Six Sigma: A Tool to Increase Customer Satisfaction at Bank of America

Through Six Sigma, BoA focused on reducing the errors in the transactions involving customers, thereby increasing customer delight scores. Initially, BoA faced resistance from some employees during the implementation of Six Sigma.

However, in course of time, the resistance subsided as BoA encouraged fair competition between the teams, which led in turn to much greater involvement of employees in implementing Six Sigma. In all, Six Sigma enhanced the customer delight ratings of BoA and also improved its revenues, while creating long-term customer relationships and a quality culture within the organization.

Later it was realized that the concept could be applied to any process which encountered flaws and resulted in the production of defective products or services. So, it was extended to service companies as well.

The major difficulty in applying Six Sigma to a service company was that measuring the quality and quantity of a service was much more difficult than measuring the quality or quantity of a product. The second problem was deciding whether the defect that had occurred was a quantitative or a qualitative one. Another matter of concern was that a service-based company relied on its employees for the quality and quantity of service rendered.