Quality – What’s In A Word

You see it all the time: a website, a brochure, a speaker, promising that their company’s number one mission is to provide “Quality” of product or service.

And I have to ask: what is the alternative?

If the best you can promise is quality, you have not given enough thought to what makes you good at what you do.

Quality is an empty promise

Draw a picture of quality. What does it look like to you?

Now have a client do the same.

Is it the same picture?

Quality is a subjective value. What is high quality to you may be of secondary concern to a client.

It is not a provable goal which you can objectively say you have achieved.

But you have to have it

Having said that, it is also the most basic of your promises.

Of course you intend to provide a quality experience. It would be alarming if this were not your primary goal.

So how do you promise quality and not sound like lazy marketing?

Describe your quality

What does quality mean to you? How will you demonstrate quality? How will you prove it? When your client asks to see the results, which parts will speak to quality?

Consider how you recognize quality in the areas of:

• performance
• product
• delivery
• communication
• presence/presentation

Describe your vision of quality, and tell your clients exactly what they will get in working with you.

Make a promise you know you can keep.