Are you concerned about the time and costs involved in adding QA testing to your application or product’s development? QA testing being “expensive” is a statement that’s often used to justify skipping the quality assurance process completely, often with disastrous results.
Quality assurance testing may take time, and it may have costs associated with it, but over the long term, it can actually save your startup money instead of being a cost. Below, we’ve listed four of the real costs that your company can face as a result of skipping QA testing.
Cost #1: Lost income
The development adage that it’s more costly to fix a bug after release than before is extremely accurate. One reason for this is that the scale of a bug can increase as an application becomes more complete. A second reason is that fixing a bug often means missing out on revenue.
If fixing a bug in your application involves downtime, your company could miss out on revenue from its customers. If it’s such a debilitating bug that it prevents customers from ordering your product or otherwise using your application, it could cost you even more in lost revenue.
It’s important to remember that QA testing isn’t just about fixing bugs — it’s also about preventing problems that could cost your business money. When an unfixed bug goes beyond simply being a slight annoyance for users, it can have serious negative effects on your company’s revenue.
Cost #2: Lost credibility
No software company wants to be known for its buggy, user-unfriendly applications. Likewise, no business wants to be known for its unprofessional, broken, typo-filled website. Bugs have a serious negative effect on your company’s image and credibility, especially when they’re big.
A classic example of a buggy application leading to a loss of credibility is Windows ME. Rushed to market as a successor to Windows 98 SE, ME was such a buggy operating system that it was dubbed “Mistake Edition” by the tech press, seriously denting Microsoft’s image as a company.
A more recent example of a lack of QA testing by a major company is the 2012 release of Apple Maps. After users were directed to train stations in the middle of the ocean and roads that didn’t exist, Apple CEO Tim Cook made an apology and even encouraged the use of competing apps.
It was an embarrassment for Apple, and a major cost for the company’s image. Whether you run a small business or a big company, it’s important to understand that skipping QA testing could result in serious embarrassments that affect your company’s credibility.
Cost #3: Lost users
If Uber suddenly stopped working for a day due to a software bug, how many of its users would defect to Lyft? If you were desperate for a ride across town and couldn’t depend on one app, it wouldn’t be a particularly difficult decision to install and use its top competitor.
It’s extremely rare to find an industry without competition, whether it’s private transportation or project management. If your application doesn’t work as it should due to poor QA testing, you could end up losing users, clients and customers to your competitors.
The above scenario isn’t uncommon. In fact, it’s extremely common, and it isn’t just limited to bugs. Tech journalists have reported on users switching from Windows to Mac hardware after they were annoyed and upset by the switch to the Metro interface in Windows 8.
Ecommerce stores frequently lose customers to their competitors due to buggy, difficult-to-use checkouts. From bugs to a confusing design, small problems that are quickly found in QA and UX testing can have serious costs for your business when it comes to retaining users.
Cost #4: Negative word of mouth
Research from companies such as Nielsen shows that word of mouth is by far the most trusted form of advertising. The better your product’s quality and user experience, the more likely it is to be recommended by existing users and customers, providing free growth for your business.
Develop and release a buggy application and no matter how strong your value proposition might be, it’s unlikely that people will recommend it to their friends or colleagues. This leads to two real costs: the cost of paying for similar advertising, and the lost opportunity cost of word of mouth.
In the age of growth hacking and instant sharing via platforms like Facebook and Twitter, getting your application’s release right is more important than ever. One small bug is often all it takes to lose your company users recommendations that could have helped it grow.
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