Why Is Quality Important for a Business?

The basic model behind most businesses is to create products or services and sell them to customers for a profit. These products or services must live up to a certain quality standard expected by customers. If the quality level is not met, there are consequences to face for the business. Therefore, quality is important to a business for a number of reasons.

To retain customers for repeat business, a company must sell products that live up to the customer's expectations. If a customer has a good experience, they are likely to come back and spend money with your business again the next time they are in need of your products or services. A customer must feel like the product or service he bought from your company was worth the price. If some customers feel that they paid too much for the quality or product received, you will likely not get any repeat business from them in the future.

A company's reputation relies heavily on the quality of its products or services. This is relevant to both customer reviews and company marketing. For example, high-end clothing designers or expensive car companies often set the bar high through their marketing efforts, which typically promise perfection, as well as the expensive price tags on their products. If those expectations are met by the customers who buy their products, the company maintains its reputation. Customers who receive a lower-quality product than expected will complain to friends, family and co-workers about how the product or service did not live up to expectations, which will ultimately lower your consumer reputation, especially if the majority of your customers have negative experiences.

In the U.S. and many other countries, a company's products or services legally must perform the way it is supposed to perform. In other words, the things you sell must work properly. This law is called the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC). If your products or services do not work properly or meet the expectations you define, then you can be sued by your customers.

The things you sell to consumers must also be safe, and not just for legal reasons. If you are in the food industry and you sell rotten food to a customer, it can lead to health issues for that person. Similarly, if you sell an electronics device that has not passed safety inspections, it can lead to safety issues for the consumer, like an electrical fire or shock. Malfunctioning or unsafe products are a threat in almost every industry, and could lead to dangerous situations for your customers.