Quality of goods and services - OCRGoods' quality management and services' provision

Quality management is important for a number of reasons:

The reputation of the business

When a business can offer higher quality and lower costs, it gains a competitive advantage over similar businesses. A good-quality product or service helps to build a strong brand image, which can allow a business to grow its market share. If a business has a product or service that gains a good reputation for being of high quality, the business can charge a premium price.

To gain and retain customers

Customers will have an expectation about the quality of a product, even if the price is low. If the quality of a product or service falls below the expectations of customers they will not return. In addition, they may share their negative experiences with friends and family, or more widely on social media. This will make it more challenging for a business that has a reputation for providing poor quality goods or services to gain new customers.

Reduce product returns and recalls

Mistakes are expensive, and quality control and quality assurance help businesses to limit additional costs and reduce wastage by aiming to ensure that things are done correctly the first time. For example, quality management can avoid the need to deal with returned faulty goods, or have to implement a product recall. This will help to:

• reduce waste, eg if a product is damaged during production, it will have to be scrapped and replaced at additional cost to the business
• reduce employee costs, as replacing or recalling products will cost the manufacturer additional wages, because staff may need to work longer hours