2nd March 2008

Are You Plutoing Quality in a Down Economy?

posted in Quality Customer Experiences |

Pluto got bumped from the line-up.  According to a committee of scientists the small solar-system body failed to meet planet-standards, so they downgraded the former planet to an asteroid.  Plutoed; chosen as the 2006 Word of the Year by the American Dialect Society, it means to demote or devalue someone or something – to be unceremoniously relegated to a lower position.

In a down economy it might be tempting to pluto your quality improvement initiatives.  When economic indicators are pointing towards a rough landing the “cost of quality” may seem out of orbit.  Anyways, perhaps your customers really won’t notice if quality is dialed down a notch or two.  In fact, generally speaking satisfaction with a company’s products and services is built by repeated customer experiences. So, unless the experiences are below or above expectations, it takes a while for an attitude shift to take place.  Like Pluto’s orbit around the sun – you’d have plenty of time to recover satisfaction, and shift any negative loyalty inertia that might develop - right?  Don’t count on it; because the “cost of poor quality” can strike at the speed of light.  How?  Thanks to user-generated reviews the business solar-system is much smaller now.  Research shows that your customers are increasingly learning about your brand from individuals outside of your control.  And to that point a recent article in marketing news stated that 76% of people who are shopping check out user-generated reviews and that 16% of those reviews were negative.

Bottom line; keep your quality initiatives in placed or you’ll be taking yourself out of alignment with your customers’ needs and expectations - because your customers care about quality.  Your customers care about software quality because your code is often critical to their business.  Your software not only impacts their customer’s experiences, but also puts their brand reputation on the line.  Whether you’re writing code or responsible for QA; your good name is also on the line.  So, don’t pluto quality.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 at 2:44 pm and is filed under Quality Customer Experiences. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

There are currently 4 responses to “Are You Plutoing Quality in a Down Economy?”

Why not let us know what you think by adding your own comment! Your opinion is as valid as anyone elses, so come on... let us know what you think.

  1. 1 On March 3rd, 2008, Markus Kemper said:

    Well put! If you are building or already have a reputation for
    high quality your customer’s and competition will know. Letting
    your quality standards slip will allow your competition chip away
    at your business and raise a flag of caution to your existing and
    potential customers. A relentless approach to quality improvement
    at all levels (e.g. service, software, etc.) is the only way to go.

  2. 2 On March 9th, 2008, Alan See said:

    Markus,

    Great points, and thanks for the interesting insight.

    A recent article in DM News stated that “Overall customer satisfaction declined 0.4% in the fourth quarter of 2007, marking two subsequent quarters in which a decline was posted, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, released last month by the University of Michigan.”

    The combination of declining customer satisfaction levels and current economic concerns is creating the perfect “competitive environment” storm. In this type of climate those companies that have satisfied customers, which lead to loyal customers, will be the ones that come out on top. The burden for creating the satisfied customer is increasingly reliant on providing a positive customer experience – and quality software is often the primary customer experience driver.

  3. 3 On April 4th, 2008, Graeme Ing said:

    Excellent post, except for a small error. Pluto was not downsized to an asteroid, but to Dwarf or Minor Planet status. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_planet) I realize that this does not detract from your message, but you were talking about quality control, so accuracy is important. :)

  4. 4 On April 4th, 2008, Keith Wingate said:

    Well said, Graeme. I normally do not pick such nits but once when interviewing a guy for a QA Manager position who had made the bold assertion that “Quality is my life!” and I noticed that the word was misspelled in his CV, I had to give him the thumbs down.

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