Measuring And Identifying Quality Problems aqa

Measuring quality

• Businesses can measure how well they have met quality targets in a variety of ways

Common measures of quality

• In addition, factors such as customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and market share can provide useful indications of customer experiences and perceptions of quality

  • Customers satisfied with quality are less likely to make complaints and are more likely to give positive feedback in surveys

  • High quality can drive repeat purchases

  • Increased market share may demonstrate satisfaction with quality over that offered by rival products/services

• Failure to meet quality expectations can cause a range of problems, including:

  • Recalling, replacing or refunding customers for faulty goods increases business costs

  • Unhappy customers are unlikely to purchase from the business in future, reducing revenue

  • Legal issues if poor quality issues cause harm to customers, affecting a businesses reputation

  • Increased waste as poor quality products need to be disposed-of

Identifying quality problems

Customer views on quality

• Businesses can identify quality problems by finding out the views of customers

  • Customer satisfaction surveys or market research activities

  • Reviews of complaints received

  • Findings from online survey tools, such as Trustpilot

Mystery shopping

• Some businesses use mystery shoppers to test and review aspects such as customer service, the appearance of business premises and product range

  • Their detailed feedback can be used to measure performance against quality targets

Quality assurance and control

• Within a business, the approach to identifying quality problems falls into one of two categories

  • Quality control involves inspecting the quality of output at the end of the production process

    • Workers focus on maximising output

    • Products that do not meet standards are rejected before they are released for sale

  • Quality assurance involves inspecting the quality of production throughout the process

    • Workers check their own work and, sometimes, the work of others at various stages of production 

    • Some business take a whole business approach to quality assurance with systems such as quality circles, benchmarking and Total Quality Management (TQM)

Evaluation of approaches to quality management