What’s Your Definition of Quality?

Well, this started my empty stomach juices grumbling, as I tried to assign my definitions to their choice of words and their ubiquitous operations. I came up empty for taste, other than their coffee is the best on the road. Quality had me stumped, too, until I began to consider price, cleanliness, speed, accuracy of order, and few surprises. This company did pretty well, but I am not sure quality would be the term I would use (consistency, yes, which does have value in the marketplace).

You gather twenty people in a room and ask each to define the word Quality. You would get at least twenty different responses. We all use the quality descriptive when we speak to our service, product and facility. Where we run into problems with our Customers is that our definition may not be similar to theirs, yet we have promised a Quality Experience - major disconnect inviting dissatisfaction from our Customer or Guest.

Whatever we decide our definition(s) of Quality to be, Management must drive the message. As David C. Crosby wrote in an April 20 article for Quality Digest, a sound definition is: “…a product or service free of deficiencies”. And, he unabashedly assigned responsibility. “To start with, all action and processes flow from the top—money, direction, quality standards, performance standards, everything. Nothing flows until the boss turns the handle on the faucet. Of course this also means that when the handle is turned the other way, things stop flowing. Quality is not a grass roots methodology; it comes from the top down, right out of that faucet.”

The lesson learned this Sunday driving I-90: Beware your verbiage and live your message. Also, give big tandem trucks their berth.

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