As consumers, whenever we turn on a light switch, use the internet, unwrap food from a supermarket, or our children play with toys, or we do hundreds of other everyday things, we knowingly or unknowingly benefit from standards.
The tangible benefits of standards to the lives of consumers are usually realized through their interaction with products, services and the environment. As products and services are utilized daily, standards do three key things for consumers: they facilitate safety through the setting of minimum requirements; improve quality and aid easier use of products so that even the differently abled can use them.
Standards help all kinds of organizations to work in better and smarter ways to improve their efficiency and be more innovative, which ultimately benefit consumers. However, there are other areas where standards have a more profound impact on consumers across the globe and these include services, wellbeing, inclusivity, sustainability and the security of personal information.
Consumers get essential services like finance, health or energy from a wide range of organizations and, in recent years, standards have helped to raise the quality of services that they deliver. These standards give organizations clear guidance on how to deal with the whole process: giving good service at the outset, dealing with complaints in the best way if things go wrong, and dispute resolution if that stage fails.
The wellbeing of consumers is also guaranteed with standards as they offer protection during leisure activities in tourism, browsing the internet and when consumers partake in other services which can also hold many dangers. In addition, consumer inclusivity is assured when standards are implemented as they benefit from equal right to access the products and services they need.
Meanwhile, some standards are used as guidelines to ensure that the security of personal information during online shopping, banking and social networking, even as people are becoming increasingly concerned about their security and privacy. Such standards give organizations step-by-step guidance on how to securely manage customer information.
For the foreseeable future, the hundreds of Standards Institutions including the Guyana National Bureau of Standards and Consumer Bodies worldwide will continue to develop, promote and encourage the implementation of standards as a means of protecting consumers from detriments which can result from the use of substandard products and services; and allow them to garner all the other benefits that can be derived from their use.
