No matter what kind of business you are in, there’s one thing that you can always rely on to impress a customer or a client. The design should be unique and challenge the norm, the colour scheme and the overall functions should be incredibly useful and try to solve an issue. However even if you fall short in some of these areas, there’s one thing you can count on to convince some fence sitters to buy. Fantastic quality can never ever be replaced by anything else. It will always rear its head and show up to potentially save the day. You see this for example in the car industry as some cars that are not really exciting or even designed well, can have people buying them in droves just because of the quality of materials used. This throws up multiple questions for a small business that wants to enter into a new field of high quality high-end products. What do you need to do to make this happen for your products? There are countless ways you can achieve this and every industry will have it's own concerns. Some of these concerns may not be applicable to you but, you can still learn a great deal about the ethos, practical elements and goals for them.
It's begin where it always does
Quality control has to start at the desk of the CEO. You are the owner and founder of the business, therefore the buck stops with you for practically everything. If a product that you make and sell is not high quality, the blame for it must always fall into your lap. You’re the one who is supposed to be planning and buying the materials, and give the go ahead to your staff to explore and search for better materials if they can. It always begins in the executive office, where the major decisions are made. During the planning of a product is where the discussion must be held. It's also a matter of ethos, as you must make it clear that this is the direction you want to go in. The product’s value in retail stores and online shopping websites will therefore change and be in direct competition with some of the best brands in the world.
Just by making the decision to use better materials, you are immediately entering your product in the high-end or premium product bracket. For example, if you are a clothing line and you want to make gloves. Choosing to go with deer leather rather than cow leather will make your gloves a better product. They will be more flexible, feel softer and even be warmer. Although your design might be simple, you’re now competing with specialist brands just because of the material choice. Thus, when you are designing your products in the executive office you must set about with an ethos that demands the best or better materials.
Testing products yourself
The business you run must be able to be self-sufficient. There are many small businesses that outsource testing of their products to specialist companies. These companies are experts in compliance laws, therefore they can give you packages that will get your product over the threshold. However, they rarely offer unique testing for products and will just make sure that your product can withstand the tests that the law demands; such as health and safety regarding toxins etc.
Instead of relying on another company to do the testing for you, building your own testing plant would be the better option. Not only do you therefore have supreme control over the testing conditions and aims of your products but it's a sustainable option as any new products in the future can be tested in the plant too. To begin you’ll need to decide on the land and then pick excavators for the task of digging and moving the soil from the piece of land. You can decide on a machine that is light if you’re only intent on building a small testing plant or something larger like a 30 or 40+ tonne excavator. The lighter models offer more intricate handling, great for tight spaces while the larger machines are going to make light work of moving massive amounts of earth but in an open area.
Setting your testing standards
Perhaps one of the toughest tasks any business can do is to set its own standards for quality control. No doubt that many of your c-suite staff will have their own opinions and even the marketing department will want a piece of the action. Who doesn’t want to be able to say they use the best of the best materials for their product? It's an instant attention grabber which works every time. However, setting up your own quality control standards for product testing is something that needs to be done before the plant is finished. This is because you’ll need different kinds of testing machines and conditions set up so you better know what kind of direction you want to travel in.
The areas that are common are heat resistance testing, water resistance, drop damage testing, scratch resistance, flexibility, coarse friction testing etc. All of these areas are designed to see how tough and irresistible your product is in different conditions and environments. It's very common to have these kinds of tests done for almost any product. Yet, you are in your own industry and sector and must devise your testing plant to challenge the norms as such.
Market your results
Of course all of this is done not just so you can say you have the finest quality product in the sector. It's also not just done to keep your customers safe from harm. You can also market the fact that you use high quality materials and have done vigorous testing to clients and distributors. An investor or potential business partner would rather invest with a company that is already investing in itself. They would rather attach their support or name to a product that is seen in a prestigious light. This is something that you must market to investors.
Go about doing this by video recording your tests and the results. Anyone who is looking to partner with your business or invest, will need proof positive that you are doing the utmost to keep standards very high. Interview some of the testing staff to get a perspective from the people on the ground and give some insight to your methods and aims. Observing the tests from a close angle will allow the viewer to see how stringent and professional your testing plant and methods are. Producing extreme quality control can only be done by having your own testing plant and pushing the envelope further than your competitors. All that hard work must be showcased in a video that is able to be marketed on your website. You should also upload the video of your testing program on to your YouTube channel so customers can view it too. Not only will you inspire greater confidence within your customers but the general consumer will take your business and brand much more seriously.
Many small businesses will give over a product or a batch of products to independent testing plants. These plants are good for when you are trying to just meet the legal thresholds. However, they don’t push your products to the kind of limits that you need if you desire to make a high quality product. Build your own plant from the ground up and decide on your machines and methods to set the standard in your industry and sector. This all begins however, in your executive office during the design phase.
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