Product and Service Quality
Satisfaction will also depend on product and service quality. What exactly is quality? Various experts have defined it as “fitness for use,” “conformance to requirements,” and “freedom from variation.”
We will use the American Society for Quality’s definition:
Quality is the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs.
The seller has delivered quality whenever its product or service meets or exceeds the customers’ expectations. It’s important to distinguish between conformance quality en performance quality (or grade).
Performance Quality and Conformance Quality explained
A Lexus provides higher performance quality than a Hyundai: The Lexus rides more smoothly, accelerates faster, and runs problem-free longer. Yet both a Lexus and a Hyundai deliver the same conformance quality if all the units deliver their promised quality.
Studies have shown a high correlation between relative product quality and company profit-ability.
Marketing plays an especially important role in helping companies deliver high-quality goods to target customers by
- correctly identifying customers’ needs and requirements;
- communicating customer expectations properly to product designers;
- making sure that customers’ orders are filled correctly and on time;
- checking that customers have received proper instructions, training, and technical assistance for product usage;
- staying in touch after the sale to ensure customers are and remain satisfied; and
- gathering customer ideas for improvements and conveying them to the appropriate departments.
When marketers do all this, they make substantial contributions to total quality management and customer satisfaction as well as to customer and company profitability.
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