The quality of our products and services must be a given. But what does quality really mean?
Quality isn’t about perfection or being better than competitors across every dimension. It’s about meeting the specifications we’ve defined based on a clear understanding of who our product is for and what it needs to do for them.
Once we have that clarity, all features, functionalities, flavors, ingredients, processes, sources, etc., must align with these specifications. This alignment is what defines our quality standard.
For example, suppose we’re running a vegan restaurant that caters to health-conscious, environmentally aware customers. In that case, our quality specifications might prioritize using only locally sourced, organic, whole food ingredients and maintaining a zero-waste kitchen. Our quality isn’t defined by having the most extensive menu or the fanciest presentation, but by consistently delivering on our promise of healthy, sustainable, locally sourced vegan meals.
Proper positioning is key here. If we’ve positioned ourselves correctly, our quality specifications will naturally differ from those of our competitors. We’re not trying to be the best at everything, but the best at serving our specific audience’s needs.
Therefore, a level of quality is expected and the user should never be surprised, in a bad way, that what we’ve promised was not met. Our promise is inherent in our positioning and the specifications we’ve set.
Consistently meeting these specifications builds trust with our audience. They come to rely on our product doing exactly what we’ve said it will do, in the way we’ve said it will do it. This reliability, this meeting of expectations, is the essence of quality.
The real work is not consistently meeting those specifications, it is a given. The challenge is to delight our customers consistently while delivering our quality products.