Posted: 06 Aug 2015 06:53 AM PDT
Photo (CC) Jason
Taellous, on Flickr
Some of you may remember the Ford
slogan of the 1980’s, Quality
is Job #1.
That slogan was true then for
businesses. And it remains
true today.
Yet, quality sometimes remains hard
to find. For example in the last year, two households in my family had to
purchase dishwashers. Two different brands were purchased but, to our
amazement, both of them had production mistakes that needed to be
fixed during installation. The chances of that happening just seem to beat
the odds. Neither company seemed to live up to the quality expected.
Will the companies that produced the
products survive? Probably. They are large and can overcome it. Large companies
have shown time and again they have the capacity to overcome mistakes, although
not without some pain.
Small businesses, however, may not
have the resources to overcome quality issues. And small businesses in
small communities are even more likely to get hurt as word will quickly spread
if expectations are not met.
Quality was, is and will remain
key to building a successful small business.
When thinking about it, remember:
§ Quality is not a cost – It is
possible to cut costs and retain quality to a point. But at some point, that
relationship will no longer hold true. And as many companies will attest,
short-term gains can turn out to be large long-term losses.
§ Quality is not a statistic – You may
think that 99.9% success is a great number. It’s a good number but would we
accept 12 babies a day sent home with the wrong parents or 1300 calls per
second going to a wrong number, one other than what was dialed.
§ Quality is not a buzzword – Talking
about quality or including it in your slogan does not make it happen. Quality
is a culture. Quality means giving people control and responsibility.
Quality counts in your small
business. Make it part of every task and included each day in your work.
Quality opens doors and
builds life-long customer relationships. Make it a key part of your business.
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