You never saw that coming

CEOs are looking ahead - anticipating a fast, sharp recovery of the economy in the post pandemic era and are making moves to take advantage. A recent Gartner survey (Gartner CEO Survey Shows Most Expect Growth in 2021) shows that growth remains the top strategic priority for 2021-22, with over 80% of the participant reiterating investments in ‘Digital Capabilities’. 

The pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital business model.  Getting new customers, keeping them around, and introducing new products and services in a timely fashion is key to stay ahead of the competition. 

While focusing on creating attractive digital offerings and pushing them into the market ahead of the competition, quality is not often considered a priority. Quality is seen as an afterthought, which means the product is rolled out and then it matured while the users was already working on the system.

With digital offerings that approach does not work. Digital offerings address clients directly, often taking out the correcting factor of sending a service representative or talking a to customer care team. Customers deal with bad quality issues in their own way. They will show their frustration and anger on social media, leading to lower sales, and a damaged reputation that’s expensive to build back. 

The biggest part of cost of poor quality is hidden or indirect and they are normally huge in comparison with the visible cost of fixing functional and non-functional deficits. To avoid them the quality of the offering and its presentation needs to be planned and defined as well as the offering itself. 

Setting the course right

The tricky part is to find a course that gets new offerings out fast without hitting the hidden cost of poor Quality. Intelligent quality standards applied throughout the product lifecycle do not only prevent products from getting deployed in the first place, they can also help mitigate damage done when quality inevitably breaks down. The better our understanding of the complications hiding under the surface, the easier we are able to put the right measures in place to handle them quickly and efficiently if the problem presents itself. 

Quality, Service Design and Go-live planning shouldn’t be approached as a separate initiatives. Because product quality is so closely linked to brand loyalty and customer experience, it should be viewed as a way to support the growth initiatives that executives are focused on. Quality can be a means to achieving the brand reputation and recognition that leads to successful and sustainable businesses. Ultimately Quality reduces cost and increases your profits.