How Quality Control Can Weaken a Brand’s Likeability

How Quality Control Can Weaken a Brand’s Likeability – Aren’t we doing quality control to improve our customers’ experience? Well, yes. But if you think that quality control is mainly focused on making a product or service better, you’re mistaken. The context of quality in the business world is pretty nuanced. In most cases, it refers to the quality of an organisation’s output; making sure that there is little to no variation as mistakes largely affect the company’s expenses. For example, you have 10 different products and in each batch you have produced, at least half of them have defects. This will impact your finances because they may have cost you the same amount in production but the output will not have the same value as they do not have the same quality.
This is such a pain in the neck especially for organisations who do mass production. This is why quality control has been one of the key strategies by businesses as it offers cost savings. So if you already see where we are going, it is focused on profit. That is natural, especially for organisations that have investors and shareholders to please. However, concentrating on quality for profit will take its toll. It is prominent for mergers and acquisitions that when competitors come together, at least one of those brands will deteriorate. Leading to a backlash from loyal customers; venting that products and services are no longer the same. Sometimes even results in conspiracy theories that a brand bought its competitor to diminish its value. Although this can be true, it is not solely the reason why. Applying the identical methodologies from company A to company B may just not work.
Let’s try to point out some key factors that may cause this. Number one is culture. Transitioning from one company culture to another is not an easy task. This may cause a lot of people to leave and would require a lot of training, restructuring and unlearning from previous practices. This applies not just to M&As but also to teams that implement new methodologies. That is why Change Management is very important. The second one would be the production line. If everything is measured strictly down to the cubic meter, somewhere along the processes, something will be taken for granted. It may not seem as much from the perspective of the ones that produce it but in the eyes of a customer who has been consuming the product or service for the longest time, it is a big deal. This makes customer feedback vital to product and process improvement.
Last but not least, market needs. Regardless if you are a luxury brand or not. Leisure is still a need for your consumers. Not having them as your number-one priority will eventually affect your brand. A problem that companies face as they scale too fast and/or too much. As your circle of decision-makers bigger and bigger, interests will start to diversify and if most of it is cared about making it rain rather than being of service to your customers, you may still have a business but not a brand that your fans would rave about. Balance is what we always remind our partners about. Whilst they are offshoring, they are improving efficiency without compromising quality. Keep in touch on this page or schedule a call on this link to learn more.