Quality Afterthoughts

I've been writing about quality issues since 1984—23 long years. In that time I've interviewed hundreds of quality professionals, gurus, practitioners, authors, consultants, you name it. Although each person had a unique perspective on quality, each claimed that improved quality (usually as a result of following his or her quality recipe) was right around the corner.

Unfortunately, I don't think we've turned that corner. In fact, in my humble opinion, quality for the most part still stinks. (I say for the most part because the "hard" side of quality—metrology—has made tremendous strides in the last two decades. Unfortunately, the "soft" side of quality—the human side—has fallen farther behind in many quality aspects, particularly with regard to service quality.

Although we see excellent examples of design, product, and service quality all the time, I'm afraid the bad (or more precisely, the mediocre) still outweighs the good.

It's getting to the point where we can't even trust the food we eat, the bridges we drive over, the toys our children play with, the cars we drive in, and the pills we pop. And when we do have a problem, we can't really trust the so-called "customer service" representatives who are supposed to help us through our hour of need.

It's frustrating that after going through zero defects, quality circles, total quality management, reengineering, benchmarking, ISO 9000, Six Sigma, lean, and all of their derivations, that quality is still so bad.

I know that many organizations have had great success with each of the aforementioned programs. Unfortunately, many have not. It seems to me that the ones who have been successful (and by that I mean have high-quality products and/or services; a happy, involved work force; a large and growing market share; and happy stockholders/stakeholders) have made these programs their own. They don't do ISO 9001 for the sake of meeting customer requirements. They don't have an employee involvement program because it's hip; they don't implement Six Sigma because the CEO's golfing buddy's company does.

A more telling sign of an organization's success with these quality initiatives is that they are done because the organization knows that they will result in better products and services, a happier work force, better sales, and long-term growth. The company integrates these "programs" into the company works. It doesn't have to make them separate fiefdoms and wage war against the company culture. It's just the way things work; it's not some onerous process.

Before, you send me the "Duh!" e-mail, stop and think about it. How many programs have you seen come and go over the years. Think about the successes and failures in your own organization. Think, too, about your experiences as a consumer. Are you really happy with the products and/or services your organization produces? More important, are you customers? How do you know? As I asked last month, how do you know you're improving? How do you know your customers are satisfied? Are you actively working to make sure that your customers are satisfied now and will be in the future? Are you really satisfied with the goods you buy? Are you getting the kind of service you think you should?

If you're like me, the answer is no. I'm not satisfied as a business owner with my organization's products and services. I want to make them better. As a consumer, I constantly amazed at the poor quality products I buy and the lousy service I receive. I am constantly amazed at the poor service I receive from customer service reps. I am leery of the food I eat. I worry that my children might be playing with lead-tainted toys. (For this I blame the company whose name is on the product, not the entire nation of China.) It just seems as though things are worse now than they were 20 years ago in many respects.

For example, flight delays and airline dissatisfaction are at their highest levels ever. New whiz-bang products are increasingly difficult to use. Online products and services are great unless they don't work or you have a question, then good luck finding a real person to talk to for help. In fact, many companies go out of their way to avoid interacting with you. How many times when you call for help are you told to "go online"? And, perhaps most telling of all, aren't you just delighted when you receive good service? If I actually get help with a problem or see someone go the extra mile to help it really stands out, even though that's what should happen every time.

You may be a quality manager at an organization. Your job may be to ensure that the widgets your company makes get out the door according to spec. But what are you doing beyond that? Are you collecting data on customer satisfaction with your products, your services, your billing, your technical support, your Web site, your product design, your distributors, your packaging, your advertising. If you say those aren't your job, you just might not have one down the road.