Tuesday, March 26, 2013

QUALITY IS?

Here is a question I would like for you to answer. How many times in the course of a day do you mention the word "quality"? Taking it even further how many times is the word "quality" mentioned in your advertising literature or in your proposal? It is a word that is used in our industry almost to nauseam. We do quality work. Hire us if you want quality. We do nightly quality inspections. We have quality inspection software to assure you get the quality you deserve. Any of these sound familiar?

I had a friend in this business who would publish his quality ratings in the customer and employee newsletter every month. This account got an 8.5 or this one a 8.8 etc. etc. These were inspections done by his quality assurance department, not the customer.

I had a large customer who required a monthly tour of the facility to determine a rating. The first few months he walked with me in great detail to do the inspection and, without fail, we would rate an 8.5 or 9.0 on a scale of 1-10. His words to me were that if we got more than an 8.5 he was paying to much for the service because to get from 8.5 to 10 was entirely to expensive and a waste of money. After about 6 months he tired of the visits and asked me to make them myself and send him the report. Guess what? The quality each month was somewhere between 8.4 and 8.7. He was a happy customer and we kept the account for many many years  until he retired and the new manager of quality decided to change the system and take only the lowest price each year. This resulted in a new service provider each year and we no longer chose to participate.

Another customer had us rate the service each month between 1 and 5 and then they rated the service and we compared our notes. Most always my rating was more critical than theirs.

So, I would like for you to answer this question--The definition of quality is _____________________________________. Was it easy to define? Did you have to think about it?

Webster's dictionary defines quality as "superior or higher status". We all like to think our service is superior or of a higher status than our competitors. That brings up an interesting subject.

We so often ask if we can give a "bid" for janitorial work which in reality we are saying we can do the work cheaper than our competitors, just let us show you how cheap. Then we present a "bid" that promises superior or higher status service. Can there be a conflict there? I think so. That is why I continue to suggest to BSC's that they offer proposals to their prospects that provide the best overall plan of service needed, not the lowest price at all times. Sometimes you can offer the best "quality" at a low price but it can certainly be a challenge as evidenced by the large number of BSC's that go out of business each year. So what is the real definition of quality? Here we go. QUALITY IS WHAT THE CUSTOMER SAYS IT IS.That's it, plain and simple. It really doesn't matter in the long run what we think the quality of the job is. It ultimately depends on what the customer who is paying for the service says it is. If they are having a bad day your service may be terrible and if they are having a good day you may be the best service they have ever had. That doesn't mean we quit doing quality inspections. On the contrary, it means we need to understand what our customer defines as quality and strive to maintain that level of service. Do our own quality inspections keeping in mind the customers "hot buttons" and the need for an overall great superior or higher status service as viewed by the customer. So what's your opinion? Do you agree with my premise? I have always felt it was our job to SATISFY the customer and if we felt they were being unreasonable it was our job to cancel them, not the other way around. Just remember, Quality is what the customer says it is and if you don't want to agree to the customers definition you have some decisions to make. Sometimes we can be our own worst enemy but that is a subject for another time. Don't forget to tune into our free weekly pod cast messages at www.tripocast.com. Till next time.

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