What is Total Quality?

Total quality is a unique and complete measure of the total ownership experience. Strategic Vision knows that all aspects of the experience of buying, owning and driving a vehicle interact to form an overall impression. Other measures that fail to recognize this interaction can be misleading.

Strategic Vision also believes that it is essential to explicitly incorporate the emotional aspects of experience into the measurement of vehicle buyer experience. Emotional deliverables which are associated with the attributes equally influence the quality of the experience. These dimensions are not typically factored explicitly into the calculations of other companies.

Strategic Vision has captured in its unique Total Quality Index score the complete, holistic measure of experience that encompasses positive product experience, reliability, dealership experience and the emotional response.

Factor scores that cover attribute and emotional dimensions (and other diagnostics) provide explanation of why one vehicle does better than another.

Calculation of the Total Quality Index® (TQI)

The Total Quality Index score is calculated using multivariate statistical techniques that measure the correlations of all aspects of the vehicle ownership experience including product, reliability and dealership (independent variables) against multiple outcome measures (dependent variables) which include the following:

• Satisfaction with the complete ownership experience
• Perception of quality
• Owner reported delight
• Future purchase intent
• Emotional attachment to vehicle

The correlations derived from this complex procedure are transformed into a 1000 point scale to facilitate comparisons. The scores typically range from 750 to 900. Generally, scores over 800 are terrific, although in some segments a score in the low 800's is not very competitive.

Typically, differences of 3-5 points in this scoring system are significant depending on the nature of the sample, i.e., variation, differences in factor scores, etc.