3 Ways To Avoid a Product Recall
We’ve all heard about Lululemon’s recent product recall on their yoga pants after it was discovered that 17% of the products showed “unacceptable sheerness”. Now, multiple businesses are rushing to make sure they don’t have to go through the same turmoil. Here’s a few tips when it comes to avoiding product recalls:
[success]1. Manufacturers[/success]
Always establish a good relationship with your manufacturer. Finding a good one means looking into multiple references (preferably from businesses similar to yours). Also, don’t hesitate to look into the manufacturer’s insurance status – this may not seem necessary, but you’re better off being careful than caught up in a massive recall. As an extra precaution, you may even want to consider buying products that this manufacturer has made in the past and testing them for yourself to see if they live up to their promises.
[framed_box width=”0″ height=”0″]Related Topic: 3 Examples Of Crisis Management [/framed_box]
[success]2. Standards[/success]
Make sure that quality control standards are in place and followed diligently. That way, if any products don’t meet the requirements of the standards they can be dealt with before they are put out on the selling floor. If your business deals with a high volume of products and there’s no way for each one to be checked thoroughly, try a sampling group from each batch of products. If one batch has more than an acceptable amount of manufacturing defects, you still have time to go back and make sure that shipment doesn’t go out until all products from that batch at tested.
[framed_box width=”0″ height=”0″]Related Topic: 5 Mistakes Small Businesses Make in Their First Year [/framed_box]
[success]3. Testing[/success]
Always test your products, that’s a given, but you also need to test your system. One set of quality control standards is not up to the standards of another. The best way to see if the system you’re using works is by implementing a mock recall at least once per quarter. By doing this you’ll be able to track the whole process from beginning to end and see if all your channels are running smoothly.Don’t be caught with your yoga pants down and make sure you’re doing everything you can to avoid a recall!
I’m so glad my work has a quality system in place. I mean Lululemon and their see through yoga pants? That could have been easily avoided by some female employees trying them on and checking it out themselves in a mirror, like every girl should do now when buying Lululemon yoga pants. I know I will. Especially since I like to live in my yoga pants at home and at work. Walking past my boss in see through yoga pants? I don’t think so.
The article is so great. It’s worse when selling goods of poor quality to customers. It would be tired of answering customer’s complaints, but it’s essential to do. So, I always test a few products from each batch of products before decision the shipment does go out.