Raising Quality

Business Management

This information is part of the Making a Quality Plan topic.

Fine tuning your business performance

The final stage of the review is to look at all of your business management areas. How well your business runs will communicate itself to your customers. Well run businesses perform better, last longer and are better at meeting customer needs - and they tend to have happier staff and happier managers.

Review each area

As before think hard and score each area. What are you good at that you could do more of? What do you need to pay more attention to? Where are the big holes? How could you make things run more smoothly, or have a bigger impact on your customers? How could you cut costs and raise profits? The questions below in each section will help you think it through.

Finance

According to the Small Business Service more small firms fail for financial reasons - especially cash flow - than for any other reason. If you get a sinking feeling when your bank statement drops onto the mat, or when the VAT deadline draws near then perhaps you need to focus harder on your business' finances. If it isn't your strong point, get training courses, professional advice and if you haven't got it already accounting software.

Honestly asses your performance: do you know what you've got coming in and what you've got going out? Do you plan for times when your cash flow is low? Do you use financial information from your business to manage it better, and to focus on the areas that give you the most profit and the best cash flow? Do you get financial advice? Do you deal with financial problems before they turn into disasters? Do you manage credit and suppliers effectively? Do you chase late payers quickly? Do you have good systems for invoicing, purchasing, VAT, payroll, tax etc. Do you plan for your own future? Do you shop around for business accounts and loans? Do you regularly look for ways to effectively cut costs and increase profits?

Advertising and marketing

Poor or ineffective marketing is another key reason that businesses fail or fail to thrive. Your adverts are also highly visible, the first impression of your business that most customers get. Are you doing everything you reasonably can to reach, inform and win customers?

Do you have a marketing plan? Do you analyse your customers and think through their needs before you do any marketing? Do you research opportunities? Do you take advantage of free advertising? Do you do PR? Do you keep a record of where customers found you and track how well your advertisements are doing? Do you give serious thought to your images, text and literature, making sure they reflect your customer types? Do you have a business look and feel and/or colours, font and logo? Do you place different types of advertisements in different publications? Do you do direct mail and e-marketing? Do you make good use of tourist information? Do you work with partners? Do you use technology?

Website, e-commerce and IT

Technology is increasingly important to tourism businesses. Tourism and leisure is the largest sector of business done online. More and more customers use the internet to source information and book when planning, and increasingly customers want technology and internet access when they arrive.

Do you regularly rework your website? Did you sit down and think it through in the context of your customers' needs? Did you pay attention to search engines when drafting the text and choosing and labelling the images? Is it disability friendly? Do you have a links program? Have you investigated search engine optimisation, pay per click and affiliate programmes? Can customers buy from your website? Can they pay online? Can they find out about your nearby area from your site? Do you use destination tourist information at your site? Do you send sales emails to existing customers and previous enquirers? Do you regularly refresh news and other content at your site? Do you use tourism technology or booking systems? Are your PCs, mobile devices, printers and network up to date and working efficiently? Do you have the best technology for your business type? Do you stay abreast of IT matters? Do you provide internet access to your guests/customers? Do you regularly review mobile, PDA, electronic till and other electronic items for your business?

Rules and regulations

Worrying about legislation, filling in forms and trying to meet compliance deadlines is a major drain on your resources. Taking control and putting in sound procedures for identifying and meeting necessary legislation is essential for peace of mind and performance.

Do you know what rules, regulations and licenses you need to comply with? Have you filled in Business Link's regulations checklist for your business? Do you get regular email alerts regarding new rules for small businesses? Are you confident about employment, tax, data, disability, premises laws, insurance, financial rules, health and safety, licenses, environmental requirements? Are you organised? Do you have information to hand and a regular routine for dealing with regulations and inspections? Do you get forms filled in and compliance done on time?

Research

Do you regularly spend time researching: the industry you work in, your customers, technology, training, marketing, business management and small business issues? Do you subscribe to specialist publications, alerts, newsletter and news feeds? Do you make time to skim articles and investigate those of more interest? Do you conduct your own research and use information from inside your business to inform decisions? Do you contribute information to any research programmes? Do you share and exchange information with other tourism businesses?

Your staff

Are you a good manager? Do you feel confident in your people skills and your communication skills? Do you spend time with your staff, getting their ideas and feedback? Do you know if your staff are satisfied? Do you look for ways to develop their skills? Do you support them and allow them to have responsibility? Have you got the right people for the job? Are you confident about recruitment, induction and disciplinary procedures? Do you have a culture that you pass onto your staff, your way of doing business? Do you have a training plan? Do you have a recruitment plan? Do you know what skills your business needs?

Customer Service

Do you know your customers? Do you understand their needs? Do you try to meet them? Do you treat people with warmth, friendliness and respect? Do you have a customer-centred approach (meaning is meeting the needs of the customer behind everything you do)?. Do you train your staff in customer service and reinforce its values? Do you conduct customer feedback? Do you help your customers to get the most from your business and from their stay? Do you regularly step back and try to look at your products, services and business from your customers' perspective? Can customers easily contact you, and will their enquiries be answered and responded to quickly, by all forms of contact: phone, email, post, face-to-face? Do you have good complaints procedures?

Environment

Do you have an environmental policy? Do you and your staff take a positive, daily approach to conserving energy and water, and recycling? Do you encourage your customers to do the same? Do you source from suppliers with good environmental policies? Do you use environmentally friendly products? Are you aware of environmental regulations and have good procedures for reviewing your environmental performance? Do you encourage your customers to travel in a carbon friendly way? Have you considered the Green Tourism Business Scheme?

Networking

Do you regularly attend events that other tourism businesses attend and spend time talking with other businesses? Do you collaborate with other businesses? Do you belong to any tourism or trade associations? Do you market jointly with other businesses? Do you refer custom to other businesses? Have you developed any special offers with other businesses? Do you know how other businesses are performing?

Scoring

Take each area in turn and break it down into topics (as below) then score your current performance. Look at what you can do to improve. Use the questions above as ideas for improvement. Try to go for concrete actions for improvement. See our example Marketing Analysis, below.

Take the next step in this topic:

This is the last part of your review. The next step is Putting it all together

Or return to Making a Quality Plan