Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Quality Makes Perfect Part (2): Why Measures Quality?












Always there exists an important question: why should service quality be measured? Measurement allows for comparison before and after changes, for the location of quality related problems and for the establishment of clear standards for service delivery. Edvardsen et al . (1994) state that, in their experience, the starting point in developing quality in services is analysis and measurement.
Just have a look at both mango tree pictures. Both pictures portray the same tree but taken at two different times. If we realized, the left picture has shown us the tree has produced new leaves which are bigger, longer and look more fresh. If we don't measure how could we know if there is any problem that hold the growth of the tree. Or if we don't measure how could we establish certain amount of fertilizer suitable for the tree. It is lucky to have a healthy growing tree so that the farmer doesn't have to find out the problem and could only maintain the amount of fertilizer to be consumed. But if the tree doesn't grow that well, the farmer has to identify what is the problem of the tree is not growing and he has to find out the suitable amount of fertilizer to be used. Those are the reasons why we should measure and compare.
However, it is simple to measure and compare the tangible product but for something that is intangible like the quality of service, it is quite hard to measure. We have to have the user or the service consumer to measure and later acknowledge us of what is the quality of our service in terms of their expectation and perception. And these people measurement sometimes were influenced by so many things in their lives such as their past experience, their personal needs, word of mouth communication and what not. That is why we measure quality...quality makes perfect.