How to create a quality framework and why it matters

Introduction

Each and every organization aims at adding value to its stakeholders, including customers and employees. In order for all company departments to serve a common purpose and collaborate effectively, it’s instrumental to monitor the quality of their day-to-day operations. For this purpose, it’s crucial to follow a quality framework that will help you keep track of performance and maintain the right customer standard.

In the following article, we’re going to take a look at what a quality framework is, why it’s important to have one, and how you can establish it at your organization.

What is a quality framework and why it’s important

A quality framework is a set of criteria that defines what “quality” means for every organization. By agreeing on a list of standards and processes, businesses can monitor, identify, and act upon results to improve performance. A quality framework works as the guidelines for continuous quality improvement. 

Why is having a quality assurance framework important?

Quality frameworks are indispensable for continuous development, profitability, and growth. They help secure positive customer experience, streamline processes, ensure transparency, and make sure people can work together effectively.

Flawed processes prevent businesses from growing and reaching their KPIs. How’s it so? Processes are an element deeply embedded in the company DNA, and operational efficiency directly relates to them. Without standards and a detailed analysis of how each process functions at your business, you can’t spot any areas requiring improvement. 

Even a seemingly small flaw can eventually grow into an issue that could hinder your organization’s growth. A great example is a call center where – in order for the client to get their issue resolved – they need to be redirected to a different department or agent. If the agent doesn’t pick up the phone, the client might get frustrated and churn from the business. However, what if the redirection was unnecessary in the first place, as the customer query was simple enough for the first agent to handle? This is just one of the issues you can spot with a quality assurance framework and the right tools to track in place.

Quality frameworks need to be established on a per organization basis. However, there are several quality framework examples and methodologies that will guide you on your way to creating one. Below, we share the Six Sigma DMAIC methodology, which we consider one of the most effective methods.

Quality Framework Examples – Six Sigma & DMAIC

Six Sigma is a quality improvement methodology that revolves around data and statistics. It focuses on eliminating defects in products, processes, and services. It was pioneered in the 1980s by Motorola and Bill Smith, and gained even more popularity after Jack Welch adopted it at General Electric in the 1990s. Currently, hundreds of companies globally use this methodology to conduct business.  

As explained on the Six Sigma Daily website, if this “quality improvement methodology had to be summarized in one word, it would be the acronym DMAIC”.

What does DMAIC mean? 

The acronym stands for the five steps you need to take in your quality improvement efforts. These are: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. We discuss each of these stages in the next section.

DMAIC revolves around the view that bringing your attention not just to the results of a given action, but also the processes that created it, will allow you to enhance your business.

Practical tips to creating your quality framework with DMAIC

Now that we have discussed what Six Sigma and DMAIC are, it’s time to take a look at some practical tips on how to develop your own quality framework.  

Step 1: Define 

The first step is to define the problem you want to address and/or the purpose that has to be achieved – you’ll also have to agree on the process improvement objectives, to be able to measure success. Next, you should identify the team members who will take part in the process.

How to: It’s hard to spot issues without having access to employee and customer data; this can be resolved by running surveys to measure metrics like customer satisfaction, Net Promoter Score or CES. Thanks to the survey results you might, for example, observe a drop in customer sentiment, which could potentially indicate that your churn rate might go up soon. 

Step 2: Measure 

Select the factors which indicate whether the process is correct or incorrect. For instance, think about data points you would choose to decide if your customers are satisfied with the service you provide them with. This stage is all about collecting relevant data and spotting variance – after this, your team will be responsible for reducing variance to the minimum as you want to maintain the right standard. 

How to: Imagine a situation where your customer service representative holds a call with a customer, after which you automatically send out a survey to the customer, asking them how the agent handled the issue. Once again, they receive a poor score. You measure their effectiveness through various touchpoints, including email and chat, and – like in the previous instance – you also send out a survey. However, it turns out that this time, the same agent receives a much higher score. What does it tell you? That their strength lies in written communication, and it might be better for the business to relocate them to email and chat customer support.

Step 3: Analyze 

Verify the results – this should help you identify problematic areas and their causes. Too frequently teams jump into conclusions and propose solutions without properly understanding the root cause of the problem. While the key to success is to verify your hypothesis based on the collected employee and customer data, and then come up with solutions. 

How to: You can use a tool like Intersoft which includes modules like Reports & Dashboards, Data Mining, and Quality Audit Checks to get a better understanding of your data. It will help you learn how you can improve your processes. Intersoft analyzes data effectively, irrespective of its volume – no insights will be left unseen, as opposed to Excel-based workflows. All the insights you acquire will be turned into actionable items, which will come handy in the next step. 

Step 4: Improve

Once you’ve analyzed your results, it’s time to focus on possible improvements. You and your team should brainstorm ways in which you can permanently put an end to the obstacles. 

How to: Create an improvement plan listing all the problems you’ve identified and their proposed solutions. Assign people responsible for tracking and maintaining the new standards. Implement a solution like Intersoft to automatically link analysis to improvement tasks, such as training, coaching, and feedback. This will make it easier for the team to manage the improvement process.

Step 5: Control

Last, but not least, you should have a method of controlling whether the changes are now part of your new processes and standards across the entire organization. For this purpose, you will need to use a reporting tool. Among others, you’ll be able to spot which employees are underperforming, and which processes still require improvement.

How to: Use a solution that lets you access and visualize all data pertaining to customer communication and employee performance. In Intersoft’s reports & dashboarding tool, evaluation results are visualized in simple graphs so that it’s easier for you to derive insights and further improve your quality standards.

Summary

An important element of each business’ success lies in the quality standards it offers to its customers. One of the best ways of ensuring your customer-facing teams are at the top of their performance is through following the DMAIC methodology. It allows you to define, measure, and analyze your data, as well as implement improvement and the right quality assurance and control processes.

If you’d like to implement DMAIC for your business, IntersoftQMS is the right choice! 

It serves as a complete quality management product suite that will help you create and implement your customer experience programs, as well as conduct customer surveys, quality assessments, and data mining. IntersoftQMS integrates with leading software such as Salesforce, Cisco, and JIRA, which allows you to use insights from other tools when you work on your quality management.

Our experts will be happy to give you a helping hand and advise you on the best direction for your quality framework – don’t hesitate to reach out!