Top management shall ensure that customer requirements are determined and are met with the aim of enhancing customer satisfaction (see 7.2.1 and 8.2.1).
(From BS EN ISO 9001:2000)

This clause is completely new in ISO 9001:2000 and packs quite a punch in one sentence: "Top management shall ensure that customer requirements are determined and are met with the aim of enhancing customer satisfaction."

That means top management must help set the framework concerning what the organization's customers require-it doesn't mean top management must be in constant contact with the customers. Management's responsibility is to ensure that resources flow accordingly for continual improvement and customer satisfaction to happen effectively. In short, contracts define what the customer wants, and management takes that contract to the people who are going to take care of it.

As simple as that may seem, it doesn't happen as effectively as it should in many companies. Customers often have special needs, and those needs must be communicated from the highest level. A good way to make sure those needs are determined and met is to conduct internal audits and follow through on any findings. Internal audits can help enhance customer satisfaction, because the auditors will be talking with lots of people in the organization to make sure those customer needs are being communicated effectively. If those needs aren't being discussed, distributed and met, the auditors will certainly raise a red flag during a management review to fix it.

This internal audit process will ensure that customer requirements are being effectively understood by management and input into the management system. Effective customer focus must be followed up with effective measurement and monitoring of customer satisfaction.