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Understanding ISO 9001:2015

5.1.2 Customer Focus
Organizations depend on their customers. Without customers there
would be no need for most organization to exist. Focusing on the
customer providesa unity of purpose when all activities and
efforts are directed towards achieving customer and regulatory
requirements. It is top managements responsibility to emphasize
this fact throughout the organization
Customer focus is about understanding and taking care of
customers specified needs and expectations by providing products
and services that effectively address them.
Organizations gain competitive advantage by increasing the value to
customers in one or more activities, relative to what competitors
offer. Value is defined as improving the worth of the product or
service to the customer either through lowering the price or
increasing the product or service performance characteristics or
both. Top management must focus on increasing the value to the
customer while optimizing the use of QMS resources and minimizing
the risks and costs to the organization.
Customer satisfaction is the customers perception of how well
their needs and expectations have been fulfilled, whether these
needs and expectations are stated or implied.
It is by understanding and addressing these and other customer
perceptions and by building pre and post sale relationships
with each customer that your organization can achieve and
enhance customer satisfaction.
Everything else flows from these definitions. An organizations
products, services, support, management, employees, vision,
mission, strategies, business plans, goals and objectives, business
processes, consideration of risks and opportunities, employee
responsibilities, business environment, culture, etc, must be
developed around and focused on achieving these two primary
objectives.
This clause relates to top managements role in accomplishing
this by demonstrating their leadership and commitment in applying
this approach to customer focus across all the activities listed above
(which which includes theQMS activities themselves mentioned in
clause 5.1.2 a, b & c.).

India: C 905 Krishna Appra Saphire, Vaibhav Khand, Indirapuram. Ghaziabad. UP. India
1 .No. 16, First Floor, 70 HK Bld, Y M Road, Masjid Bunder, West Mumbai, India
UAE: Spark International FZE, PO Box 16111, RAK FTZ, RAK-UAE.
Algeria: No: 2 Etage Batimet Billayat, Cite Eyalarsa, SETIF, ALGERIA.
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It doesnt mean they have to do it themselves, but they must

provide the necessary direction and oversight to make sure the
organization does it and does it effectively.
Customer focus is also the first of the QMS principles on which this
ISO 9001 standard is based upon. Please go back clause 0.2 and
read the actions that top management must direct an organization
to take to fulfil the requirements under this clause 5.1.2. Also go
back to clause 5.1.1 and re-read the definitions for the terms - top
management, leadership, commitment and ensure.

India: C 905 Krishna Appra Saphire, Vaibhav Khand, Indirapuram. Ghaziabad. UP. India
2 .No. 16, First Floor, 70 HK Bld, Y M Road, Masjid Bunder, West Mumbai, India
UAE: Spark International FZE, PO Box 16111, RAK FTZ, RAK-UAE.
Algeria: No: 2 Etage Batimet Billayat, Cite Eyalarsa, SETIF, ALGERIA.