By Dan Hanzel, Quality Assurance Manager, Bernard Welding

Businesses frequently undertake initiatives to improve the quality of their products. Most of these efforts focus on minimizing defects and preventing quality problems from reaching the customer, whether the customer is internal or external, and each company has its own set of protocols to follow so it can produce “high” quality goods and services.

But what really makes goods or services high quality? Does high quality mean that it is free from defects? Or is it that the product works as expected with little maintenance for a long time?

The answer is that the quality of a good or service is exactly how it compares to the expectations of the customer using it, not in the charts or inspection reports or marketing surveys or, even, in the product itself.

If you buy a pair of inexpensive shoes and they last for five years, they exceed your expectations, and you will consider them to be of very high quality.

Conversely, if you expect your favorite baseball team to win the World Series and they don’t make it to the playoffs, you’re filled with disappointment at the poor quality of play on the field.

Because expectations are inextricably linked to perception, you must put yourself in the place of your potential customers to effectively evaluate the quality of your goods or services. There are a number of ways for your customers to perceive and thus to develop expectations for your product.

Assertions of Performance
Assertions of performance is what the provider tells people to expect from his product. For example: “Pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less.” “A complete recovery in 3 weeks.” “32 mpg on the highway.”

Assertions of performance build expectations for the customer and provide a basis for performance comparison. Does the product do or accomplish what the provider claims it will? Well, it better. And it had better match up to the assertions without conditions, provisos or caveats.

Customers make buying decisions based on these assertions, and if there is a disconnect between the assertions and the product, the customer will feel cheated and the value proposition will be compromised.

A customer who feels cheated will have no problem telling the world about the negative experience and poor quality of the product. Overcoming the stigma of providing a low quality product can be extremely difficult. Ensuring a product does what you say it will is essential to building a high quality product, but it is not enough.

Need Fulfillment
The product is available because the provider perceives a need in the marketplace. We each believe our product has value to someone, and we hope that becomes many “someones.” We also hope that our product’s market value is greater than the cost of providing it. How well the perceived need matches the actual need of the customer is another key factor that affects the overall quality of the product.

On a hot day, for example, you have a nearly limitless selection of beverages available to help quench your thirst. If a company chose to offer a cup of coffee as a way of quenching a hot summer day’s thirst, it would not be meeting your expectations or fulfilling your need to have your thirst quenched. Compared to a glass of ice water, the coffee would be considered to be a lower quality beverage.

Functionality, durability, reliability, efficiency, appearance and responsiveness are all elements of a given customer’s needs. The elements that are most important varies by customer, but all of them are essential for a customer to see a product as high quality. The level to which these elements are achieved in the customer’s eyes is what goes into the total quality perception of the product.

Alternative Products
As much as we may love it, our product is almost never the only solution to a customer’s specific problem.

For example: If your potential customer is looking to join two pieces of aluminum together, he has a variety of methods to choose from. Manufacturers of TIG, MIG and friction stir welding equipment all have solutions available to accomplish this feat, and the best choice depends on the application. Separately, the people who make rivets, bolts and screws all offer different solutions. And, manufacturers of industrial adhesives would offer solutions different from all of those.

The option that does the job best – that choice that provides the most value – in the customer’s eyes will win the award for having the highest quality.

Having a thorough knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of alternative options and crafting your product to be the best solution from the customer’s point of view goes a long way toward providing the customer with the most valuable and highest perceived quality product.

Competitive Field of Like Products
In addition to competing against products in different categories, your product also must compete against similar products within its own category.

Each company that provides a product wants its product to carry the greatest value into the marketplace. To have the greatest value in the market, every similar product must be seen by the customer as having a lesser value.

Since all providers are continually vying for the position of greatest value, the field is constantly changing – sometimes subtly, sometimes dramatically. That is why products, messages and whole business systems must keep evolving.

Ignoring the need for evolution as a business quickly leads to declining market share as your competitors refine their products to better meet the demands of the market and your customers’ needs.

Each of these factors must be understood from the customer’s perspective. Together they form a customer’s expectation for the product.

If a customer perceives your product to be of lesser quality than other products on the market, it doesn’t matter whether it’s the best product and value on the market or not — no one is going to know because no one is going to buy it.

It is the customer’s point of view that ultimately quantifies product quality.

To achieve a perception of high quality requires a dedicated and continuous team effort – not simply minimizing defects – but meeting, exceeding and raising expectations.

Dan Hanzel has been the quality assurance manager with Bernard for eight years. When not at work, Dan enjoys spending time with his family. He can be reached at dhanzel@bernardwelds.com or by calling 708-946-228.