U.S. Water Resource Agency - Flagstaff District

U.S. Water Resource Agency- Flagstaff District

As a public not-for-profit agency, who are Flagstaff District’s customers?  List several potential candidates as customers then decide which few you think should be considered by the Flagstaff District to be the customer or customers.  Explain your reasoning.        

The Flagstaff District meets the needs of numerous types of customers within the districts representative boundaries. Flagstaff District is funded through local, state and federal funds, therefore they have a responsibility to the tax paying customers. Other customers include federal, state and local governments, which represent the tax paying citizens. The tax paying customer can be represented by households and businesses. Flagstaff District should focus on the customers residing within its own district boundaries. The funding for the Flagstaff District is from the federal level, this would mean that the services are available to all taxpayer residing in the nation. However, the most perceived representative of quality is the local user. The local user can influence others district and non-district taxpayers on their perception of quality exemplified by the Flagstaff District.

Is USWRA-FD a manufacturing or a service organization?  Explain.  How might the district define quality?

The Flagstaff District outlined six different goods and services it offer the customers: 1) The development of new infrastructure and projects; 2) Management of the operation and maintenance of existing infrastructure; 3) the performance of reimbursable work for others; 4) administration of regulatory requirements; 5) provision of emergency response and recovery; and (6) the delivery of defense, environmental, and restoration programs. They mention “goods and service’, however they are offering mainly services.

Which "quality perspective(s)" does your proposed definition most closely fit?  How could USWRA-FD use this definition to evaluate its success in “competing” with other entities?

 Quality can be defined as “meeting or exceeding customer expectations” (Evans & Lindsay, 2016, p. 9). With a blend of goods and services, Flagstaff District has to be very careful in define their quality. As a service based organization, the customer perspective on meeting or exceeding their needs. By improving and extending infrastructure, customers have a somewhat tangible product as well as increases services, this captures the quality perspectives of Product, User and Value perspectives. These measures help Flagstaff District define quality. This quality definition allows Flagstaff District to evaluate its success. As a federally funded, not-for-profit organization, “competing” with other entities can really be measures by the quality of customer service. The transcendent perspective, as noted by Walter Shewhart, is the “uncompromising standards and high achievement” (Evans & Lindsay, 2016, p. 6). If the customer/consumer sees value and consistently returns to the Flagstaff District for those goods and services, then Flagstaff District is successful when competing with other entities. If the customers see low quality goods and services, then Flagstaff District is a failure when competing with other entities.