Customer satisfaction is at the root of every company. It does not matter if you are selling an item or if you are providing a service, if your customers are not happy you will lose business and eventually have to shut down. In these digital times the world travels fast and one disgruntled customer can have a huge impact on a brands name and whether people will choose it or not. Customers return to a particular brand because they have built expectations to what they will receive here. They will therefore expect to receive the same type of service or product every time they come back to you. So how do you ensure that every customer experience will be as good as the last?

Introducing quality management systems to your company can make a significant difference. This will allow you to have certain check points and process that control the quality of your product or services. What these checkpoints are is entire dependent on what type of business you run. For example, if you run a busy city restaurant you will benefit from having checkpoints both at the customer service points as well as in the kitchen. You are providing the customer with an experience from the moment they enter your establishment and it is up to you to ensure that they are happy. 

If you have not already got quality management systems established in your business you might want to consider contacting one of the many ISO 9001 certification bodies in the UK. These can help you identify where you are falling short and how you can improve. The great thing about working with a certification body is that you have the opportunity to achieve a certification at the end of the process which will allow you to provide proof that you are taking the quality of your services or product seriously. 

One of the most important elements of such as certification is implementing procedures for customer feedback. This is a great way of understanding what your customers expect of you and if you have let them down in any way. It is easy to get caught up in the day to day activities of your business and forget the little things that make a significant difference to your customers. Maybe the quality of your cocktails is not as good anymore because you have had to hire new bar staff, or you have invested in a new range of Christmas decorations, but unfortunately they are of a lesser quality than those you provided last year. A certification would help you identify these elements early on and ensure that you are not letting your customers down. If you knew that your new bar staff were not going to be able to make cocktails to the standard your customers are used to, you might want to consider allowing extra time for training before you place them behind the bar. With quality management systems in place you would also have a checklist ready for any suppliers to ensure that you will not receive products of a lesser quality. This way you will increase customer satisfaction and retention, allowing you to grow your business and make more money. 

QMS International Plc offer ISO 9001 certification to businesses based in Norwich, Norfolk. For more information please visit their website http://www.qmsuk.com/.