by Donna Moore, CEO of SpireSpark International

A certification program has a host of benefits but its main benefit is to the bottom line. A cleverly designed and well managed certification program should both increase sales and reduce costs for participants. How does it do that?

Let’s start with increased sales. Certification means better interoperability, both with your own products and with others. Product quality is significantly improved - resulting in fewer consumer issues, higher consumer confidence, better reviews, happy customers and increased brand value. Product differentiation becomes possible as certified products provide assurance to consumers when selecting and purchasing products.

Reduced costs can be substantial as well. Think lower return rates, decreased customer service calls, less tech support and truck rolls. Just one service call can wipe out the profits on a unit. Testing with certification tools and test plans in the early stages of development also leads to more robust products with fewer defects, thus resulting in early launch of products with reduced bug fixing effort.

While there may be initial cost and time to get a cert program up and running, it will increase the length of time the standard is in the market and provide a great return on investment where it matters – the bottom line.

For more information about setting up certification programs and their benefits, contact me: Donna@SpireSpark.com