Moving from customer feedback to organizational learning : A case study of a Swedish DSO

Abstract: Customer-orientation is a strategy that has been adopted by many organizations. This strategy refers to the ability to assess the customer's perception of the service quality, for instance through customer feedback. Customer feedback can be acquired through surveys or given to the frontline employees. The processes for acquiring customer feedback for customer-oriented firms are generally well-developed. However, research shows that utilizing this valuable information is not conducted in a systematic matter. In this thesis, we investigate how a Swedish DSO can transfer knowledge from customer feedback internally to facilitate organizational learning. The primary empirical data in this qualitative research is gathered through interviews from the empirical context as well as with management consultants with organizational learning as their expertise. Findings from this thesis show that there is no panacea regarding how customer feedback should be presented and communicated in order to enable the organization to act on it. However, the findings indicate that an unsupportive organizational culture inhibits customer feedback to be shared effectively. Knowledge from customers must be equally valued as technical knowledge. Furthermore, it became evident that the organization endeavor a codification strategy. While this strategy is suitable for solicited feedback, this thesis argues that a personalization strategy might be more adequate for unsolicited feedback since it is difficult to express in a codified form. Our thesis is a small contribution to the limited research done on how to act on customer feedback and bring knowledge from customersto organizational learning. In addition, this thesis also contributes to existing research by investigating barriers that a regulated monopoly encounters when trying to become customer-oriented.