Quality management tips from experts

YOUR most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.

Big Business Ideas

Stephene Chikozho

The more you engage with customers, the clearer things become, and the easier it is to determine what you should be doing.

In today’s marketplace, successful business executives and entrepreneurs are those who ask clients how product and service quality can be enhanced to improve customer satisfaction.

If that is done in the right environment, it encourages customers to give their feedback, both positive and negative, to the company.

Good ideas to improve processes or products are then incorporated into the business. In the past, companies required their own employees to design and develop new products.

The knowledge was developed internally by the in-house research and development department and was a closely guarded secret.

This belief that a firm should solely create its intellectual property is known as closed innovation. However, in more recent times, a new approach has emerged.

Open innovation is based on the idea that companies should be less private with their product development programmes, as customers could valuably contribute to the process.

Profit in business comes from repeat customers, as well as clients whom colleagues and friends bring with them. As such, it is essential that modern-day quality management processes should not just be in-house, but should also involve customer engagement and feedback.

There are lessons to be learnt from the Quality Management Institute of Zimbabwe (QMIZ), which is led by CEO Danisa Chinamasa.

It was formed to complement Government’s development efforts through use of globally recognised quality management systems.

This week, it will be holding a National Quality Infrastructure Dialogue in the capital to deliberate on quality issues.

Below is advice from QMIZ:

1. The business must understand the market requirements of its product/service, after which it should design strategies to meet these demands.

This includes designing the product for quality, from the start. Once this is done, the business has to choose the best international standard that complements the production chain’s quality drive.

Certify your product to the most appropriate standard.

2. While the use of consultants to implement such standards is good in that it guarantees faster certification, it is advisable to build the required competences.

This avoids the sustainability problem of having to rely on a consultant every now and then. Relying on an external consultant will push costs of quality up. Your customer will ultimately pay for that cost, making your product more expensive on the market.

3. Belong to professional organisations relevant to your product/service. This allows you to keep abreast with trends in your field, making it cheaper to benchmark and adopt new practices.

Contribute and participate in sector issues that affect you. This allows the organisation to shape the future of its industry, rather than simply adopting and complying with requirements it did not participate in developing. This includes belonging to national mirror committees run by the Standards Association of Zimbabwe, whose task is to develop standards in a specific sector.

4. When certified, make noise about it. Remember, certification to standards is primarily about branding. Make noise about your brand. Customers love good brand news.
5. If the organisation is not yet ready for certification, you can still implement standards internally. This can be done without going for certification.

You can introduce incentives for meeting quality targets. Such incentives may include rewarding the best quality idea, the best production team or the whole team if they improve as one. Involve customer feedback.

If problems occur, focus on them and the system, and not the employees through whom the issues were identified.

6. Whether you get certified or not, engage your employees and customers. Make sure they are not just part of the process, but that they actually drive the quality agenda.

Intertwine the organisation’s performance management system with the quality management drive. In addition, reward, reward and reward.

7. Embrace a culture of continuous improvement by regularly measuring and analysing performance, seeking feedback from customers and implementing corrective actions.
8. Implement quality assurance and control processes.

Develop robust quality assurance and control processes to ensure that quality standards are being adhered to.

Overall, quality is not only what the supplier puts in, but it is also what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for.

By anticipating present-day and future challenges for customers, businesses can become agile, adaptable and customer-centric to navigate client pain points and proffer game-changing solutions to the market.

Stephene Chikozho is the managing director of Urbane Create Agency — a strategy, marketing and advertising agency. He writes in his personal capacity. You can follow him on social media: (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn), WhatsApp +263772409651 or email [email protected]