What is the potential consequence of neglecting quality assurance for ABC in the long term?

• A. Poor quality could damage trust and sales.
• B. Costs will always decrease.
• C. Customer relationships will automatically improve due to lower prices.
• D. Production speed will double.

Answer: (A)

Quality assurance keeps products meeting agreed standards, so neglecting it allows more defects and inconsistent quality to slip through. Over the long term, this harms how customers view the brand, leading to lost trust and fewer repeat purchases. When customers don’t trust quality, sales decline and the business struggles to sustain growth. Hidden costs also rise—returns, warranties, scrap, and rework eat into profits, and brand reputation damage can dampen demand even further. So the main consequence is that poor quality could damage trust and sales.

The other options don’t fit. Costs don’t automatically fall when QA is ignored; in fact, waste and rework tend to push costs up. Lower prices don’t automatically strengthen customer relationships if quality remains poor. And production speed isn’t set to double simply because QA is neglected; quality problems often disrupt production, causing delays instead of faster output.