Quality is hard to define, one of my favourite *definitions is “Quality is the customers' perception of the value of the suppliers' work output”, because it puts quality firmly where it should be, part of the customer's value.
People working in a quality role can often find it difficult to communicate what quality really means in their organisation. When people ask, “what do you do” it’s easier to describe a list of tasks, “oh I do audits, I write procedures.”
Not having the words to describe what we do, can diminish the importance of what we do. You ask an accountant or a doctor what they do and they know, in fact, you don’t even need to ask them, you know what they do.
I would suggest that Quality is a fundamental pre-requisite for any successful business. Providing below standard goods and services is a sure-fire way of making sure your customers take their business elsewhere. Unfortunately, many organisations think of quality as compliance, getting through the audit and getting the certificate, rather than focusing on how a quality management system can help provide a better customer experience.
Linking Quality to customer experience rather than compliance
is one way of getting clear about what quality means to your organisation.
Whilst Quality may be hard to define it does have some commonly understood concepts, it’s about managing risk, about creating efficiencies and providing consistent approaches to work with the expectation that this will provide consistently good outcomes for your customers.
These concepts are the same whether you create a product or deliver a service, people want to know that they are getting the same great service or product as the next customer, no one wants the dodgy burger!
So, don’t spend all of your time getting through the audit, design your quality system so it works for you and your customers, not against you!
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If you are interested in working in an efficient customer focused business here are a few ways I can help:
- Download a free chapter of my book [HERE]
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*Source:(www.qualitydigest.com/magazine/2001/nov/article/definition-quality.html)