The innovative voice of the customer (VOC) data approach that HD Supply Facilities Maintenance uses to drive customer loyalty, continuous improvement, and operational excellence earned the company the top award at the American Society for Quality’s (ASQ) 24th International Team Excellence Awards Process Competition held in May at the 2009 Conference on Quality and Improvement. 

The winning team used a “bottom up” and “top down” approach to implement process improvements, explains Sheri Espinosa, HD Supply's Facilities Maintenance director of special orders and customer information. In addition, the company embraced the concept of driving improvements based on the VOC, while demonstrating that service failures are not the fault of employees, but, rather, are failures in a process that needs adjustment or redesign.

Ayesha Basheer, manager of VOC/fabrication services, adds that "from the bottom-up perspective, the cross-functional VOC project team is passionate about truly understanding customer sentiment and resolving customer issues for operational excellence.”

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