Becoming clearly aware of the importance of quality and its final effects on the profitability of the company requires not only a way of thinking and feeling quality, but also and above all, making prevention an attitude.
Quality must be understood from different angles or points of view.
First: Do things right the first time. Whether it is the final product or service, or internal components or services, it is essential to do it not only well, but also to do it correctly without the need for reprocessing or corrective actions.
Second: Quality not only includes the product or service sold, but also all the activities and processes of contact and service with the customer. It is of little use to make a product well if the services of receiving orders, billing, delivery and after-sales have a low level of quality.
Third: We have quality as compliance with the requirements established according to the requirements of the clients.
Fourth: Comply with fundamental quality principles that make the safety and reliability of the product or service.
Fifth: Design quality and performance capabilities, as a source of added value for the customer or consumer.
Sixth: The quality must not only prevent the generation of losses for the company that produces the goods and services, but also prevent economic loss for the customer or consumer. To avoid the loss of the customer or consumer, not only the lack or malfunction of the product must be taken into account, but also the damage that this malfunction may cause.
A video or cassette player that does not work properly will not only cause a first loss due to the expenses of arrangements, mobilization (time, transfer, etc.) destined to provide guarantees, but also the possible breakage of cassettes or films. In many cases this loss goes far beyond the material, to affect emotional memories. In the same way, a brake that does not work does not merely imply the expense corresponding to the repair of the brake, but also the repair of the possible damage caused by its malfunction, which in many cases includes damage to health.
Seventh: Failure to function at the time when it is most needed, or moment of truth. A photo that does not appear, a communication that is not achieved, a video that does not work.
Those special moments in which the camera, cell phone, or video stop working leave a very special flavor in the owner or user of the same.
The sixth and seventh points have a special and direct impact on the positioning that the product and especially its brand leave on the consumer. A bad positioning ends up generating lower sales (negative “word of mouth” advertising) and with it a huge damage to the brand.
Quality is not a minor issue, the lack of quality generates economic or emotional losses, which lead to a negative attitude of the consumer towards the brand in question. This not only occurs in products but also in services.
A bad service in a unit corresponding to a hotel chain leads the user to avoid the other units of the same chain, although the services of the other units do not have failures in their quality of services.
Similarly, the poor quality of a dish in a restaurant will not lead the customer to want to try other dishes. It is enough to confirm the poor or low quality of a dish to transfer your experience to the rest of the menu.
A positive experience leads to a good positioning of an establishment, brand or product, a bad experience automatically leads to a degradation, defensive effect or negative attitude of customers towards said establishment or brand.
Good experiences are transmitted to a lower number of people than a negative experience, precisely because of that spirit of revenge that the individual assumes in the face of economic and emotional losses.
Once the bad experience has been generated for the consumer, it is very difficult for them to regain their inclination for the brand, that is, their desire to buy the products or services of the brand or establishment that caused such a negative experience.
Which implies that the first great publicity of a company and its brand of products or services is the quality that it has.
Quality not only generates greater profitability by increasing productivity and consequently reducing costs, but also by avoiding negative experiences and generating an attitude of customer continuity with the products offered.
Hence the fundamental importance of quality as a generator of added value for customers and users, enabling the company to achieve a price premium due to that extra value that is granted to the buyer. For this, consider brands such as Minolta, Toshiba, Canon, Suzuki, Honda and Hewlett Packard among others.
All these brands have a positioning generated in their very high level of quality, quality from each edge analyzed before, quality resulting from planning and not from corrections or reprocessing, quality symbol of high added value.
Thus brands such as BMW, Ferrari, Rolex, Sharp, Bayer, Xerox, Motorola and Toyota, apart from the aforementioned, and more all those brands that are added to all these, constitute the "top ten" in terms of quality.
All these companies represent the best examples of companies managed from a highly competitive point of view, as opposed to all those companies that subject to traditional management patterns see their market share reduced day after day.
Quality is not the product of controls, but, as Deming said, of a form of management that has the core values in its clients and its staff.
There is no measurement system, or reward method that allows generating quality, if managers and staff are not fully and absolutely committed to the values of excellence.
In the minds of consumers there are two types of positioning: the positive one that represents those brands that are symbols of quality and high value services, and the negative one, made up of all the brands that have left a traumatizing experience and that are the first brands in the markets. which the consumer does not intend to buy (either due to their own or someone else's experience).
