Products that slip through your quality control may end up in the hands of customers. They may not like the product they received because of its poor quality. This then creates a bad image of your small business. You might lose your current and potential customers because of poor-quality products and bad reviews. Before you launch a product, you should establish quality control standards.

Here are some of the best practices to improve your small business’ quality control standards.

Define Quality

Before you create a quality control process, layout the definition of what quality is. This definition allows you to pursue goals and implement a process that everyone in your team understands. These understandable rules and processes make reviewing the quality of a product easier. Your team will have metrics to follow and consider when reviewing a product for improvement or release. Be specific when establishing rules; these can be as simple as customer response to a product, inclusion of certain features and possible add-ons, and limit to design flaws just to name a few.

Create a Culture

Regardless of the size of your business, learn how to cultivate a culture that focuses on quality over quantity. Communicate quality control standards to your team and reinforce behavior that follows these. However, ask for their feedback on how to improve the process. This creates a two-way communication line that allows everyone to review the process and identify ways to get better.

Always Think about the Customer

Your quality control standards should reflect the needs or wants of your customers. They will be the ones using your products after it goes through your quality assurance. Change or improve features based on customer response to your previous products or the surveys you conducted for a new product. Reviews and insights from your customers allow you to improve or fill gaps within your quality control process.

Learn from the Process

One of the best practices of product development is quality control. Even if you implement it, you can still learn from the process. You can pick up lessons from the defects of your products, customer reviews and feedback, product returns, and others. This allows you to identify ways you can improve your quality control process.

Review the Results

Your quality standards shouldn’t be set in stone. Leave room for possible changes when your small business grows and adds new products to its portfolio. Review the results of your current quality control measures. Doing so allows you to identify reasons for defects or delays in releases. This enables you to make improvements and changes that improve your process.

Room for Improvement

Think of ways to improve your quality control standards. There is no perfect process. You can still determine aspects of your process that need improvement to keep product quality high. Consult with the team directly involved in quality control to assess possible improvements.

Quality improves brand image and allows you to get more repeat customers. That’s why it is important to establish standards and procedures to reduce defects and returns. If you need assistance with updating your accounting books, we at Robookkeeper can provide you with first-rate accounting services for small business owners.