There are diverse opinions regarding the meaning of quality; one of them is “customer satisfaction orientation” 1 I consider it important to make an even brief review of whether small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, when planning to market a product, make the sale of one or more articles or provide a service, take into account what Feigenbaum2 calls “certain basic customer requirements”.
So for any business activity, the first thing will be to identify the customer, their tastes and preferences. Of course, the factors that inhibit the degree of monopoly indicated by Kalecki3 should not be neglected, such as: the growth of large companies, the accelerated development of marketing, the growth of indirect manufacturing costs and the behavior of workers.
I dared to make a slight modification of the terms, considering that what the author indicates as sales promotion is only part of the marketing, what he identifies as variations in general expenses is what directly impacts the cost of the product and the strength of the unions is identified with the behavior of the workers.
Therefore, in the formation, organization and operation of a large, medium or small company, attention will have to be paid to these aspects in order to achieve short-term objectives, but above all two long-term ones that are of vital importance such as: maintaining in the market and achieve business expansion.
In the formation of the company, it is necessary to distinguish the types of products or services, as well as who or who already offers them, to define the possibilities of entry into the competition and to ascertain what the market behavior is. On the other hand, the necessary elements must be incorporated to be able to explain what is going to be used to produce or provide the service; this includes the analysis of the material and human elements. In this way, they will be in a position to determine if they have the capacity to assimilate both internal and external problems, inherent to the type of product or service in question.
In the organization, attention should be paid to financial possibilities, that is, if it has the capacity to deal with the company with only its own resources or if it has to exploit some sources of external financing. Think about whether you have the ability to train your potential workers so that you can influence the tendency to do things right the first time.
In the operational, act and take care of the good performance, that is, if the worker has already been trained, take care that he applies the knowledge acquired, keeping in mind that regardless of who the customer is, he seeks the product or service the most utility and greater economy. When I say economy, in no way am I referring to being cheaper for you, but rather to being more functional for you. If you were not even trained and there is no concern about quality control of the applied work, the result may be a product or service with too many deficiencies. If, on the other hand, positions such as: "at the end that is not for me", "so stay for now" or "at the end that the client does not know about this". All these types of attitudes make the work lose the quality that was expected of it.
Small business cases
Looking at the work carried out by three small companies: one for carpentry and blacksmith services, another for painting services for buildings and furniture, and the third for cleaning services, several elements were discovered that go against the quality of the work.
Carpentry and blacksmith services
This made the separation of classrooms in a private education institution with wooden walls and the windows for the windows. The wood leftovers were scattered everywhere; In part of the walls they placed baseboards and in the semi-hidden parts they did not. The gates did not cover the corresponding spaces correctly, apart from the waste dump of the electrodes used for their placement.
When classes were going to start in that building, and fortunately they would give me the opportunity to present a course in Political Economy, I approached to recognize the space, specifically the room where I would attend my first high school group. My surprise was wide to find so much garbage and so many deficiencies; I approached the direction of the University with some fear to comment on what I had observed because the next day would be the first day of classes.
They appreciated my verbal report and the first task arose, looking for the people from the quartermaster to remove the garbage and clean the affected rooms. Of course, the construction and placement deficiencies were no longer corrected because the carpentry and blacksmith service provider had already reported that his work had been completed.
Two reactions from the client, who in this case was the director of the university: the first, given that she still did not pay 100% of the agreed work, she would proceed to withhold the lack of payment until the deficiencies were corrected; the second, not to take the services of that company again. Both are serious, but the second is the worst omen for long-term goals.
Real estate and furniture painting services.
Every year the aforementioned university repaints the building and its furniture, for which it also hires the services of a small external company.
I am going to expose this company indirectly, because the deficiencies observed, only if I am questioned, I will tell them.
For wall painting, they did not worry about removing furniture such as desks and desks or covering them with some material; The result, all the furniture closest to the wall, splattered with paint of the color used for them, which implied that they would inevitably have to be painted, especially because they would have a different color.
Now it was his turn to paint the desks and desks; The rush to possibly attend another contract or not to become intoxicated with the smell of paint prevented the workers from making sure that the small surfaces to be painted did not have any material such as gum, plasticine or stickers and they threw the paint on them. The difficulty with which the students who touch one of those desks are going to find, if their teachers tell them to save everything and only keep one sheet on the palette.
Cleaning services
Making a brief observation of a company that performs the maintenance of a Cemetery, since the commitment of the funeral company is to take care of the services, so that the beneficiaries are not affected by this aspect.
The young people who carry out the work are slowly collecting the withered flowers from the vases placed on purpose, but they never replenish the water, so if a family takes two or three months to visit their deceased, the water that does not evaporate with the warming in that period is stinking.
But the most serious thing is the place that serves as a cellar and where I have seen them eat their lunches, this is the dirtiest place in the whole cemetery. It is amazing how they clean the visible places, and not in their headquarters. When the supervision of the company that uses these services dares to reach that site, there will surely be problems.
Conclusions
Small and medium-sized entrepreneurs should consider that when entering the market, they are going to face large companies that offer multiple services and that do have the capacity to train their workers, that is, they are capable of offering quality work. which means that if they are able to satisfy the customer and at the same time make him a captive customer. For this reason, small and medium-sized entrepreneurs must take care of the quality of their work so that the client looks for them again and recommends them to new clients.
Doing the job well means quality in the job, so small and medium-sized entrepreneurs must take care of this aspect to recommend themselves and be recommended, thus counteracting the advertising of large multiservice companies; advertising that they are not in a position to pay.
Be aware that if you do not have the resources to face the training costs, it is necessary to correctly learn the trade to be performed in order to transmit that knowledge to your workers, that is, to lead by example. On the other hand, take advantage of the knowledge and skills of the workers to each time develop a better job, integrating a conducive work environment where instead of establishing employer and worker limits, a work team performance is carried out, in which everyone is willing to do things better and better.
A good work environment is an important element, so it is necessary to create conditions that lead to making workers feel like part of the company, no matter how small it may be and feel that the work to be developed is an individual and collective commitment. that is, it gives personality to each worker and improves the prestige of the company.
