Understanding Quality Management In Business And Service Operations

Quality Management Components

Quality management is the process of facilitating organization to maintain the quality of the services. There are major four components of quality management such as quality assurance, quality planning, quality improvement and quality management. This assignment will provide the better understanding of the concept of quality and described in the term of business and service operations. The aim of this assignment is to understand the controls due to quality and the improvement in the customer services. The principles of quality management will be applied to increase the efficiency of the employee (Molina-Azorín, Tarí, Pereira-Moliner, López-Gamero and Pertusa-Ortega, 2015). Communication is integral to increase the mutual understanding on one topic. Confidentiality increases the trust of the employees and customers on the company that is why the concept of communication and record keeping will be defined in this assignment. The report will be divided into two parts one is belonged to the measurement of quality management and another is related to the improvement of service quality which involves consultation, communication, self assessment and record keeping.

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There are various ways to analyze the quality management within the organization. There are some measurements which facilitates the organization to find out the issues in the products and services. It is considered as the most important part for the organization as it facilitates the company to generate the alternatives for providing the best quality to the customers. Quality is something customers crave and business pursues (Goetsch and Davis, 2014). There can be some strategies such as total quality management and benchmarking which rely on collecting and utilizing the data for measuring service quality.

Total quality management is the tool of measuring the quality within an organization which defines the approach to long term success by considering the customer satisfaction. There are some principles of total quality management which is helpful to measure the quality of the quality management. The first principle is quality oriented management in which the mission and the vision of the company should balance the needs of the company as well as consumers (Dale, 2015). Under this process, the quality management can analyse the activity of the employees and find the solution to improve the productivity of them.

It is vital for the growth of the company to satisfy the customers and for satisfying them, company can provide them value for what they purchase. Company can provide the services to the customers in addition for make their customers feel valued. Continuous improvement is necessary for the company and this tool is helpful to analyze the work efficiency of the employees and guide them to work smarter instead of doing hard work (Webster, 2015). The roles of suppliers are essential in the growth of the company and this tool facilitates to make difference between internal and external suppliers (Zhu, 2014).

Strategies for Measuring and Improving Service Quality

Benchmarking is a process of finding the effective performance of the specific company or by competitors. This information is beneficial for the company to recognize the gap in the process of organization. This process has some certain steps such as planning, collection of the data, analyze the data, implementation and monitoring. The benefit of benchmarking is that it is able to manage the change and monitor the performance of the company in comparison of competitors in order to attain the competitive advantages.

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It is vital for the companies to understand the needs of the customers on prior basis. There are various ways available which is helpful to understand the requirements of customers. Survey is most popular approach among them. In that case the company should consider what kind of survey they should use and for whom it should be conducted- users of non-users. Users are those people who are considered as existing customers. Organization need to introduce new products and services to them for satisfying. Survey is affordable approach in which expectations, needs and limitations can be recognized. Non users are those people who are not connected with company recently but potentially will be customers. Non users become in the organization due to dissatisfied products and services of the organization. With the help of non user survey, the cause behind not using the products and services can be recognized sired products as per the customers can be produced while keeping the standards of the company (Seaborn and Fels, 2015). This survey facilitates organization to search their strength and weaknesses. With the help of relevant questions, a company may get effective response or feedback from their customers in the context of demand and needs of their products and service. Survey will be helpful for the company to find the satisfaction level of the employees. The importance of non user survey is beneficial for the company although it might be remarkable in marketing research. The company gets aware why non users do not use their products or services and they start to focus of what they want from the company and what services can satisfy them and where their contestant are efficient than the company. Both surveys require enough time and efforts and both are essential for analyzing the needs of the customers. User surveys facilitate to recognize whether they are providing efficient services or not. In contrast, a non-user survey facilitates to search out where are the lacks of services to meet the customer needs (Kaffashi, Shamsudin, Radam, Rahim and Yacob, 2015).  Company can determine the needs of the customers conveniently by getting proper response from users and non-users.

Methods for Identifying Customer Needs and Motivating Participation of Underrepresented Groups

There are various methods in the organization which can be used for motivating participation of underrepresented groups. Various programs are introduced by the management to increase the cooperation among employees. Employee involvement scheme is effective quality scheme that facilitate where willingness of both management and employee to be open in their behaviour and attitude. It permits employee to get involved by mutual agreement (Erchul, Fischer, Collier-Meek and Bloomfield, 2018). It is vital for this scheme to have the faith on the relationship. Organization need to analyze the way to interact with the employees and assess their issues within an organization. The methods can be categorized by conducting the surveys, telephone surveys, interviews, mail surveys, electronic surveys and group surveys.  

Form survey: it is vital for the company to form the survey to get instant reply from underrepresented groups. Along with that it is helpful to recognize the nature of the replies. Underrepresented groups must be motivated to involve in this survey. These forms will be facilitated to reveal their needs, issues and expectations.

Group interviews: group interview is effective approach to make the discussion about the situation. It is helpful for underrepresented group to speak up about the situation. It is considered as the attractive and open way of consultation.

Telephone surveys: it is effective tool because with the help of it, the issues of underrepresented can be identified. It can be possible within an organization that under represented can gets hesitated to share the issues and requirements and with the help of this tool they can share their views and concerns in easy manner.

Apart from that there can be mail or electronic surveys by which the underrepresented get the questionnaire through e-mail. This questionnaire is helpful for the company to get aware about the concerns of the employee so that it can implement the strategy for improving the issues (Polus, Pfadenhauer, Brereton, Leppert, Wahlster, Gerhardus and Rehfuess, 2017).

Complaints are always taken as negative concern in the perspective of customers. Quality management is aided to recognize the issues of their products and services as an opportunity so that it can improve it for further. There are number of companies such as Toyota, Infosys, Google, Samsung, Dell and many more which set up the customer services department to tackle the concerns of customers and for providing the instant solution to them. The gathered data throughout the concerns procedure can be utilized for employing and planning quality management practices. It has been analyzed that apart from complaints regarding products and services, the customers do complaints against sellers and in such case company provide the training to the employee for improving the quality of the employees (Bourne, Wynants, Peters, Van Audenhove, Timmerman, Van Calster and Jalmbrant, 2015).

The weakness of the products and services can be identified by the customers before buy them or after using them which involve color, size, price and quality. This weakness points can influence the sales revenues because customers do not buy products and services if they get bad quality in them. It has been analyzed that in bank services, the major weakness factor can be low interest, lack of branches, insufficient services and so on. It might facilitate banks to review their financial products and allocation of branches. Quality is not considered for products or services it can be for the staff that provide services (Hammer, 2015). Customer loyalty is integral for the organization because once it loses, it is hard to retain. For instance, a customer open an account in banks and desires to deal with the investment through online banking, but the difficulties come while operating the online banking. It will discourage customers to use the system and push them to go for another option from which they get better services in order to deal with their investment easily. Complaints in banks has been handled by IT department, this might aid to maintain suitable way to handle transactions and investment for customers (Burmester, Leathem and Merrick, 2015). Complaints procedures of the company should be simple where customers can approach easily and get the solutions as soon as possible.

The role of self assessment is integral in the growth of the company. It is integral for a company to recognize its state of health and search out whether it is efficient for the business or not. Various activities are required to attain its objectives and that is why the assessment report should be ready to analyze the done activities within the organization. The structure of the system should be systematic and determined as per to the efficient knowledge and experience of numbers. The contribution of effective process is important for the growth of the company. Assessment is helpful to determine the growth of extension of the attainment against the objectives. The strategic tool of benchmarking can be used within an organization to analyze the weakness and strength of the company in comparison of their competitors. Internal assessment should be given to different staff for improving the track of progress. It is vital for the management team to develop the quality policy because it encourages employees to perform task with quality. Quality awareness errors can be reduced with the help of measurement tool of quality. The effective actions must be considered for the concerns of quality and zero defects planning must be done to the further productions. It has been analyzed that there are many companies such as Amazon, Apple, Samsung and many more that recognize errors with the help of IT team and put efforts to remove them by checking on daily basis and decrease the error making purposes. Critically identify the certain point will facilitate to improve the quality. Employees are the assets of the company and liable for better customer services that is why it is important to have qualified and educated employees in the organization. 

Communication is a process to reduce the misunderstanding and convey the important message between persons. It is considered as an integral part of the quality management system. It is required to the company to communicate not only within but also outside of it to attain the quality management. The role of communication for the internal parts is integral as it is liable to avoid the apathy and provide the new ways to enhance the quality practices. The foundation of the quality management is relied on the communication with consumers. Communication is helpful to get the knowledge about the satisfaction level of products to the customers by communicating with them efficiently (Johnston, King, Arora, Behar, Athanasiou, Sevdalis and Darzi, 2015). There is an example of Apple Company that relies largely on verbal communication. The services of Apple company is fast and in case of any query, the customer can go directly to the apple store to resolve the issue and the customer care provider are available there to resolve the issue by face to face communication which also maintain the direct relationship with the company (Cornelissen and Cornelissen, 2017).

Record keeping is another vital part to all companies because the entire function of the company is dependent on it. Record keeping makes easy process by which the management can cross check in case of any issues. Information should be recorded during internal as well as external communication because it is helpful to executing the plans for quality control (Donovan, Campbell and Norman, 2017). The importance of record keeping is integral as it can be used to compare the past result with present. The major defect can be recognized by using it within the production process. For instance, bank is the place where it is an indispensable process, and banks are having huge data regarding transactions records. Record keeping helps them to answer the question and arguments to the customers regarding their questions (Pezaro and Lilley, 2015).

Production of the company is dependent on the staff and they are also liable to provide the better quality to the customers. The quality work should be considered from the planning stage to after services stage. It is required to conduct the staff consultation whenever organization focuses on re-strategizes like in the time of the implementation of a new quality scheme. It is helpful to avoid anxiety and worried feeling among the employees. The role of feelings while working is important as bad feeling reduces the affect of the performance. Changes should be done within an organization for improving the productivity of the employees. Everyone included in the changing environment will be enthusiastic towards the change and in the time of urgency, the staff will be appeared and will always try to giving their best. Executing the staff consultation makes sure that the staff is trained and can commit in effective way with work (Österle, Aditjandra, Vaghi, Grea and Zunder, 2015).

It has been analyzed that the surveys can be accomplished by the staff about quality scheme of the company. As per the quality standards, the documents are filled effectively. It is required for the management to be qualified. The procedure of the training should be provided as per the position and delegation of the work which will be facilitated to reduce the errors and quality scheme will be improved. Employees of the companies should be allowed to share their views and ideas regarding growth of the company. Communication and consultations are vital for the company’s growth. Communication and the consultation process should be motivated by the top management level of the company and they should not be hesitated to communicate with a ground level staff because ground level staff is the employees who put efforts to accomplish the vision of the company. Top management should make them feel that they are the assets of the company. If top management neglects the staff, it will reduce the productivity and increase the employee attrition. The created vision and mission need to be well known. The management of the company can utilize facilities such as newsletter, MEMOS and meetings to provide information every stakeholder of the goods and values.

There are so many huge companies in all over the world that has so many brands to control and manage. It is vital for those companies to provide the efficient services to its customers so that they prefer again the services of the same company. A modification is necessary for the growth of the company. Organizations need to focus on budget and they must not to spare their projects from being over budgeted. More information and transparence is required to attract the customers. The new system of work of the company can be replaced from old one (Olvera, Stuhlmiller, Wolfe, Swearingen, Pennington, and Davis, 2018). For instance, if the employees of the company do same work from long period, it will get them bored. In such condition company should bring new strategies to accomplish the task and put something interesting in their task which provide them fun while working. An organization can change the delegated work of the employees which will increase their learning. Incentives criteria should be done in the process because monetary incentives attract employees towards work. By taking example of Mc Donald’s, it can be said that this food chain is world largest chain that have number of customers. If Mc Donald’s wants to get familiar service it should keep focus on more hiring. It has large customers that are why it is required to speed up, because everyone wants a tidy environment and no one wants to wait in a queue for a long period. Exceptional services should be provided by them and for this it should encourage its employee (Reddeman, Foxcroft, Gutierrez, Hart, Lockhart, Mendelsohn, Ang, Sharpe, Warde, Brundage and Reddeman, 2016). Employees of the McDonalds should be trained to provide the better services to the customers. Organization need to ensure their employees stay loyal and sharp. It is vital for the organization to remember that satisfied employees are the true key of growth. 

Conclusion

In the limelight of above discussion, it can be concluded that the role of quality management is integral in the organization for the growth of the company. The discussion has been made on quality management and users and non users. Existing customers are known as users of the company while non users are those people who are not connected with company recently but potentially will be customers. A method of consultation employees has been discussed under one quality scheme of employment involvement scheme. Employee involvement scheme is effective quality scheme that facilitate where willingness of both management and employee to be open in their behaviour and attitude. Customers have the right to raise the voice against the bad quality products. The importance of commucnaition and record keeping has been described in this assignment to improve the efficiency of the employees. 

References 

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