Raising Quality

Making a Quality Plan

Making a quality plan is like making a shopping list:

1. First you need to look at what you've already got
2. Then you must decide what you need
3. Then you have to go out and make it happen

Don't be put off by the idea of 'planning'. Think of it as a tool - like a shopping list - to help you identify what you want to change and which things to focus on first. The tool is for your use, so you've got something to follow and won't forget ideas. You won't need a lot of flowery words or bar charts.

Make time and be prepared

You will need to make time away from phones, email and interruptions and you'll need to stay organised (buy a cardboard A4 wallet and keep everything in there, stapled, paper-clipped and labelled into areas). It will help to use a grid like the one described below.

Looking at your whole business will take time. How much you tackle in one go is up to you. You could do the whole plan in a week or spread it over a couple of months. Some businesses set aside a big chunk of time during a quiet period, others tackle a few topics a week. Try not to lose momentum: once you start, try to make the time to see it through.

Where you can, involve staff, customers and business advisors and talk ideas through with friends, family and other businesses. And above all, enjoy it. This is all about making your business better.

How to plan

You'll need to carefully look at each area of your business (see below) and identify what's going well and where you could improve, keeping your customers' needs firmly in mind.

Exactly how you work is up to you, but in the following pages of this section we've provided detailed ideas on ways to analyse your customers and review your products, services and performance. We've also included lists of questions for each area of your business to help you gauge your current activities and generate ideas of change.

Using a grid and scoring

One very successful approach is to break your business down into areas and give each area a score between 1 and 5 for how you're currently performing. Scoring may seem simplistic, but it really helps you focus on what's going well and what's not, helps you compare performance between areas and highlights the ones that need the most attention.

PLANNING SHEET
Scoring: 1=Very Poor, 2=Weak, 3=OK, 4=Good

Creating a grid, with topics on the left, scores in the middle and ideas for change on the right (as in the example above) is a simple but effective way to work. Click here for a downloadable example.

Using brackets that really mean something to you like: 1=Very weak at this, 2=Doing the minimum, 3=OK, 4=Good at this, helps you score consistently. If you're having trouble scoring try changing the definitions of your brackets.

Getting started

Start by clicking on Customers in the box on the above, which will take you through customers' needs and how to analyse your own customers. This is an essential first step - meeting and exceeding customers needs is crucial to running a quality, successful business. You'll also benefit from this work when you come to look at improving your marketing.

Then work through each area in turn, honestly scoring your current performance and try to identify how you can improve. Use our questions to get started and explore the relevant areas of the Toolkit for information and ideas, but really try to focus on your business and your customers. The key thing is to generate lots of ideas for improvement. Put yourself in your customers' shoes and try to imagine what would be better, more comfortable, more interesting, more entertaining and so on. Some ideas may be impractical or not cost effective, and may never get implemented, but put them down anyway because they get your creative juices flowing. You'll only highlight the best and most practical ideas to forward into your plan.

Take the next step in Making a Quality Plan:

• Customers