QUALITY AND WHAT IS IT?
In this modern era Quality is a commonly used
expression to describe a product, service and even people but what exactly does
it mean?
I have spent many years considering this
question and the best description I have been able to devise is quoted below.
THE ABILITY OF A PRODUCT, SERVICE, OR PERSON TO FULFILL A GIVEN NEED.
So what does it mean? As an example let's
take a look at a really inexpensive basin mono tap from acme plumbing, the high
street somewhere.
Take that product and install it in your outside
wc in the garden. It will no doubt work, ie turn the water on and off. It
serves its purpose well in the environment in which it functions. You could say
that you have purchased a really quality product.
Install the product however in a Knightsbridge
penthouse flat and it suddenly becomes referred to as a poor quality product.
It still functions correctly but the expectations we have for the product has
changed. It is unable to fulfill the customer's given need as it is no longer
in the outside wc but in a £10000 bathroom.
What else is there about quality? Somehow
we think we know it when we see, touch, hear or smell it. Let's take a look at
another familiar example, the Iphone 4. Most people have experienced the
product. You only have to pick it up and look at it to know you are holding a
truly remarkable product that you could say oozes quality from every last
crevice.
What brings us so rapidly to that conclusion?
It may not work, might break after 30 minutes but after we pick up the
item our brain makes a computation that tells us it is absolute quality. We are
using our sight, touch, hearing and smell senses; our experiences of other
products ie phones we have handled, and somewhere, I am sure we are
subliminally pulling in the advertising messages. I defy anybody who handles
the phone not to think the same.
How can we put these instant computations into a
written piece? Sorry, but I don't know. I do however know when I am looking,
touching or feeling a bathroom product if it has the quality aspirations of our
customers. So what am I saying? You are able to see on the web site all available
information about the products. The components, size, weight and functionality.
You however cannot handle the product and have to rely purely on our judgment.
If we have of course got it wrong, you the
customer will just send the item back.
We at Gush Bathroom products believe we have got
it right.
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