What Does Quality Really Mean

What Does Quality Really Mean?

The April 10 meeting will explore this question. The object of this meeting is to get beyond the slogans, the tools and the formalisms of Quality and get down to the basics – where the rubber meets the road. To help us, before dinner we will have a panel of people who know real Quality when they see it – and when they don’t. Why are these people such experts? Well, they are all part of smaller businesses that either live or die because of their level of Quality. All of these people deal directly with customers, and also have to live by their P&L. Below is a short bio of the panel and their businesses.

The first is Amy Fields. Amy is the general manager of the Eastside Food Co-op. She is responsible for the operation of this community owned business that caterers to people who want what they consider to be the best and healthiest food. Amy has 20 years experience managing community owned and non-profit businesses going back to her youth days where her farming family was part of a producer co-op in South Dakota. Amy was educated at the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in liberal arts and she was hired to open and manage the Eastside Co-op in December, 2003. Amy says her biggest challenge is overcoming the tendency for consumers to use price as the only determinant when buying food. At Eastside, Amy offers a blend of high Quality products from local sources plus a level of service that is beyond what large supermarkets can provide; all at a reasonable price.

Next is Mark Hortman. Mark is the sales operations manager for John’s Auto parts. John’s Auto is a third generation family business, and a business that has reinvented itself. John's Auto Parts is not your father's "junk yard." Today John’s Auto handles both used and new parts, and installs them as well. This is a sophisticated business that must keep track of 50,000 products and be able to match them up with individual customers, via 3000 calls and 500 walk-in customers each day. A sophisticated computer inventory system that links John’s with many outside sources of parts is a fundamental tool needed to be successful. To Mark, Quality is getting the right part to the customer the first time.

Third is Jeff Siegfried. He is the fixed operations manager for Friendly Chevrolet. As fixed operations manager he is responsible for the parts, service and body shop. Jeff describes himself as a “motor head”. He has been in the auto dealership business all his life. Jeff started working alongside his father in an auto dealership when he was 12 years old. He came to Friendly Chevrolet as one of its original 35 employees in 1991. Since then Friendly Chevrolet has grown to 140 employees. Jeff says he must focus in on business, and the level of Quality is a big factor in determining success. Friendly Chevrolet is one of the few independent auto dealerships around today. Jeff says the thing about an independent dealership is that it must make money every month or go out of business. Jeff feels he knows Quality in the auto dealership business because he both knows cars and trucks as well as customers. He says the number one part of his job is making sure customers have good experiences at Friendly Chevrolet. The last Panel member is Rich Wolens, the owner emeritus of Pioneers Cycle in Blaine. Rich has an interesting background. Before he started Pioneer Cycle, Rich worked for several Fortune 500 corporations including Univac, NCR Comten, Litton Industries, Fabri-Tek and Ball Corp. In all these companies Rich was in sales. At Ball he had responsibility for $180M in revenue. In 1980 Rich started Pioneer Cycle and grew it to three stores before selling two of them. At one point he was the fourth largest Schwinn dealer in the US. Rich knows customers and can relate to them. He says there are three main aspects to Quality. One is anticipating what customers will want next season and having it in the store in the spring when they come in. The second is picking a manufacturer who will provide the quality of bicycle that the customer expects, without his staff having to spend too much time fixing them. Last, and perhaps most important, is working with the customer to exceed their expectations.

I hope you can tell we are excited about this meeting. In addition to the panel discussion we will also have a speaker from a larger corporation talking about what Quality means them and their customers. We will tell you more about this part of the meeting in the next BenchmarQ. Please make plans to join us on April 10.