QUALITY MANAGEMENT

Quality Management in Business

Table of Contents

Introduction3

Definition of quality4

Approaches to quality management4

Benefits of quality management in a business and services context5

Principles of quality management to improve the performance of an organization6

Selected organization: Kellogg's7

Issues of customer satisfaction8

Continuous improvement8

Range of quality controls and how service to the customer can be improved10

Six Sigma Methodologies10

The SERVQUAL methodology with focus on issues of customer satisfaction12

Conclusion13

Recommendations14

Quality Management in Business

Introduction

Business operations have become such an integral part of the society that it is almost impossible to view the world without them. What started centuries ago with the Barter system have now evolved into a strategic practice that is implemented all over the world by people wishing to make a living by providing quality services and products to other people. Business evolved from an exchange of products to the delivery of quality goods and services to the society. As the world expands and businesses expand, competition grows in every sector of every industry. For example, when Facebook took over the world like a storm, some people came up with the idea of online marketing and social media marketing and offered their services to organizations where they maintained official Facebook pages for the organizations. Now, there are hundreds of social media marketing agencies established all over the world. Some of these agencies occupy a workspace that is hardly bigger than a bedroom but the services they provide are excellent and unmatched (Dowling, 2004, pp 115).

In such a business industry where the competition is thick, it is not the services offered that matter anymore (because there are several other competitors offering the same services), it is the quality of services offered that makes a difference. By services, we mean products as well as intangible services offered for a certain price. Organizations and companies have now realized that quality management is the key to obtaining customers and maintaining loyalty. Further in this paper, we shall discuss quality management in an organization, its different perspectives and its application to a reputable organization operating in the society.

Definition of quality

Quality, in business terms, is the value that a customer gets for the money paid. Defining quality would be slightly tricky so we divide the word into two terms: perceived quality and actual quality. Perceived quality is the level of value that a customer expects to get from a product and the actual quality is the satisfaction that a customer gets after usage of the product or availing the service. The gap between the perceived value and the actual value is the quality of the product. Take the example of a person visiting a luxurious spa for a high priced facial treatment. The person expects the attendant to use high quality products and do a great job because the person has paid accordingly. If the attendant does not use quality products or at the end of the session, the person does not see the desired results then we can say that there is a huge gap between the perceived quality and actual quality, leading to ...