Background

1990s: Emerging of Service Revolution

Total quality management, reengineering and core competencies are the ideas which are very
crucial in service revolution. During the period of 1990s which was a period of service
revolution, both real and expected, the ideas of total quality management (TQM),
reengineering and concentrating on core competencies have all been applied to the issue of
service delivery. This service revolution was both real and imagined because of its perfect
implication. TQM transcends the 'product quality' approach, involves everyone in the
organization, and encompasses its every function administration, communications, distribution,
manufacturing, marketing, planning, training etc.

The service revolution indicated reengineering, total quality management in a groundbreaking

way. Core competencies, cluster of extraordinary abilities or related 'excellences' that a firm
acquires from its founders, after consistent striving over the years, and which cannot be easily
imitated, were also focused. Core competencies are what give a firm one or more competitive
advantage, in creating and delivering value to its customers in its chosen field. These issues
were concerned to the issue of service delivery. This spirit lead quality service to an exceptional
service where quality was the main concern. Cadet uniform services Ltd. of Toronto, Canada,
introduced total quality service throughout its organization which creates a good relationship
among employer, employee and its customer. Thus the company gains more productivity and
commitment of the employer, employee and its customer.

Cadet Uniform Services Ltd: A Launderer redefined

Cadet is said to be the launderer’s launderer. Cadet Uniform Services Ltd. was set up by
Quentin Wahl in 1974. The company endows with numerous services to its customers. They are
not concentrating only in one service. The services they provide include picking up, cleaning
and delivering customer uniforms. The customers have to order only. Along with picking up,
cleaning and delivering they provide unique inventory control and management services.

Customer service representatives support the work of insurance agents with a variety of tasks
that must be done within a company or agency to deliver services to and handle requests from
clients. It’s also indicate an annual report containing the most recent incidence, mortality, and
survival statistics, published by the Cancer Statistics Branch of the NCI. It presents a broad
profile of the cancer burden. Although the CSRs are employees of the company, their role is
different compared to typical employees of other companies.
Cadet’s main view was to serve the total quality service. As a result, Cadet Uniform Services
limed became the third largest uniform services company in Canada with annual revenue of
US$30 million and an average annual growth rate of 20% over the past decade in the year 1995.
They were the most productive and efficient in the industry. Cadet charged its customers 5%
lower than those the company charged in 1985. It annually serves (picks up, cleans, processes,
and returns) seven million uniforms for 3,500 customers. As the price was low and the service
was very efficient; so, everybody liked to enjoy its service. So, profit margins exceed industry
norms. Cadet enjoys 8-10% lower per-unit costs than competitors, and wages are at least 20%
higher and, sometimes, double industry averages.

Integration of Cadet Uniform Services Ltd. And Total Quality Management

Total Quality Management (TQM) programs have been launched by the firms around the world
since the late 1980s in an attempt to maintain or recuperate competitiveness in order to
achieve customer satisfaction in the face of increasing competition from around the world in
this era of globalization. Total quality management is only one of many acronyms used to label
management systems that focus on quality. Other acronyms that have been used to describe
similar quality management philosophies and programs include continuous quality
improvement, statistical quality control, quality function deployment, quality in daily work,
total quality control and so on.

Cadet Uniform Services Ltd composed customer knowledge with other information and use the
preparation process to arrange action throughout the organization to manage day to day
actions and accomplish future goals. Plans are assessment at periodic hiatus and adjusted as
essential. The planning procedure is the glue that holds.

Total Quality Management (TQM) refers to management methods used to enhance quality and
productivity in organizations, particularly businesses. TQM is a comprehensive system approach
that works horizontally across an organization, involving all departments and employees and
extending backward and forward to include both suppliers and clients or customers.

Cadet Uniform Services Ltd composed customer knowledge with other information and use the
preparation process to arrange action throughout the organization to manage day to day
actions and accomplish future goals. Plans are assessment at periodic hiatus and adjusted as
essential. The planning procedure is the glue that holds mutually all TQM activity. TQM
organizations understand that customers will only be content if they constantly receive
products and services that meet up their needs, are delivered when expected, and are priced
for value. They make sure people are properly trained, capable, and actively participate in
achieving organizational success. Management and employees work together to create an
empowered environment where people are valued. Cadet used the entire element in the above
very effectively. As a result they could provide such awesome quality service to their clients and
able to meet such high profit margin.

Thriving Development:

Wahl’s Corporate Renovation The wellspring of corporate reformation of Cadet Uniform

Services Ltd. was the result of Wahl’s demand for quality, service and constant improvement.
The booming growth of cadet was not unintentional, rather a shared culture of service, quality
and an unrepentant dedication to employee entrepreneurship led to the way of Cadet’s
reformation.

Services

The leading focus of Cadet Uniform Services Ltd. was on their service to the customers. Control
like how best to serve their customers is given to employees. There are the entrepreneurial
natures of the CSRs as well as in the strategic priority placed on serving the customers.
According to Wahl and his Executive Vice president Arnold Gedmintas Cadet is separate from
other companies within the industry is based on the understanding about the customer’s need.
Every organization has its own style and techniques of achieving their goal. Achieving customer
satisfaction is the aim of every organization. Every organization thrive to get their customer’s
satisfaction but actually achieving it takes a lot of hard work, teamwork, tactics, techniques,
unique ideas and many more. Customer satisfaction is one of the scales based on which an
organization can conclude whether that very organization is performing well or not.

Within 1995 Cadet became the third largest uniform services company. At that time, their
annual revenue was US $30 million and annual average growth rate over the past decade was
20%. The reason for this growth was the belief in quality. Their quality level was higher in a
standard. All over the world all people wants a product or service with a standard level of
quality. Wahl, the founder of the company learned that while he was working at his father’s
company. He grew to understand and appreciate the necessity of “doing the job right the first
time, every time.” The first impression is the best impression. It shows the day. Eventually this
became the slogan of his company.

Quality: The magic wand of Continuous Development

CSR as well as the other members of Cadet examine every steps such starting from picking up,
cleaning and delivering process thoroughly in order to understand how and if the functions add
value and quality to the customer’s operation. Quality is a measure of performance for a
transmission system that reflects its transmission quality and availability of service. Quality
management is a broad term that encompasses both quality assurance and quality
improvement, describing a program of evaluating the quality of care using a variety of
methodologies and techniques. The cadet uniform services have a Quality awareness board
where the employees and the customers discuss about the present condition of the industry,
future plans and rectify and implement certain conditions in order to increase perfection in
their daily operation. The CSRs also use error cause removal to identify any inefficiency in the
total delivery process. Moreover a 47- checklist is also used for a customized and quality
focused program developed for the customers.

Employee Entrepreneurship: Hallmark of Cadet’s corporate philosophy

The commitment to service, quality, and employee entrepreneurship represented more than a
public relations strategy. It was the facilitator to a way of doing business and a way of leading
business and it could make the cadet the most flourishing company in the entire industry.
Employee entrepreneurship was regarded the trademark of cadet Uniform services Ltd.’s
corporate philosophy. This concentration was not a void message of the employee
empowerment but rather a factual commitment to the reallocation of power and decision
making procedures, the success or failure of a CSR was predicated on the total contentment on
his customers along with the amount of income he generated on hid routes. So, a CSR himself
was the major decider of how big his own paycheck was going to be. The more satisfied the
customers are and the more the CRS can retain customers, the more money he could generate.
Approximately 60% of a CSR’s pay was based on customer retention levels, and another30% on
ratings given directly by customers. Customer feedback was the important factor that
determined whether a CSR succeeded or failed.

Selective Admission to a Painstaking Training Process

Guild of artisans is a medieval organization, predecessor to unions; typically association of

artisans or merchants; any association where the interests and needs of a particular
professional or business group are represented. The Cadet employees engendered a similar
level of expertise and dedication through focused hiring. Not only they focused on hiring but
also focused on extensive hiring, development programs, and clearly articulated quality
standards. They increased the commitment of the employees by training process. Thus they
established high quality standards.

The traditional human resource manager or the line manager was not directly involved with the
recruitment of the Cadet Uniform Services. They were not directly related with the process of
hiring. The team members examined potential CSRs, because, team members were responsible
for examining the qualifications and inherent commitment to service and quality of all potential
employees. Hiring may refer to recruitment of personnel. Cadet’s current CSRs understood
more fully the level of commitment necessary to maintain the company’s quality and service
standards. That’s why this method was implemented by the Cadet’s current CSRs.

Eventually it increased the strength of the culture of employee entrepreneurship and

teamwork. Cadet’s concept of “customer service representatives,” as the drivers are known,
extends much further. They are mini-entrepreneurs who design their own routes and manage
their own accounts and, to a large extent, determine the size of their own paychecks. Cadet
employees also had the opportunity to train in other areas of the business that they were
interested dependent upon being able to find someone willing to trade positions. It provides
the employees greater job flexibility, variety, and personal (as well as professional) growth
opportunities, that means, as long as they could find someone to replace them, they could
exchange work positions with them.

A Quality Awareness Board, that included employees from miscellaneous parts of business, as
well as customers, both oriented new-hires about the company’s quality focus and provided an
ongoing “process mapping” exercise on how to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of day
to day operations. Significant increase in sales was created through this procedure. To increase
the quality of their regular work, to discuss certain problems, work situations, criticisms and
compliments regarding the organization and certain other daily issues of the organization the
CSR undergoes a 360 degree performance appraisal where the employees and the customers
discuss about the present condition of the industry, future plans and rectifies and implements
certain conditions in order to increase perfection in their daily operation. This process mapping
as a whole has earned the organization with significant increase in sales. The core of Cadet
uniform services success is their unending desire and lust for perfection. They believe that
perfection is earned by means of customer satisfaction. And earning customer satisfaction is
not an easy cup of tea but in case of cadet uniform services: they made it possible. At every
step of cleaning, pickup and delivery processes the CSRs try their level best to produce a 100%
error free delivery to their customers. The cadet uniform services have a quality awareness
board where the employees and the customers discuss about the present condition of the
industry, future plans and rectify and implement certain conditions in order to increase
perfection in their daily operation. The CSRs also use error cause removal to identify any
inefficiency in the total delivery process. Moreover a 47- checklist is also used for a customized
and quality focused program developed for the customers.

Rewards Linking Total Quality Service: Monetary and Non-Monetary

CSR’s pay was directly tied to the contentment level of individual customers. Approximately
60% of a CSR’s pay is based on customer/retention levels and another 30% on ratings given
directly by customers. This reliance on customer feedback reflects how an individual
entrepreneur has thrived or failed. The quality kid’s day provided employees the opportunity to
share the idea of quality with their children. This helped them to become more social and
friendly. Quality awards received by the company from its customers were displayed in the
cafeteria and acted as a symbol of pride for team members. These awards were an honor to all
team members of the organization and acted as tools for reinforcing the company’s goals and
culture. In zero-defect day, a non-monetary reward policy, the plant closed early for a barbecue
on the days the company met its goals ahead of schedule. It worked as a positive
reinforcement. It proved to be powerful motivational tools. Freedom to Do One’s job as one
best sees fit provided freedom in choosing the way of work. It gave employees fabulous
inspiration. He or she then can able to use own inventiveness and extra energy to do the job
and give the best shot for the improvement of the organization. Quality awards received by the
company from its customers were displayed in the cafeteria and acted as a symbol of pride for
team members. These awards were an honor to all team members of the organization and
acted as tools for reinforcing the company’s goals and culture. This was biggest benefit of the
recognition of this quality awards.

Overcoming the obstacles of Future: A Way of Performing Business

As cadet has already been expanded over Canada and North America, the challenge for Wahl
would be to transfer the culture and focus on total quality management and total quality
service throughout an ever-expanding organization. Now the question is that whether cadet
could continue motivate its CSRs through this culture as competition intensified in this industry
or not. Questions such as how cadet could transfer to new employees, in an ever-expanding
system. The same dedication to services that had been the hallmark of this organization has
also arisen. All these things could become a huge challenge for Cadet Uniform Services Ltd. to
thrive in the coming decades.