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Quality is considered to be one of the greatest influencing factor that drives and impacts a customers buying decision and it is has become a challenging job for the organisations to maintain and enhance it in today’s customer centric world.
Have you ever wondered, why we choose specific brands like ''Dell","Hp" or 'Sony" or whatever it is???
Why being a consumer we are ready to pay even few extra bucks even when we are so price sensitive and price conscious, to buy brands like these even if the same product with the same configuration is offered by any other company say XYZ.
It is because we often associate brands with Quality and we often link Quality with the standardization of the products...It is all about adding value to the product....
Quality is a critical factor and plays a greater role in strategic performance.
“Quality can be defined as the ability of a product to meet the customers’ expectations”
It is all about the expectations of the customers from the product of a certain brand that they rely upon a certain brand...
Quality is not alone a single factor that builds a brand Image,there is a lot more what potential customers look to get associated with the brand.
There are many other factors that overall contribute to the standardization of a product that comes under the preview of Quality.It may involve brands:
- Appearances.
- Service Quality.
- Quality Assurance.
- Product Performance.
- Durability.
- Features.
- Conformance
- Perceiveness...
- Perfection.
- Consistency.
- Waste Elimination.
- Speed of Delivery.
- Compliance with policy and procedures.
- Global Presence.
- Uniqueness
Quality has many multi dimensional arms... So thats the reason today all the companys are giving Quality assurance and Quality checked cards or stickers on its products
If we want to understand what the Quality itself means:
Q : Quest for Excellence.
U : Understanding customers needs.
A: Action to achieve customers appreciation
L: Leadership-Determining to be a leader.
I: Involving all people.
T: Team spirit to work for a common goal.
Y: Yardstick to maximize progress.
"Quality can be defined as doing the right things,doing them in a right way,doing them in a timely manner,doing them right the first time and doing things right every time..."
Quality is not an over night game...It continues to grow with time by stressing on all the crucial factors that will ultimately lead to the performance of a product.
Quality can be further classified into the following categories as per the perceiveness of the customer...
- Indifferent Quality.
- Expected Quality.
- One dimensional Quality.
- Exciting Quality.
Lets try to simplify these with some appropriate examples:-
Indifferent Quality:-Indifferent quality is that Quality that evokes response like,"Thats fine,but who cares.?
Indifferent Quality:-Indifferent quality is that Quality that evokes response like,"Thats fine,but who cares.?
Ex:- Beautifully garnished finger bowl (a special bowl used to clean fingers after meal) in a restaurant would look nice but it can not be seen as of so importance...
Expected Quality:-Quality that customer expects and demands.
Ex:- Suppose we are feeling very hungry and we want to have lunch or we want to dine.
So we move into a fine restaurant and not to a road side dhaba (Hawker) to have a delicious meal.
We expect food to be delicious in a good renowned restaurant rather than having it on road side hawkers.
"Its a fact that customers notice expected quality when it is missing..."
One dimensional :-It is something that a customer expects to be but doesn't result into a displeased customer when lacking.
Ex:-A waiter who is slow in serving an order may not cause customer to leave if they are serving a good and a fresh delicious food,though the customers would give him some tip.
Customers would leave if they found any dead insect into the food stuff served to them.
The restaurants slow service is the One dimensional Quality.
Exciting Quality:-Exciting Quality can be defined as a Quality level that exceeds customers expectations.
It is the quality of the product that pleases them,with this type of service level the customers will feel delighted and highly privileged.
Ex:-If you book a hotel for suppose ₹ 15000.
It may be having all amenities like clean cushions,Bed sheets,Scented flowers in it,a Jakozi to give you a complete relaxation and a fully Air conditioned room,Complimentary breakfast,Free wifi,acess to Gym and Swimming pool,these are all expected from a decent Five star hotel room as it comes under the Expected Quality criteria as you are paying for the services....
But when you wake up in the morning you see two movie tickets under your cushion and after that you also get a free drop at the nearest Airport as a gift for using the services of the hotel ...how will you feel....U will definitely feel more delighted...your satisfaction level will be naturally high.
and it is a damn sure thing that you will become a loyal customer of their hotel and gonna use their services again....because you got much more for what you have paid for...!!!
This is the Exciting Quality Experience which you perceived....
The more you will pay,the better services you will get....but how you present your services and how you project yourself in front of a customer speaks a lot about you and your organisation.
Expected Quality:-Quality that customer expects and demands.
Ex:- Suppose we are feeling very hungry and we want to have lunch or we want to dine.
So we move into a fine restaurant and not to a road side dhaba (Hawker) to have a delicious meal.
We expect food to be delicious in a good renowned restaurant rather than having it on road side hawkers.
"Its a fact that customers notice expected quality when it is missing..."
One dimensional :-It is something that a customer expects to be but doesn't result into a displeased customer when lacking.
Ex:-A waiter who is slow in serving an order may not cause customer to leave if they are serving a good and a fresh delicious food,though the customers would give him some tip.
Customers would leave if they found any dead insect into the food stuff served to them.
The restaurants slow service is the One dimensional Quality.
Exciting Quality:-Exciting Quality can be defined as a Quality level that exceeds customers expectations.
It is the quality of the product that pleases them,with this type of service level the customers will feel delighted and highly privileged.
Ex:-If you book a hotel for suppose ₹ 15000.
It may be having all amenities like clean cushions,Bed sheets,Scented flowers in it,a Jakozi to give you a complete relaxation and a fully Air conditioned room,Complimentary breakfast,Free wifi,acess to Gym and Swimming pool,these are all expected from a decent Five star hotel room as it comes under the Expected Quality criteria as you are paying for the services....
But when you wake up in the morning you see two movie tickets under your cushion and after that you also get a free drop at the nearest Airport as a gift for using the services of the hotel ...how will you feel....U will definitely feel more delighted...your satisfaction level will be naturally high.
and it is a damn sure thing that you will become a loyal customer of their hotel and gonna use their services again....because you got much more for what you have paid for...!!!
This is the Exciting Quality Experience which you perceived....
The more you will pay,the better services you will get....but how you present your services and how you project yourself in front of a customer speaks a lot about you and your organisation.
Firms are focusing today on Zero defect strategy rather than correction of defects or rework.
Although you may on part of Goodwill provide customers free serviceability for the rework but he/she may turn into a totally dissatisfied customer.
Maintaining Quality Benefits:-
Although you may on part of Goodwill provide customers free serviceability for the rework but he/she may turn into a totally dissatisfied customer.
- Product recalls not only increase your over head costs but can also lead to a great financial burden...The consequences for the same can prove worse....
- Rework consumes a lot of time,Involves a lot of money,a hell lot of Storage space,Transportation Charges and an extensive labour work...
- It also tarnishes the image of the company that it is not able to fulfill its commitment of maintaining its Quality standards...as perceived quality was not met as per customer expectations and the company's commitment.
- It is hereby mentioned that the Gap between the Expected performance of a product and the actually perceived one helps forming customers positive or a negative perceptions...
- With continuous product recalls,the customer may form a negative perception about the product and about the brand as a whole...which will surely tarnish the image of the company....and that negative perception of the company in the mindset of customers is very hard to dissolve...
- Will result in a highly dissatisfied customer and it would be difficult for him to retain...
- Ultimately it will lead to the worst,the customers will start speaking bad about the company and as we know the words of the mouth are the primary and most effective way to persuade any one to form a negative or a positive perception...it will result in customers turning their back towards the company's products which will lead to the loss of sales as the potential buyers who are planning to buy the car of the same brand wont consider it in even in their evoke set..
- People who drives car want to be safe..They buy it as per their family's comfort keeping safety of the family first and ensures that it is loaded with all type of safety features like Air bags etc..
- But sometimes the companies have recalled the product only when customers have encountered huge and fatal accidents ...(click and follow the link given below)
- Link to follow :- Woman killed in crash was driving car included in airbag recall
- (An evoked set is the set of product choices regarding a certain brand that you believe are feasible options for you to purchase based upon your needs and desires relating to the product.)
- Customers will switch over to competitors that will result in loss of market share and decreased revenues...
"Quality is not what a company says....it is all about what they deliver to you as you being their customer and what you perceive from their product....Quality is something about what a customer says..."
- Delivers a positive company Image.
- Gives an competitive edge over the competitors.
- Improved market share will result into improved profits.
- Avoids unnecessary costs..
- Creates high employee moral which improve productivity...
Organisations globally are working to satisfy customers in every possible way and thus they are upgrading their technology in a timely manner and are ensuring the performance of a product by passing it thru various Quality checks as they seek a long time relationship with the people...because they know that Quality is the real bond between them and the customers...
So you must have seen the above given logo on most of the product boxes that let people know that they can trust on the company regarding the Quality of the product....
So keeping the Quality thing in mind the companies are very serious about the same...Utmost care is taken during the production process on the assembly line on the assembly belt.If a specific product fails Quality check it is sent back for rework or is rejected and if there is some fault in the machinery,the overall concerned processes are stopped...The products are not forwarded to the next level until the fault gets rectified....because firms know that...:-
"If there will be no Quality,there will be no sales;If there will be no sales,there will be no profit as well;and if there will be no profit then there will be no jobs at all...."
Hence it is ensured that Quality failures are eliminated initially so that final product works well and performs even better.......
Hence it is ensured that Quality failures are eliminated initially so that final product works well and performs even better.......
