"Customer satisfaction is the most basic concept underlying TQM. It is, therefore, of critical importance that the service system and the services it is designed to deliver satisfy the needs and wants of the organization's customers."

Design of service systems

Marketing, operations, and global environment considerations have significant implications for the design of a service system. Three criteria used to classify service systems include:

• customer contact,
• capital intensity, and
• level of customer involvement.

Properly designed service systems employ technology or organizational networks that can allow relatively inexperienced people to perform very sophisticated tasks quickly — vaulting them over normal learning curve delays. Ideally,empowerment of both service provider employees and customers (often via self service) results from well designed service systems.