by Jonathan Dalli, Founder & CEO
Becoming ISO certified was an important goal we set for ourselves in 2016, and earlier this year we proudly announced that we achieved it. ISO is an internationally-recognised body that sets out the requirements for a management system to achieve high standards of quality. Our goal was to become even more efficient as a company with the end goals being to improve client satisfaction.
In layman’s terms, the management system of a company is a way to define a company’s operations – the business structure, company policies, quality control procedures, selection and training of employees, choosing the top suppliers that offer the best value, amongst other factors.
What benefits did it bring to our operation?
Implementing the ISO quality management standard was quite straightforward for us as luckily most practices were already in place. However, it did help us assess the overall context of our organisation and helped us define with more accuracy what clients expect from us. Above all, ISO reinforced our client-focus ethos, making sure that as a team we are each consistently meeting their needs and that they are fully satisfied with our services. If not, taking corrective action to ensure we learn from our mistakes. This led to an increase in client referrals from existing clients and we’re extremely grateful for that.
ISO also helped us increase productivity and efficiency, and streamlining some processes which to us already seemed good enough. One of the cardinal rules we live by is that we do not have a one-size-fits-all rate card for our services and consultancy, but instead we bill clients according to the actual time spent on bringing their concepts to life. Therefore, becoming more efficient ultimately benefits our clients.
Did we really need to get ISO certified?
The ISO 9001 certification is not a requirement in business and certain ISO standards were already in place within our company without being certified, however we felt that it would serve as an official recognition of the extra effort we put in our work for clients. ISO is a third-party certification, so an independent certification body audits our practices against the requirements of the standard and that is a way of signalling to our clients that we have implemented the standards properly by engaging a non-insular entity to have a helicopter view of the processes in place.
The Concept Stadium was one of the very first marketing consultancy firms in Malta to become ISO-certified and this sends a strong message to our clients, that we are a marketing partner that delivers quality, trust, reliability and value.
