Posted By: Shilpa Bhowmik
Quality Control (QC) is a process in any organisation’s workflow that determines whether the service or product they offer is devoid of errors, whether minuscule or gigantic. They must also adhere to a set of goals that a brand follows. The quality inspection element helps deliver valuable products, ensuring the client is satisfied with the finished product and keeps coming back to you.
Quality check processes vary across organisations; however, the below-mentioned steps are the most crucial to follow whenever a document is sent to you.
Once you receive the copy, you must first screen for and eliminate all spelling errors. This can be done with the aid of spell-check tools available across any Microsoft or Google applications. You may also fall back on tools such as Grammarly, which instantly notify you of spelling mistakes and suggest corrections. You could perform this process manually but if the documents are lengthy, it can be unnecessarily time-consuming.
Similar to spelling errors, grammatical errors must also be avoided. The person writing a content piece may be good at English but grammar may not necessarily be their strength; this is where the QC process comes in. The most common mistakes you may encounter are misuse of articles, prepositions, tenses, conjunctions, subject-verb agreement, singular/plural and repetition of certain words. You may utilise a tool such as Grammarly to eliminate these; however, grammatical knowledge is essential as tools may not always recommend the most appropriate fixes.
Most copies fail if a single stated fact or observation has no relevance to the context of the content and starts with “in media res”. The person reading the document or report will likely be confused as to what it means or why it is present in the copy. If you find such non-contextual statements, they can be deleted or further clarification can be added so that the idea can be properly understood.
Quality is the soul of a business. In the modern era, where customers have plenty of options and alternatives, you must focus on improving the quality of a document.This is how it’s done:
Coherence refers to consistency and applying logic so that every sentence has a natural flow. Each point or paragraph should be connected to the other. The entire document must make unified sense.
When a document comes for QC, after the basic checks have been covered, you need to understand the document’s aim and have a good idea about its content. Only then will you be able to make it look natural and derive a sense as a whole, helping to improve readability.
A QC analyst may receive a copy with poor sentence structure that is too vague or complicated to understand. This is not an error; however, it may affect readability.
In such cases, it is recommended to stick to a more straightforward sentence structure unless complex sentences are absolutely necessary.
Short and lucid sentences are the way ahead, but the sentence has to make complete sense and be coherent with the rest of the paragraph. Good structure goes hand-in-hand with correct grammar.
Punctuation is a typographical factor that helps define a sentence’s interpretation. Sometimes, the incorrect placement of a punctuation mark can alter the entire meaning of a sentence, portray the wrong tone, or convey a completely incorrect message.
This can cause ambiguity and, if not implemented correctly, may hamper your business-client relations as it is incredibly unprofessional.
Lucid content is always in demand. Whatever is written or delivered to a client must be clear.
For instance, you work at a performance marketing organisation and are tasked with preparing a backlink strategy document for your client. You cannot assume your client has a digital marketing background and understands all the technical terms.
When the document reaches a quality check analyst, they must ensure that the content is clear, direct, and makes sense even to a non-specialist. This improves the quality of your business standards.
In most instances, the organisation you work for has a standardised font size, style, and brand colours. The QC will not always receive documents adhering to these brand guidelines as, while preparing reports or strategies, employees are focused on deadlines and often fail to incorporate them. The QC process must identify these and make the necessary edits in order to keep the organisation’s branding intact, ensuring the final copy looks unrushed and professional.Alignment is the final polishing that a document receives before it reaches the client. Here, the user experience and interface are kept in mind such that the final spreadsheet/slides look presentable. After the changes mentioned above are made, the quality analyst must ensure that the document looks good and enhances the user experience.
Simple things, such as adding a margin, and consistency in alignment across multiple copies, will improve the look and feel of what your client receives. This final step is highly essential and maintains professional trust in the work you do.
An acute quality control process encourages quality consciousness; over time, everyone in the organisation realises its importance. But that’s not all. Let’s hear about some of the most important benefits of quality control:
When you perform a QC check discerningly, you ensure that the end product that goes out to the customer is impeccable and contains no errors. It satisfies the customer and keeps the door open for them to work with your agency again.
Manual QC is indeed important, but there are plenty of tools available on your PC that can smoothen the process. A standard quality control process ensures that all the resources available to you are effectively utilised, minimising waste and inefficiency.
Once you produce high-quality products and documents, you raise the satisfaction bar for customers. It increases your agency’s goodwill and reputation, which ultimately means that quality control can help you to get more clients in the future.
Quality control is extremely helpful in creating new demand, as well as meeting existing demand, for a product. It is something that, if used correctly, can be a powerful tool to help your business expand overseas. Hire a skilled QC analyst to make sure the end product from your side is completely error-free.