. 53 N. 3, 771-792.

 

- Meyer, Christopher and Andre Schwager (2007). Understanding Customer Experience. Harvard Business Review. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press.

 

- Naseem, Afshan, Sadia Ejaz Sheikh  and Khusro P. Malik (2011). “Impact of Employee Satisfaction on Success of Organization: Relation between Customer Experience and Employee Satisfaction,” International Journal of Multidisciplinary Sciences and Engineering, Vol. 2, N. 5, 41-46.

 

- Parasuranan A. Valerie A. Zeithaml and Leonard Berry (1988). “SERVQUAL: A Multiple-Item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service Quality.” Journal of Retailing, Vol. 64 N. 1, 12-40.

 

- Puccinelli, Nancy M., Ronald C. Goodstein, Dhruv Grewal, Robert Price, Priya Raghubir and David Stewart (2009). “Customer Experience Management in Retailing: Understanding the Buying Process,” Journal of Retailing, N. 85, 15–30.
 
- Russell T. Westcott, Editor (2013). Certified Manager of Quality Organizational Excellence Handbook, 4th ed. ASQ Press: Milwakee, WI.


- Srinivasan, A., and Kurey, B. (2014). "Creating a  Culture of Quality." Harvard Business Review

 

- Van Moorsel, Aad (2001), “Metrics for the Internet Age: Quality of Experience and Quality of Business,” Fifth Performability Workshop in Honor of John F. Meyer. HP Laboratories: Palo Alto, CA.

 

- Zeithaml, Valerie A., Leonar L Berry and A. Parasuraman (1991). “Communication and Control Processes in the Delivery of Service Quality,” Services Marketing,  Christopher H. Lovelock Ed. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 406-423.

 

Case Studies:
-    Ritz-Carlton Hotels
-    Samsumg
-    Trader Joe’s
-    Home Depot


All cases involve questions relating to some of the Nordic Nine Principles

 

Additional relevant readings:

 
Other resources
- American Society for Quality, https://asq.org/
- Business Performance Improvement Resource, http://www.bpir.com
- European Foundation for Quality Management, http://www.efqm.org
- Japan Quality Assurance Organization, https:/​/​www.jqa.jp/​english/​
- Quality Management Principles, www.iso.org
Last updated on 10-01-2024