Chris Stiehl

WORK EXPERIENCE:

President – StiehlWorks; 1999 – present

Built a consulting business involving medical and healthcare clients, high-tech clients, electric utilities, welfare-to-work and youth governmental programs as well as employee satisfactions studies, non-profit customer satisfaction projects and retreats, retailing construction supplies and major manufacturing equipment (from generators to flow meters). Much of this work has included “Voice of the Customer,” benchmarking, and “Internal Metrics” projects—assisting management teams in becoming more customer-focused and profitable.

Consultant – M Squared Consulting, Inc; 2004 – 2010

Led several efforts at Cisco Systems using Voice of the Customer techniques and the House of Quality (Quality Function Deployment). Strategic planning and the development and analysis of customer satisfaction questionnaires were essential aspects of these projects. Projects ranged from finance metrics to customer service calls to product design. Worked with a customer service team that won a national quality award in 2008 for efforts that Chris led to develop their customer satisfaction survey.

Principal – Applied Marketing Science; 1997 -  1999

Built and managed the San Francisco office for the Boston-based company. Responsible for client acquisition, sales, project management and coordination with the home office. Major clients included: federal, state and local governments (welfare-to-work program design, customer satisfaction, internal measurements); utilities (deregulation studies, communication effectiveness studies, Voice of the Service Employee studies, Voice of the Customer work, and executive dashboard development); high-tech (product design and development, market sizing, benchmarking, Quality Function Deployment); large companies, with particular emphasis on medical and healthcare (Voice of the Customer studies, employee retention programs).

Group Director/Senior Researcher – Pacific Gas & Electric Co; 1992 - 1997

Developed customer satisfaction systems of measurement for PG&E, including several major surveys. Managed the research function and multi-million dollar budget. Worked on a diverse array of issues from energy efficiency product design to measuring customer impacts of capital investments. Major projects included forecasting the effects of performance-based ratemaking and developing customer-centered models for electric service reliability investments.

Senior Engineer/Engineering Group Manager Competitive Intelligence, Cadillac Division of General Motors; 1982 - 1992

Developed customer and dealer measurement systems for Cadillac. Directed and analyzed research projects resulting in increased sales and satisfaction while reducing costs. Frequently presented research concepts and results to GM’s upper management (Corporate CEO and Senior Staff). Was an active participant in Cadillac’s winning Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award efforts. Managed small group of market research professionals for Fisher Body Division of General Motors (1982-1984).

Senior Engineer – Polaroid Corporation; 1978 – 1982

Heavily involved in product design research and manufacturing systems design research. Responsible for designing employee and customer interfaces for factories and products. Plant industrial engineer and safety engineer. Presented research results and implications to large audiences (e.g., all women employees on designing jobs for women) and senior staff (COO and Senior VPs). Research tasks were basic human factors engineering: designing things for people, and market research: finding out what people wanted.

Senior Staff Scientist – Wyle Laboratories; 1974-1978

Designed and implemented field studies on recreational boating safety on behalf of the United States Coast Guard. Investigated accidents and developed engineering solutions to prevent death and injury in the event of a boating accident. Worked on human factors and safety issues in nuclear power plant control room design (prior to Three Mile Island).

EDUCATION:

Coursework toward an M.S. in Applied Statistics, Oakland University (Michigan), 1991-1992.

M.S. - Industrial and Operations Engineering, University of Michigan, 1974 (Human Factors Engineering specialty)

M.A. – Experimental Psychology, University of Michigan, 1973 (specialty in the learning of mathematical concepts)

B.A. – Psychology, Mathematics minor, University of California, San Diego, 1971 (emphasis in learning and human choice behavior)

TEACHING EXPERIENCE:

Offered technical training in Voice of the Customer techniques and the House of Quality to sold out audiences in industrial settings.

Lectured or taught courses in marketing research, experimental psychology, statistics, or total quality management almost continuously since 1971, having taught at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Michigan, Northeastern University, Harvard University, the University of Alabama, Huntsville, Ohlone College, St. Mary’s College and the University of California, San Diego.

Taught "Practical Marketing Research" at UCSD Extension (2006 – 2016).

HONORS and AWARDS:

-    Named “Top 10 Author” by CustomerThink.com, December, 2008.

-    Part of the team of employees that prepared and defended Cadillac’s winning Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award application, 1990.

-     Mielke Award for Community Service (one of only 5 employees so honored), Pacific Gas & Electric Co., 1997.

-       Appointed to Three Mile Island Technical Commission on behalf of the Brookhaven National Lab, Nuclear Regulatory Commission and IEEE, 1979.

-       Named “Outstanding Speaker” at the Coast Guard’s Annual Boating Safety Conference, 1977.

-       Graduation with Honors, and Honors at Entrance, UCSD, 1971 and 1967.

PUBLICATIONS:

Pain Killer Marketing, with Henry DeVries (W Business Books, El Monte CA, 2008); named a “Best Seller” on Barnes&Noble.com

Contributor to 42 Rules for Driving Success with Books, by Mitchell Levy (SuperStar Publishing, Cupertino CA, 2009)

Contributor to What To Do When Your Partner Has Diabetes: A Survival Guide, by Nicole Johnson and Lorraine Stiehl (self published, May, 2017)

Many articles published online, particularly at CustomerThink.com.

Numerous publications in the proceedings of technical society conventions, such as: The Human Factors Society Annual Meeting, International Conference on Benchmarking, Ohlone College Quality Conference, Department of Labor’s Journey 2000, Annual CEO Conference at the University of Dayton, Annual AMA/ASQ Conference on Customer Satisfaction, Annual Conference on Market Research in Utilities, and many more. Also published in The Journal of Safety and the Annual Review of Psychology. Much of the research conducted for the US Coast Guard has been published in government documents and is available.