Strategic Quality Management and Customer Satisfaction at Lennox:

Abstract

Customer satisfaction should be an every business’ or a company’s driving force for easy linkage to its ultimate goal of profitability. Various approaches can be employed including strategic quality management and SWOT analysis.

Introduction

To link profitability, business objectives, and competitiveness, strategic quality management is an important tool as it focuses on finding out the weaknesses and turning them into strengths. This helps to retain competitiveness in order to achieve customer satisfaction in the face of increasing competition globally.

According to International Directory of Company Histories perspective (1999). The Lennox  Company produces and markets a broad range of residential and commercial heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration equipment and components. And it has been a leading company in the development of innovative, high quality heating and cooling solutions.

Discussion

Strategic position gets a company views itself within the rest by figuring out what makes it unique. It focuses on its number one calling card which may include speed in delivering services. Customer focus must be the overall goal of all quality objectives and strategies in implementing strategic quality management.  Customer satisfaction a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass a customer’s expectations is often seen as a key performance indicator within companies and is a key element of business strategy (Lawrence, 2005).

SWOT analysis for Lennox:

The analysis of Strengths and Weaknesses, and Opportunities and Threats is the most common and widely recognized tool for conducting a strategic marketing audit. A SWOT analysis at Lennox would provide information that is helpful in matching the firm’s resources and capabilities to the competitive environment in which it operates.

Strengths are the resources and capabilities that can be used as a basis for developing competitive advantage, which may include: a strong brand name, good reputation among customers, and favorable access to distribution networks. The absence of some of these strengths may be viewed as weaknesses (Piercy, 2005). The external environment may reveal new opportunities for profit and growth, for example: arrival of new technologies, loosening of regulations, or removal of international trade barriers. Changes in the external environment may also present threats, for example: emergence of substitute goods, and increased trade barriers.

Conclusion

From studies of this review, strategic quality management and customer satisfaction are important practices in any business set up and should be advocated for as well as SWOT analysis, and their effectiveness observed on a daily basis.

References:

Lawrence, J., and McDaniel, D. (2005). The Future of Business: The Essentials. Mason, Ohio: South-Western.

Piercy, N., and Giles, W. (1989). Making SWOT Analysis Work, Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Vol. 7 Iss: 5/6, pp.5 – 7

International Directory of Company Histories, (1999). Vol. 28. St. James Press. Retrieved  March 18, 2011, from http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/lennoxinternational-Inc-company-history.html-united states