82 Examples of Quality

Quality is the value of something to customers. This includes tangible elements such as functionality and intangible elements such as the friendliness of service or tactile feel of a steering wheel. The following are illustrative examples of quality.

Accessibility

Products, services and physical environments that are accessible to people with disabilities.

Accuracy

The correctness of information or precision of a technology or process.

Adaptable

The ability to adjust to conditions and support a wide variety of activities. For example, a vehicle may have configurable seats to support different uses such as transporting large items or additional passengers.

Aesthetics

Things that are perceived as appealing to the senses.

Ambience

The general character and atmosphere of a place including factors such as decor, lighting, music and social environment.

Articulation

How well a particular idea is put into words. Applies to the quality of information or marketing artifacts such as packaging.

Availability

The uptime of a service often defined by its downtime per year. Can also apply to the distribution of products. In this case, availability is defined by your customer's ability to buy a particular product through local retailers or ecommerce channels.

Capacity

The maximum amount that something can contain such as the storage limits of a product or service.

Character

The personality of your business, brand or offerings.

Clarity

Information that is clear and unambiguous.

Cleanliness

The cleanliness of physical items and places. Particularly important to services with a high throughput of people such as a restaurant, theme park or hotel.

Cohesion

The degree to which different elements belong together. Applies to product and service compatibility or the unified image of a brand.

Comfort

Physical comfort or a cognitive sense of calm, familiarity and restfulness.

Compliance

Compliance with laws, regulations and standards.

Concepts

An idea that has value to your business such as a mission, vision or principle. Concepts are known to significantly impact perceived quality.

Consistency

Consistency of a product or service such as a dish at a restaurant that tastes the same every time.

Conviviality

The friendliness of a technology interface. Associated with the idea that technology bends to people and not the other way around.

Culture

A restaurant that embraces cultural elements such as manners, traditions and aesthetics.

Deconstructable

The ability to take something apart to fix it or reuse it.

Detail

The level of detail incorporated into the design or realization of a product or service.

Differentiation

How a product or service stands out in the market relative to the competition.

Diligence

The care and effort that is shown by professionals such as customer service representatives.

Durability

The degree to which something resists wear and damage.

Ease Of Assembly

Clear instructions and foolproof assembly steps.

Ease Of Use

The usability of products, services and technology interfaces.

Efficiency

Energy and resource efficiency. An important element of sustainable design.

Elegance

Style and grace in form and function. Applies to high end products in areas such as automobiles, fashion and electronics.

Entertainment

Level of amusement or enjoyment.

Ethics

People commonly see businesses with commendable ethics as having higher quality products and services. In many cases, certifications related to ethics can improve perceived quality.

Extensibility

How easy it is to extend the functionality of something. Applies to areas such as software and automobiles that are commonly customized.

Fairness

Demonstrated fairness is particularly important to the quality of customer service. For example, if you serve customers out of order when they are waiting in line, customers may view this as a poor quality practice.

Fault Tolerance

The ability to continue operating when an error is encountered. For example, software that crashes on every error may be viewed as poor quality. Important to the quality of safety critical equipment such as aircraft.

Features

In many cases, a product or service with more features will be viewed as higher quality. In other cases, a product or service that is free of unwanted features is widely viewed as superior.

Flexibility

Can refer to physical flexibility, a general ability to adapt or a willingness to bend rules such as a restaurant that excepts custom orders.

Flow

An important element of user interfaces that allows you to flow through activities without being interrupted. For example, an app that is continually prompting the user to upgrade may be viewed as low quality.

Functional

Satisfies a need such as completing a task or supporting an activity.

Healthy

Is good for your health such as food that is free of questionable substances.

Identity

There is a well known tendency for customers to view products that they can recognize as higher quality than those that they don't recognize. As such, a strong visual identity boosts perceived quality.

Image

Image is a general term for the impression that customers have of your business, brand and products.

Informative

People crave information and sharing statistics, specifications, stories and other information about your business can improve quality perceptions.

Interoperable

The ability to work with other things. For example, a technology that can work seamlessly with a wide range of devices.

Legacy

The history of something often impacts its perceived quality. For this reason, firms often publicise their year of founding or stories related to their past.

Low Impact

The use of materials and methods that have low environmental impact.

Maintainable

Ease and cost of maintaining equipment or products.

Materials

The quality of materials is often a significant factor in the overall quality of an item. For example, a gold watch is generally higher quality than a plastic watch.

Mistake Proof

Designs that reduce the risk of human error. Important to the quality of safety equipment and business processes.

Narrative

The story behind something may improve its quality in the eyes of customers.

Operable

Cost and ease of operation.

Outcome

In many cases, the quality of a process or service is primarily judged by its outcome. This is particularly common when outcomes are of critical importance as with medical services.

Output

The quality of services or equipment may be measured in terms of outputs. For example, the quality of a 3D printer may be evaluated by what it can create.

Personalization

The degree to which a product or service pleasantly adapts to each person as an individual. For example, a hotel that remembers that you like extra hard pillows and always has them ready in your room when you arrive.

Politeness

The level of courtesy and respect shown to customers.

Privacy

A business that respects individual privacy and publishes clear policies in this regard. Particularly relevant to industries that handle sensitive information such as healthcare, banking and the legal profession.

Proximity

Physical closeness to something desirable such as a house near a good school or a data center near a stock exchange.

Rapport

The ability to engage customers in a friendly way. Particularly relevant to service industry quality.

Recognition

Recognition such as awards and reviews is critical to perception of quality in the travel, tourism and hospitality industry. It also has impact to professional services and other areas where reputation and critical reception are important.

Recyclable

Things designed to be recycled in the communities in which they are sold.

Regenerative

The ability for an item, facility or place to independently renew its own energy or resources. For example, a data center that generates much of its own electricity from solar power may be viewed as higher quality than one that's fully depended on the grid.

Relevance

The quality of information is often judged by its relevance at the moment that's available, communicated or used. For example, a quality aircraft weather radar system gives pilots advanced notice of severe turbulence ahead.

Reliability

Consistently performs as expected.

Renewable

Use of materials and energy that renew via natural processes.

Reputation

The general opinion held about a business by the public.

Reusable

Products and services designed to be used many times.

Rhythm

A pattern of activities or sound. For example, service at a restaurant may have a rhythm to it.

Risk Managed

How well risks are managed.

Robustness

Strength and health. Typically refers to technology that tolerates ambiguity and exceptions such as a web form that makes a suggestion when you spell something wrong.

Safe

Physical safety such as an airline with a good safety record.

Scalability

The ability to handle more volume with declining costs.

Secure

Level of physical and information security.

Selection

The number of options available. For example, a supermarket that has hundreds of vegetable choices may be seen as higher quality than one that offers less than a dozen.

Simplicity

Simplicity is often seen as a desirable quality in user interfaces. It also applies in other areas such as equipment with a simple design that is easy to maintain and customize.

Size

A preference for bigger, smaller or right-sized items, architecture and places.

Sound

Many items are judged by their sound. For example, an air conditioning unit that minimizes noise pollution or a device that doesn't beep or sing with every action.

Speed

In many cases, fast things are considered higher quality. However, slow things such as a well-paced fine meal may occasionally be seen as superior.

Stability

The quality of being firmly established and changed conservatively.

Style

Style is a distinctive manner, character and appearance. It is a fundamental basis of branding and design that has a large impact on perceived quality.

Taste

Of importance to food and drink related products and services. Also used to indicate an effective sense of style.

Texture

The feel or tactile appearance of a surface. Also used to describe the feeling of food on your tongue.

Timely

The quality of fitting into a time and place. For example, a fashion brand that always captures the popular styles, materials and colors of a season.

Uniqueness

Confidently standing out from the crowd with characteristics that are unmatched and singular.

Variety

The diversity of selection. For example, an ecommerce retailer that offers 100 models of kayak each with significant differences in design and features.

Well Being

Generally giving people a sense of well-being. Often measured as quality of life.