Quality matters: understand and improve quality

Quality can be measured in lots of different ways, but should always be driven by your customers’ expectations and needs. For example, customers expect spinach to be fresh and clean when the packet is opened — this is a quality expectation.

Your product or service might also need to meet legal requirements, so quality can be driven by the law too. For example:

• houses can’t be leaky
• children’s toys can’t create choking hazards 
• a consultant’s advice might need to be independent.

It’s up to your business to find ways to understand, measure, deliver and communicate quality. The better your business can achieve this the higher the quality and, usually, the more you can charge.

Good quality leads to satisfied customers and repeat business. Word of mouth about good quality can help you build your business. Bad quality can cost you time and effort to put right, and can harm your reputation — it can take many positive experiences to undo the damage of a negative review.

One traditional way to think of quality is simply ‘excellence’ — a product made from the best materials, with excellent workmanship, and with no faults. But real-world quality also depends on:

• meeting your customer’s needs
• providing a good customer experience
• balancing excellence and cost appropriately.

Different products or services can have the best quality for different customers, depending on their priorities. And a company can demonstrate quality by helping a customer understand what they really need, rather than unquestioningly delivering what they initially asked for.

Engage with your customers early in your product/service development to understand what they really need and value. This will help you avoid wasting time and money on something they won’t value. Use the tool below to understand what your customers want from you and how you compare against your competitors.

How you stand out in the marketplace

Neglecting any aspect of quality could lead to faults or weaknesses, and customers might think your offering isn’t worth it. Getting the balance right means choosing the right things to measure and control. Then you can deliver the quality your customers need, and communicate your quality to customers as a selling point.