Some people use the term key quality quality characteristics to describe the features of a product or service that matter most to the customer. Are you doing the right things as far as your customer is concerned?
You may be making a great product or offering a great service but is it valued by the customer?
If this is how the customers judge an organisation, it follows that the organisation should judge itself on the same criteria. Measures should be used against which performance can be monitored. Such measures tell us what is happening at the point of transaction, i.e. how we are seen by customers.