Constant changes in today’s market are urging small businesses to work harder on developing various strategies in order to stay in the game and rise above the competition. These changes are happening quicker than ever and are present in every category of services and products, driven in most part by shifting customer needs. Trying to deal with rapid changes, small business owners and managers often have difficulties to keep the quality relationships with their customers, suppliers and distributors. Staying committed to quality and customer satisfaction is crucial for a small company to keep its competitive edge. As a small business owner, you need to make sure that your company is focused both on product and customer management. In a small company, the owner is responsible for implementing quality programs and their successful execution.

Total Quality Management, or TQM, is the process of implementing quality in every business process of a company. The goal is achieving success and customer satisfaction by rising awareness of quality throughout the company. TQM is mostly practiced in large companies, but it can be very beneficial for small businesses as well. In order for it to work, everyone in the company has to get involved. The basis of TQM is working on continuous improvement that can lead to outstanding results. Here we will go through several key points in a successful TQM program for small companies.

Quality work and customer satisfaction has to be the focus of all employees of your company. They must be well informed about the TQM program and make customer satisfaction their number one priority. As a business owner, or a manager, you must set examples of commitment to the new program and also give permission to your employees to act the same way. In order to get the maximum from your employees, you may need to provide training and written guidelines to them. It is important to share customer information such as customer’s business description, expectations, problems, opportunities, and feedback with all your employees.

When all your employees participate in quality programs, and focus on the ways to improve customer satisfaction, the highest level of quality can be reached. You may be worried that TQM training will affect productive company time, and lead to decreased efficiency and higher costs. Successful TQM programs have just the opposite effect, since every employee can provide examples for efficiency improvement. If employees are encouraged and rewarded for participating in TQM program their job satisfaction will increase, and at the same time, customer satisfaction, sales, and profits will increase as well.

Small companies often focus their efforts strictly on sales. The reality is that a company cannot be successful in sales without having good quality products and services that set them apart from competitors. Small companies are often too busy trying to reach new customers and don’t have the time to follow up on existing customers. The solution is to have the entire company working to support the sales staff and customers. When every employee is committed to quality and customer satisfaction, more things are done right which results in lower costs and higher productivity.

Many small businesses are successful due to specializing in a small-volume category segment or focusing on a narrow segment of specialized customers. Being able to respond to changing customer needs and service requirements is critical for survival of those small companies. Technological advances may create new competition, and may also provide products and services in your category that can take place of what you are offering. If your company has lost its niche or is less distinctive in its products and services, drastic improvements in quality and customer service may be required to keep your company running.

Small companies that are successfully competing with larger competitors are usually trying to do everything a little bit better than them. Many companies only look for a chance to make big changes in quality or products that will provide a competitive edge, often neglecting to make smaller improvements that are much more accessible. Quality of product is important, but it is also important to have quality in serving customers, advertising and promotion, quality in packaging, design, communications, trade logos, and so forth.

Areas a company can check for possible improvements include:

• Sale of products and services
• Manner of obtaining the order from customers
• Manner of recording the order for company and a customer
• Manner of processing the order within the company
• Time necessary to process and deliver the order to the customer
• Manner of delivering the final product or service to customers
• Employee-customer relationship
• Check if you have a customer follow up procedure for orders
• Review of order and service satisfaction level with customers