Monthly Archives: February 2017

Example of Cost of Poor Quality

This might seem obvious, but its a clear example of the cost of poor quality, often a cost that is not measured.  Recently, on of my favorite products let me down.  So, I found a workaround, which was to temporally use the main competing product.

Guess, what?  The other product, which I had never considered, turned out to be pretty good.  Now, its on my radar.  The odds that I would switch just went up 1000%.

The product in question is my smartphone.  I’ve been a loyal customer for many years, ever since they came out, and I have a signifiant investment in the phone eco-system (apps, peripherals, etc.).  Switching devices never crossed my mind, until the camera let me down – fuzzy images. Ugh…

Fuzzy Edinburgh

Luckily, I was on a side-trip, and had a business phone with me.  I borrowed it for the camera for the weekend and found that I really liked the camera much better than my existing one. I made a note to check out the models from this brand and my consider a switch.

Better image of Edinburgh

 

For this post, its not important which phone is which. What is important, I spend about $500 per year on the device ecosystem – and before this weekend, the chance of my switching was about nil. Now, I would estimate it to be about 25%.

Never give your customers reason to look elsewhere.

Half of the information is better than none at all

My wife and I recently had a conversation which I need to work into my upcoming talk on metrics.  I’m traveling and she is planning to pick me up from the airport. Its a long flight.  She is wondering about flight updates and what time she should show at the airport.

I tell her that I’ll text her if the plane takes off on time, or is delayed.  She initially says that she needs to know if it will arrive on time, not if it departs on time.  Then, immediately realizes that if the plane departs late, it surely will arrive late. So, having that bit of information regarding on time departure does have some value.

Sometimes we let perfect get in the way of progress. A metric can be gamed, or its not comprehensive, or it doesn’t tell the whole story. However, if you understand the underlying process, having half the information may provide some useful information indeed.